It's 6:15 in the morning, and we're hopping on a train to Chicago at 8:00, but I thought I'd start a tradition of at least posting a quick photo online once per day.



This one's from our eight-hour excursion into New York (more here). National symbols have been on my mind a bit. China's is a very long, old, and crumbling wall, and ours is a huge lady in a bathrobe carrying something that's on fire. Hmmm....

America wrap-up, part one (Rocky Mountain Edition)

I'm writing this one week before we fly out of the country, and a week and a day (due to a day layover in Toronto) before we leave the continent. It has occurred to me that there is no way we're going to be able to give you a day-by-day accounting of our travels across the country, but that's okay - you're here to read about us in China, right? So, to tide you over until we get there, a few hastily selected pics of us on our trip. [Apologies if it's a bit Christmas-Card like, but hey, we've got Grandparents reading this...]


First, the obligatory family shot to prove that we are alive and can stand together in front of a waterfall, though the boys don't look too convinced...


...then the kids looking cute...


...followed by Mom and Dad doing Something Important. (The Manitou Incline Trail, in this case. One mile, 2,000 vertical feet, finished in 45 minutes!)

Then, some adventure shots of the kids...

Ysa in the Great Sand Dunes

Xander bungee bouncing

and Zekey taking on ... the escalator. (Did I mention that these were hastily selected?)
Okay, time to add some photos to symbolize the various modes of transportation we've taken, and then it's a wrap! More next post...

What we've REALLY been up to... (abbreviated truthful version)

...is simpler than joining the French Foreign Legion in some ways, but not by much. Jane and I have gotten used to repeating our "Rock Star Tour of America" schedule to anyone who asks, but just in case you haven't heard it (or forgot), here it is...

Accomplished so far:

• One week of Suzuki Institute for Xander in Beaver Creek, Colorado (think piano, not motorcycles)
• Two weeks (or so) visiting with friends and family in various Colorado locations, including Broomfield, Fort Collins, Berthoud, Pueblo, the Great Sand Dunes, and Salida.
• A mule-packing trip into Gila Canyon in Southwestern New Mexico with 25 international friends of Jane's from high school.
• Eight days of program orientation with 60 people going to 20 different countries, located at the Mennonite Central Committee's headquarters (our sponsoring organization) in Akron, Pennsylvania.

Next on the list:

• An overnight train trip (with a 2-hour layover in Washington DC!) on our way to...
  
• Four days in Lansing, Michigan with my mom.
• Four more days in Chicago, with a little final packing and a lot of getting together with friends.
  
• One day in the Toronto area seeing Jane's grandparents, and
• A 13-hour flight to Beijing on Air Canada!

More details may (or may not) be coming soon - watch this space. You can also follow us on Facebook, if you aren't doing so already, or check out my account on Flickr. Hope to hear from you all as our journey progresses!

What we've REALLY been up to...

The astute reader of this blog will have noticed by now that I have added very few clues as to what I and my family have actually been up to since leaving Chicago in the middle of June. This is because we have secretly joined the French Foreign Legion, and are now camped out in the deserts of Morocco with no internet access. The kids are coping well with the heat and lack of water, but are as of yet lagging in their marching ability...

Blurry

I'm up at about 4:30 in the morning, and this set of photos captures my mood in more ways than one. Blurry-eyed, but also blurry in the sense that all of the events of the past couple of months are running together in my brain right now.

When I was a kid, we took lots of family vacations, and my mom made us write "Vacation Books" during a couple of them. A Vacation Book is simply a spiral notebook, with diary entries for what we did each day and all manner of postcards, pamphlets and maps taped inside to show what we did. I still have mine in a box in the basement. As I was packing up and going through my paperwork, I had to resist the temptation to read through them cover to cover to find out exactly what I did in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. in the summer of 1977.

I do remember, however, that nearly every entry started with the phrase "We woke up, ate breakfast, then we...". Not the most original, but it did get me writing about the day. Now that I'm starting my own online "Vacation Book", I'm wrestling with the impossibility of Getting Everthing Recorded. Maybe the simple fact that I'm up and eating breakfast is a good place to start...

A Place for my Stuff

It should come as no surprise that we've been thinking a lot about the stuff we have lately. First, answers to a few more frequently asked questions: Yes, all of our stuff is now stored in a 10' x 15' storage area in our basement, on loan to friends (think our furniture and my paintings), packed and ready to go to China, or given away. On one hand, it seems like we have next to nothing, but having spent the last five weeks packing and unpacking it and carrying it from Colorado to New Mexico to Pennsylvania, it still seems like we've got wayyy to much. (Big challenge coming up: what to do with seven suitcases during a day's layover in Toronto while visiting Jane's grandparents before we leave for China the next day.)



Photo: Some of our stuff spread out to be sorted on my Mother in Law's dining room table in Colorado. And hey, (speaking of useless gizmos...), my new digital camera can do spot coloring in a black and white photo!

The question I get asked the most...

...is probably "Hey Dave, I like chicken, and I like waffles. Do you know anywhere I can get both?"

To which I say, look no further! Your store of choice is on Madison Avenue in Oak Park, and will be opening soon. (Unless, of course, that chicken is actually holding a manhole cover...)



Just in case you're curious, here are the answers to a few of the other Frequently Asked Questions I've been answering lately:

• Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province
• A furnished 3-bedroom apartment on a university campus
• 6th floor walkup
• On the outskirts of a town of 11 million or so
• Teaching English
• Yes, I'm taking the kids
• In a Chinese kindergarten
• End of July!

Think that about covers it. Any other questions? Post a comment, or stay tuned for further details...

Gratitude!

Reading between the lines of my previous post, it should become pretty obvious that this just didn't happen on its own. Indeed, we had so much help from everyone that it boggles my mind just to think about it. We had people who:

• watched our kids while we packed / cleaned / moved / recovered from surgery / etc.
• made us meals
• helped us pack
• gave us gifts
• moved our stuff
• hosted a party for us at their house
• performed for us and our friends at said party
• drove me to work when I couldn't bike
• helped me build a storage area in our basement
• took our stuff
• came down from Minneapolis to take my paintings (twice!)
• put us up in their homes
• put up with us, in any home
• listened to us going on and on about ourselves ad nauseum
• and helped out with other tasks too numerous to mention.

Typing this list makes me very concious of the American myth that we can all go it alone. (Cue "My Way" by Frank Sinatra about now...) We like to think of ourselves as a nation of self made Marlboro Men (and Women) riding alone into the sunset, but we all depend on more people than we realize.

Our Story So Far...

Okay, everyone, you asked for it, so here it is... a fantastic blog describing our life in China for the next three years. (Except that we're not in China yet.) Life's been a bit busy lately, so here's a (very) brief recap just in case anyone missed anything.

• January - spent the afternoon of Inauguration Day interviewing for the job
• February - we're accepted! Jane puts an ad up to rent out our apartment, and we get prospective tenants one week later. Go Jane!
• March - I start out the month getting assaulted while riding my bike home from work, breaking several bones in my cheek. Reconstructive surgery follows, and lots of prescription-strength painkillers.
  
• April - Spending spring break getting all of our belongings out of the apartment and into storage. Back to work after six weeks of recovery time.
  
• May - Camping out at a friend's house while finishing packing and oh, about six trillion different closure tasks.
• June - More of the same for the first two weeks, and the last two weeks of school. Now in Colorado on the first leg of a six week closure tour around the U.S. Details to follow.

There you have it - how to get to China in six easy months! Stay tuned for the next post, where I describe how to build Rome in only one day...