Commonly asked questions......

Hello Everyone -

Thank you for reading my blog, or trying to anyway, since the amount of reading has been limited!  Yes, needless to say I heard many of you loud and clear and the message was the same.  YOU NEED TO POST MORE OFTEN!  So, I will this year.  Can't be too hard to post more than four times!

I have been thinking about what to post and have decided that I will start with the most common questions that we were asked when we visited you this summer:

How do you like it?  Obviously, it's not killing us being here but there are defiantly things here that take some getting used to and challenges above and beyond the language barrier, and these are things I never imagined I would ever have to contemplate.

What is the weather like?  See below

What do you do? As in, now that you don't work what do you spend your free time doing?  Hopefully, after you read most post you won't be wondering this anymore.  :)

What do you miss the most?  Are there products you can't get there that you normally get here? YES!  More on this later.

Your dogs are there?  Yes, they are and I think they really enjoy having us around more throughout the day.

How do the kids like school?  They like it!  They have a lot of friends, speak English and are learning Chinese.  I will also post more on this later.

I know there were a lot more question than this but it's a start.  And do you want to hear them all now and never get any information from me?  I didn't think so.  :)

So today's theme is weather.  Why do I choose this today?  Well, because the weather today and many days these past couple of weeks since our return as been horrible!  We have had rain almost everyday.  I am not talking about little showers either.  Full on thunder, lightening and "big" rain.  Prior to moving here we of course did our research and thought ok, so it rains about as much here as it does in Portland, we can handle this.  But this rain is different.  It happens fast and comes down all at once.  And just because I am complaining about the rain it doesn't mean it rains all day.  We still enjoy long periods with warm temps and dryness.

Here are some stats from The Weather Channel:

On Average the warmest Month is July with average highs around 90 and guess what July also holds the record for most rainfall!  July average rainfall is 9inches.  The average rainfall for August is 8.7 inches.  

We have a little weather station set up here at the house and in the last 24 hrs we have had almost 2inches of rain.  So far this month we have had 7.78 inches!  Our weather is much more similar to the southern US., when they have Hurricanes, we have Typhoons.  And I think last year was an exception to the normal because I don't remember having any.  And this year, while none have actually hit our city several have come close which still impacts us.  It's hot here and it is humid.  The humidity has been hovering around 80 and 90% lately with the heat index hovering around 100-105.

This is not the kind of weather we would be experiencing in Oregon right now!

This video was taken during a major rain shower one Saturday afternoon.  Imagine being dressed in shorts and sandals and having to tromp through these streets!  That was us to get to our car.

This picture was taken from the club house in our neighborhood prior to a storm arriving.

Editors note: this post was written on August 22nd but the Author forgot to post it.  :(  oops.

https://picasaweb.google.com/100086230415652736898/KohChangThailandCYN2012

Hi - See above link for photos of our recent trip to Koh Chang. Days 1-4 and limited captions and editing.

Our new hood!

At some point I won't always feel like I am playing catch up on this thing.

Say hello to our new hood! This is our expat compound Golden Lake. We have a very slight view of the city as we are about 20 min. with traffic north of downtown Guangzhou. We are next to a small reservoir that isn't golden at all, more like brown. And when it rain really hard it is even worse. It reminds me of the Willamette! :)

Walkway along the "lake" to the pool.







Mia's room - with rented furniture and none of her personal items.

This is the view from our upstairs master bedroom. The houses across the street and much bigger and nicer than ours.

My new kitchen.... it will do. Currently, yes the washer and dryer are in the kitchen. I am having them moved but it's been almost two months with little progress. There is no AC in the kitchen and the dryer vents into the house not out. Imagine cooking in that sauna!

The plain living room with rented furniture. notice the white sofas and walls....

OUR SHIPMENT! It took almost 11 weeks to be delivered to us. I think it took more time to clear customs that it did to get here by boat!

Several of the neighborhood boys had a great time using the boxes!

EEKS! What am I going to do with all of these items?!

Truck #2, and a total of 150 boxes later and we are almost done. Ugh!

One of my favorite shots....It's almost as if the guys are standing around wondering what to do as if they haven't done this before. It took them about 2 hours to unload the first truck and to start unpacking. The first truck had about 130 of the total in it.

Grandma's visit 9/22

This is a cute quaint area of town, Shamian Island, it was once occupied by the British and the French and many of the buildings still have the Colonial look and feel to it. Several photographers come here to use the buildings for their back drops, often there are wedding gowns being modeled and sometimes there are even couples being photographed for their big event. There is a Chinese style medicine center on the island that we like to go to for foot massages. For Jeri's first day I surprised her with a foot massage, a visit from her friend that ALSO LIVES in Guangzhou, and we ended the day with lunch at one of my favorite places, Lucy's. So far they have the best sweet tea in town!

Hong Kong Weekend 9/8 - 9/10.

Fun, Fun!

View of Stanley Bay.

Stanley Market

Their first double decker bus ride. It was too full to sit on the top level though.

View of Harbour from Hotel room.

Ferry ride across Victoria Harbour.

A preview of what we've been doing.....

Since the Internet has been so slow and difficult I have a little catch up so today pictures are still stuff from home. I know that what you really want to see is pictures from China but be patient I will work on it more today and tomorrow and the next day. Since I haven't had the time to post many photos yet I will share a bit about what we have been doing below:

We have been in a temporary apartment since we arrived on August 4th. The apartment has all the amenities we need but is really small. We found a house in a great ex-pat community a little outside of town that will give us the space to be comfortable that we move into on Sunday, September 4th.

We haven't done a lot of sight seeing because we have spent a lot of time searching for a house, and just getting to know our surroundings. The kids love school. Soon I will post of video of Mia, she can already count to ten in Chinese which she came home on the second day of school saying! Blaine is playing soccer (I know lacrosse and hockey friends - crazy for him) but he's making do. He got the goalie position over two other kids that had played goalie before! I have done some shopping, one day to the pearl market. Anything here that is a market is a giant mall of shops and each shops sells the same or similar items. So, the pearl market has 5 stories or shops selling pearls, or beads, or jewelry of some sort. I will post some photos of this soon too! Overall, we are having fun and gettting along great!

Getting ready to leave....

We enjoyed a day on the river with my dad! Both kids loved driving papa's boat.

We were told we needed extra passport photos....so we got of few.

Saying our goodbyes - Thanks to all our hosts & hostesses!

Packing the house.... four very draining and long days.