As you can see, we’ve been a combination of too busy and too
exhausted to really think about sitting down and writing a blog. And as most of
you have noticed, we have successfully managed to access those sites that
should be illegal to us.
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| Censorship is good for no one! |
Let’s backtrack to about a week ago. After a tearful (in all truth, it was the
hardest thing I have had to do) farewell to my husband, who unfortunately had
to head to work early on the morning of our departure, I returned to packing
frantically. It was August 26, around 7
AM, when I finally harassed Rach enough to get her out of bed. Together we took a look about our messy
apartment and assessed the situation. We
had four bags of luggage, one duffel carry-on, and a backpack with which to
place a year’s worth of clothes, toiletries, medicine, and memories.
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| Bry's face says, "We own too much shit!" |
Around noon, there was a knock on the door. Suzie and our father arrived at nearly the
same time. Dad helped us load everything
into the car, and after another weepy “see ya later” to Suzie and Steven, we
hit the road! I was supposed to help
with the drive for more than I did… but I had this terrible feeling that I was
going to projectile vomit because of all the crying I’d done over the past
week. Somehow, for 8 months and 17 days,
I managed to play everything cool. Going
to China? Great. Not seeing anyone you know for months at a
time? Whatever. You spend the last four years by one man’s
side and now you won’t see him for half a year?
Sweet. BUT THEN- I put in my last
day at work, and then all of a sudden it WAS my last day. The very next day was the 18th of
August, and also the day of David’s surprise party. The next day was the 19th… and
with a week until I left… it was as if the Freaking Out Flood Gate had been
opened.
I cried in the car. I had been crying off and on for
days. Dad drove us all the way past
Fortuna and nearly to the One Log Cabin because Bry and I were still pulling
ourselves together. Eventually Bry took over driving and Dad hopped in back to
nap. Bry and I were on our own for the first time in months. Years? We talked
about all the adorable things Steven and David had been doing for us over the
past few weeks. I managed to not cry as I told Bry all about my ridiculously
romantic dinner with Steven the night before we left. As soon as we were away
from everyone, it was easier to keep it together. This theme would remain for a
while. (Turns out it’s SUPER hard to leave someone behind that you love. Who
knew?)
In anycase, our drive down was uneventful. Dad slept most of
the way once Bry and I took over. Once we reached our hotel, the three of us
ALMOST ended up sharing a king sized bed (Priceline, why you no explain your
rules???) . Luckily, the hotel had had a cancellation and we got a room with
two queens.
We really ought to use more legit websites, but
whatever. Dad was very calm about the
whole thing, which was nice since we were barely containing the FREAKING
OUT. Everything had gone SO smoothly
this time (passports, buying luggage, getting cheap plane tickets, finding a
legit job in a foreign country, and acquiring visas to live in said country)
that it was clear something had to go wrong soon. The first hindrance occurred at the
airport. We had loaded up our bags to
the point where we had to weigh them on the scales at home to be sure each one
was under the weight limit.
Surprise! Our largest bag was
about 12 kilograms over the limit- which, my brain does not think in. We stared at the man at the counter, waiting
and hoping he would translate this number into pounds since, after all, we were
still in America. No luck. We had to get out of line and move things
from the largest bag to the smaller ones.
It took two tries to finally lose the weight.
Once we had finally gotten past that desk, we met a woman who was also heading to Xi'an and would be on our same flight. We chatted once we had passed security, and we have been in touch since we've arrived. She is teaching English at our old university! Once on the plane, we discovered that it was much smaller than our last international flight. We were initially worried, but we had an uneventful flight. We landed in Shanghai 13 hours after taking off, and spent about 9 of those hours in the dark. Who needs to see while they eat their dry sandwich anyway?
Part 2 to come soon!
