TeamWaWa and their crazy adventures

Hello, Here's some photos from our Wuxi trip. You may have seen our Facebook post. But, we wanted to share here as well. It was a great trip. Hanging out with the local Chinese teachers and the foreign teachers. Wuxi is a beautiful city. 

We visited Liyang, China! The Bamboo Sea and Forest is amazing. The trip from Changzhou is a long one. We got up at 4a for a 7a bus ride to Liyang. That trip is 1.5 hours and then another 1 hr bus ride to the sea and forest area. However, the air and sights were well worth it. The area has many different peaks, among which the 500-meter Wudi Peak is the highest in the delta region, covered with dense bamboo forest. The Wudi Peak is accessible through an 800-meter ropeway or a meandering mountain path. We took the cable cars up, but walked down. Man, those stairs were epic. The area houses a panda, too! Online says there are two. We only saw one. Pandas are adorable! I do feel bad that he/she just walks around all day with a bunch of people gawking. Not sure that's a life I'd want. We would definitely recommend seeing the forest.  We did post our pics on Facebook, but here's some as well. Enjoy!

Yesterday, Tues March 21st, we went to Wuxi. It's a 30 minute slow train ride from Changzhou. It started off bumpy.  We caught the bus to take us to the train station, but quickly realized we forgot our passports. The next stop got off and headed back home. Finally, on the train to Wuxi and figured since it's only one stop, we will stand instead of sitting. People in China are allowed to smoke on trains. So, picture a smokey cabin. Alright, we made it to Wuxi. Realizing it's a big city. We hadn't planned for it to be so large. We tried to tell a taxi driver where we wanted to go and he just shook his head. We told another driver who had a list of pictures and he pointed to 150... seriously? You want 150 to take us there? No way! We look at the metro train map and see its the 2nd stop off Line 2. What the heck is line 2? And where is Line 2? We've only taken the intercity slow train; not a Metro or subway train. Our feet were hurting..We had already walked ...

It's March 2nd here. We are on our 3rd month in China. Where has time gone? Thinking back to the States, we've missed two nephews (Sam and Keegan) birthdays. We do miss our family back home. We are building a nice expat family here too. Soon we will learn how to use China Post and be able to send stuff back. Remember, the Chinese don't believe in cards! Money cards yes, birthday cards no. It's starting to warm up! A sign Spring is coming is the Plum blossoms. Hongmei park was beautiful.

Hello everyone! It's been about 2 weeks since our last blog post. Our excitement happens in spurts. We'll  try to tell you the fun stuff. We survived Spring Festival. Kristin had a bad cold for the entire holiday. We still managed to see some great landmarks and sites. She was a real trooper. To describe Spring Festival think Independence Day on steriods. Canons and firework finale every day! Being a foreigner in China is hard to describe.  You miss weird random things. We miss having a real oven. We miss having a clothes dryer. Matt misses his beef jerky, and Kristin misses her Monster energy drinks and candy (twizzler, tootsie rolls, gobstoppers). China doesn't seem to believe in canned goods. You can't just go to the store thinking "we'll have canned chili" or "we will have a frozen lasagna" for dinner. It's frustrating to be on a bus and everyone around you is talking. About what? Who knows, you can't understand them. Ordi...

As we walk almost everywhere, we've noticed there are a lot of nice cars in Changzhou. Interesting that so many can afford to 1) drive in China and 2) Own such nice cars. I mean...Come on... We had really nice jobs in the US and still didn't own some of these cars. #jealous And, we regularly see vehicles this nice and some nicer. Here's some pics during our walks.

Some may find this as an odd post; bathroom fears. Please read on to figure out why I'm blogging about this. In the States, we each have a stall with a toliet and toliet paper. Sometimes if you are really lucky like in Von Maur you will have an entirely closed off stall. And when you are unlucky, you will get a stall with no TP. Well...Let's talk about China. Troughs and squat toliet are the norm. Sometimes there's not even a partition. Or in the case of Walmart in Wanda Plaza you do have a stall with a clean squat toliet. You won't have TP and you don't flush the TP. My fears include getting my feet all dirty or missing the hole and splashing my pants. Those are fears for semi to private ones. What about just open ones? I realize that I am the foreigner and this is normal to the natives. But until I've fully adapted to China Life, I think I will hunt out the Western toliets. Thank goodness my apartment and the Starbucks have them.

In about one week, we will be heading to the Orlando airport to hop on a flight to China. Yes, that is said matter of fact like. This journey has been a year in the making. And it's finally around the corner. It doesn't become real until you are worrying about how to get money in China, how to pack your life for a year in the exact specifications for carry on luggage. We will be in China in 2017. Our crazy adventure will soon start. We are anxious, nervous and super excited.