Now, FOUR Years in China

I just listened to Lisa’s sweet voice on the answering machine in Atlanta. It was no different than a “local” call because of my Vonage box. The problem is that it had an unbelievably high crackling and static RF interference on the line and I would never be able to have a real call with someone. But my instinct tells me that a line- filter on the telephone line will solve it. Now, if I could just figure out where to find one. I was inspired when I met another guy from the US whose having no problem at all with his box. I’m motivated.

Did you know that pets aren’t allowed to fly as checked luggage between May and September because of the summer heat? Did you also know that flying them on air cargo through the airlines is only possible if the temperature is less than 85F at the departure point and “predicted” to be less than 85F at the arrival point? This appears to be standard policy across most airlines except Continental who maintain lower temperatures at their holding facilities. For our 35 lb Brittany, it’s about $235 on Continental and about $185 on Delta. Conti connects through Houston so I really prefer to use a direct Delta flight. It will be the 7:10 ATL to DFW.

After fropping off Lisa’s brother, his wife and 1 yr old at the airport, we went to the Delta cargo area to get a pet carrier for $85. Sure I could have gotten a better price at a pet store but when you are counting the minutes like we are, you don’t waste a couple hours to save $30. After that, we immediately took Tucker to his vet appointment to get his travel certificate - another $65. This whole process is like going to Disney…you hemorrhage money. Oh well, I guess if I think about how much it would cost if I weren’t getting paid to go to China…this seems like a bargain.

I don’t have a whole lot of time to blog. Things are crazy. We’ve had a parade of maintenance people coming through the house to repair leaky pipes, fix electrical issues, replace the roof over the sun porch, install an alarm system, and trim precarious trees.

We are also using this as a time to streamline ourselves. We gave an entire jeep-full of clothes to charity yesterday. I sold my expensive road bike, had my wife’s car detailed so we can sell it. This morning, we met with the mover who showed us pictures of the shipping container and scheduled our packing day. 5.5 cubic meters is pretty generous…it’s about the size of 4 queen sized mattresses. We still need to document accounts, give my mother limited power of attorney (in case we die), visit the CDC annex for a series of immunizations for crap like Hepatitis A & B. We have to sell Lisa’s car, buy a Nikon D70. Find an alternative way to ship Tucker, our Brittany spaniel to Dallas because it’s now too hot to fly him anywhere. In the meantime, I have to finish up work for the school who hired me or else my career there will start off on a really bad foot.

I’m shocked at the amount of stuff that has to be done. The devil truly is in the details and it’s starting to feel like we are hemorrhaging money. I nearly lost it when a storm came in while the roof was off and it dumped on our newly tiled floor, dining room table and fabric chairs, and Lisa’s iBook. But a towel and some effort cleaned it right up. These are all little things compared to things like, you know…death, dismemberment, or spinal cord injuries.

During a 1 am conference call between the HR director of the school, Lisa and myself, we discovered that we needed to renew Lisa’s passport along with acquiring Maddy’s. Fortunately, there is a nice little place in our neighborhood that handles quick-turnaround Visas and Passports (TIS/Visa Lady). Their service fees start at $80 but when you consider that the photos and overnight shipping are included it’s really not that bad and there’s a lot to be said for the peace of mind when using a service that knows the ins and outs of this stuff.

Here is a photo of me on the Great Wall during my initial visit to China in mid-June. I was sent by Apple to help install a massive eLearning infrastructure at the Western Academy in Beijing. I have approximately 5 days worth of familiarity with China and can speak about 4 phrases - “hello”, “thank you”, “good”, and “I don’t want that”. It’s surprising how far you can get with just those. However, my iTunes is currently ripping a 6-disk Mandarin crash course which I intend to load into my iPod. Maybe by the time we leave, I’ll know 6 phrases instead of 4. I also purchased iLingo from Talking Panda Software. This is professionally developed audio library of phrases that you access from the “notes” reader in your iPod.

We intend to hire a language tutor and practice learning the language once we arrive. It will be interesting to see if a total immersion such as this can really force one to learn…especially someone who was such a poor student.