If you can believe it, we've been living in Shanghai for almost 2 years now. Wow. It's true! We arrived at the end of September in 2011. It's kind of hard to believe. A friend told me when we were moving here that the first year is really hard, the second year you've adjusted some, but it's still hard, and the third year you've finally figured out how lots of things work and then it's time to go home. Bittersweet.
I often wonder if it will be bittersweet to leave, but then I remind myself that we don't have ESPN and I can't predict the future. On the one hand, it's always hard to change. On the other hand, will going home be a big change? I'm here to tell you, I don't know. I know China has changed me. I won't be the same when I go back home, but isn't that always the case? If you're gone for a while, you're just not the same when you return. On the bright side, a lot of our good friends have contracts that are up when ours is, so many of us will be leaving at the same time. It'll spread the sadness around. Plus, some of our friends have already gone back and made a new home in Michigan!
Alright, enough of this sappiness. Let's get down to business. I've been out of touch for a few months for more than just the summer at home, although that was a major contributor. Let me talk about that for just a bit.
This summer was FANTASTIC! The weather was absolutely beautiful! I loved the cool temperatures (especially at summer camp!) and enjoyed feeling like it was fall just before we left. (Sad about the part where the cider mills weren't open yet - everyone dip a donut in some cider for me!) We drove a lot less this summer, which was a relief, and we weren't completely exhausted when we left. That last part was because we shortened the trip, which also made it harder to leave. The only major downside to the summer was the horrific and brutal jet lag that we (at least the adults) had coming over to the States. Absolutely yuck. That and Matt wasn't feeling well at all this summer. More on that later.
My other distraction at the end of Spring was a move across town to a new house! We really liked our house in San Marino, but some uncool things were happening due to the clubhouse being under new ownership. We took the opportunity to look around and found a house at The Emerald that we liked! The Emerald is the neighborhood connected to the kids school, so we get to ride our bikes every day! It's lots of fun, there are tons of other kids around, plenty of them are C & K's classmates, and there are adult friends nearby too! That last part is good because our adult friends from San Marino repatriated this last summer. (See above comment about a new home in Michigan!) Downsides are we're farther from some of the places we go regularly, like church, and we can't walk to the metro anymore. We can take the bus to the metro, though. Look for another post on that down the road.
Another sad part of moving is our Ayi hasn't been able to stay with us. It's just too far for her to come on her scooter. We tried a new schedule for the summer and our driver brought her twice a week, but the family we share her with wanted to go back to the old schedule. We are definitely going to miss Xiao Tao. I have a new ayi starting next week. I'll have to let you know how that goes.
I'd love to share pictures of our new place, but I haven't actually gotten around to taking any yet. While I managed to get most of the house unpacked in the 3 weeks before we came home for the summer, I still have one room that is eluding me. Not that I can't find it or go in, I just can't seem to get the stuff put away.
So moving, the end of the school year, and summer put a major dent in my blogging accomplishments. Since I write this blog not only to share our experiences with you, but also to document (in a way) our experiences for ourselves, this is a pretty significant setback. If I keep up with my average blogging rate, I'm definitely not going to be able to share everything I want to before we get home. So I'm going to have to get busy. Let's see what I can do about that!
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