Welcome to China!

Greetings from Nanjing, China! We left Salt Lake City at 11:00 a.m. on Friday. On our flight to Seattle, I sat by an older woman from Beijing. We had a very interesting discussion. I wrote it all down on an email, but can't find it. I will send it later. From Seattle, we flew to Tokyo, Japan and then on the Shanghai. We got in Shanghai at 9:45 p.m. on Saturday night. We traveled from Tokyo with Lane Sparks. We were supposed to stay in Shanghai for the night, but when we got to the hotel they didn't have a reservation for us. So Lane called Cherie and told her we were coming to Nanjing and would get there about 2:30 a.m. So after all of that traveling, we drove another four hours to Nanjing. We got to bed about 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning. We spent the day at the Sparks' and then checked into our motel at 6:00 p.m. We hadn't had internet access, so the family hadn't heard from us for all that time. It was good to email with them and let them know we had arrived safely.

Craig went to work on Monday. He has a driver to take him where he needs to go. The drive to work takes about an hour. He leaves at 7:00 a.m. and will get home around 6:00 p.m. His hours will be better than at home, but it is still a long day. While he was at work, I spent the day at the hotel. We will be staying at the hotel for about two weeks. They have a breakfast buffet each morning. I was a bit overwhelmed by the food and wasn't sure what I dared eat. I settled for an omelet and some fresh fruit.

When Craig got back, we went to the restaurant in the hotel to eat. Our waitress was a girl from France named Lucy. I had noticed her when I ate breakfast. We were the only two blonds in the place. She was really friendly and helped us with the food. She was fun to talk to and very informative. She is doing an internship in China. This morning when I went for breakfast Lucy was there and explained more about the breakfast food. It was good to talk to someone in English.

When we got to the Cherie's, she told me I had already been assigned to go visiting teaching with her. She said we needed to go on Tuesday. One of the ladies we visit, Alauna Westover, had a baby three weeks ago and Cherie had arranged for us to take lunch to her. So Craig's driver, Louis, picked me up at noon and we went over and picked Cherie up. We went to a bakery and got some sub sandwiches to take. While we were in that area, Cherie showed me a couple of places she likes to shop and also the dry cleaners. We went to Alauna's. One of our other ladies named, Kim, joined us for lunch. She is about my age. She and her husband teach at the Kennedy Center. They have been here for a year and are going home to Provo soon. Alauna is from Highland, Utah. She just had her seventh baby. Her husband's relatives, the Westovers, are from Lewiston. We had a good visit. Alauna, Cherie, and Kim were able to give me some good advice and tips about living in China. It was certainly different from visiting teaching in Newton, Utah!

Tomorrow Craig and I have to get physicals in order to get a residence's permit (or something like that). I am totally freaked out by this piece of news. We are supposed to go fasting so they can do blood work. If finding my veins is anything like in the States, it should be a total nightmare--not to mention the other exams. Wish me luck on that one!

Thursday, we are looking for housing. It will be nice to find a place to live. Hopefully, our stuff will get here soon so we can get settled before I head back to the States.

It is the rainy season. It has rained so hard today that water is running everywhere. I am glad we had the driver today and we didn't have to walk to the metro (subway). Well, that's the report for now. Stayed tuned for the report on the physicals. I actually hope there isn't much to report about that.