We're Back

I haven't posted much this summer, but I'm hoping to pick up the pace now...

We've made it back to China safely, as of about 36 hrs. ago. It's 5:30am and the morning light is just starting to make its debut over the corn field out our apartment window. Jim has already been out for a morning walk and brought back egg crepe pancakes (jian bing) for breakfast. It's so good to be back in our home. I love jet lag early mornings. No sarcasm--I really do. You wake up at the time you normally wish you could and you are really awake. If only you could keep this pattern, you could potentially get so much more done!

The girls did very well during the flights. Ellie slept for 3 hours on the first flight from Dallas to San Fransisco, and they both slept about 3 hours at the end of the last flight. Even better, Ellie didn't throw up on the flight, and we were delighted to break that trend. Jim was biting his nails over his 'babies', (his 2 guitars), which they required him to check this time. But thankfully, both made it unscathed.

Yesterday the girls and I spent our morning at the police station, the bank, and at their school. Within 24 hrs of your arrival back in China, you are supposed to register with the police in person. It was a slow day as one lady taught Kathryn how to write her name in Chinese as I filled out the paperwork. Ellie got ink all over her hands and another lady took her to another building to wash them and she went without objection. (I figured it is the police station-- what could happen to her?) Then we went to the bank. We figured this time we would bring back cash instead of continuing to lose the 3% fee by withdrawing $ from our ATM cards. For all that effort, the fees worked out about the same. When we lived in China in the late '90's, you could get 8.3 RMB for 1 dollar. Today I got 6.5 RMB for 1 dollar. That's a huge drop. The girls entertained themselves running down the corridor singing the Olympic theme as if they were about to participate in a gymnastic vault. Since the crowd found them entertaining as well, I didn't try to stop them.

Then we headed for their school. Monday is a holiday (Zhong Qiu Jie, the Mid-Autumn Festival-- See this post (click and scroll down to 9/26) for how we celebrated last year) so we needed to register yesterday to start on Tuesday. To my surprise and delight, both of them were begging to stay. K was a bit dismayed that her little Chinese friend from last semester is not in her class anymore. I promised her that I would introduce her to a new friend on Tuesday when she starts class, but do please pray she makes a great connection with a little girl.

After such a productive morning we were all exhausted and all the unpacked piles remain on the floor. So that is today's task and I'm off to start on that now...