Dalian House Hunting

Housing Complex @ Dalian American International School

It is about 11pm Tues here in China and I am waiting for a teleconference with the US that starts in about an hour so I will be up after 1am awake at 6am to head into work by 7am. Decided to get on a update the blog to burn the time.

The last month has been pretty busy for all of us and we just got back this evening from a 3 day trip to Dalian for house hunting - yes house hunting...we have only been in Shanghai 7 weeks and we are already preparing for our next move. So this past Sunday Pamela, Angelina and I flew to Dalian and spent Monday and Tuesday looking at some very humbling accomodations. Dalian is a beautiful place, but it is not Shanghai and not even comparable when it comes to housing options. After walking through so many crappy service apartments, high rise apartments and urban villas we decided to secure a townhome in the Dalian American International School (DAIS) compound that is just over an hour from downtown Dalian, but only about 15 minutes from the jobsite. DAIS is in the boonies, but the close to the beach and surrounded by beautiful mountainous terrain. The housing at DAIS is just now under construction and will not be completed until sometime after September 1st....likely early October. Because I have to be in Dalian fulltime beginning mid August / early September we will have to move into a temporary place in Dalian and wait until the permanent housing is completed before we finally get settled. Pam and I decided that 5-day business travel and commuting from Shanghai to Dalian was not in the cards again. 2 more moves before we are finally settled in Dalian.

Ironically, our shipment of house hold items from the US arrived on Saturday....FINALLY! Angelina was thrilled to get the things she has been without for 2 months, but the timing of everything seems odd with the fact that we will be packing it all back up in early August. Angelina and Pam are doing fine, the little one is in the middle of her 2 year old fits so Pam and I are going through the ultimate parenting tests. Sorry, no pics in this post...there are plenty to download and post just need to get them off of the camera and have not had a free moment to do it. But now I have my home PC (came in the shipment) so I should be able to get our photos re-organized over the next week. The weather in Shanghai is getting hot/humid and the skeeters are in full force, I forgot how much I hated humidity and the evening mosquitoes make it even better. Good thing the weather in Dalian is nothing like Shanghai, we're just a little disappointed to spend a hot summer in Shanghai - miss the nice Dalian summer then land in Dalian to prepare for the cold winter.

Angelina is beginning to pick up the language (not English!) now that she is spending time with the Ayi and interacting with the locals. It is great to watch her learning new things everyday and I enjoy helping her along with the Mandarin that I am learning through my classes.....yes 2 hour sessions 3 days a week. Feels like college again with homework and studying! Overall it is handful because the project is in full swing - we officially broke ground in Dalian 2-3 weeks ago so no more paper exercises. +400 workers onsite, 100 dump trucks and +30 excavators handling the site clearing / excavation. More later.

Our First Vacation!

We arrived in Phuket, Thailand on Sunday to begin the Chinese May Labor Holiday and have had a fantastic time since we arrived. Not too bad of a flight from Shanghai (about 5 hours) and Angelina traveled very well again, although our attempted landing in Bangkok was something we don't ever want to experience again. The approach was very turbulent - even at low elevation it was worse than flying over the midwest in the middle of the summer when turbulence is known to toss you over a 1,000 feet up or down. Even in a large Airbus 330 with +300 people we were up, down and sideways, but this was not the bad part for us - it was the aborted landing that spooked us. As we were anticipating the touch down the nose of the airplane abruptly pulled up and there was that immediate feeling of zero gravity for a few seconds like you were floating and weightlessness. It must have been the the power lag from the pilot(s) attempting to land then at the last minute giving it full thrust to gain elevation. Scared the H***! out of us and Angelina screamed for the next 20 minutes until we could circle Bangkok and finally land. Even after that experience, airplanes are quickly becoming her favorite subject and on the ground when she sees one she jumps up and down, points and screams "Airoplannne!" Fearless.......

The weather has been so-so since we arrived, with some occassional showers through yesterday, but today it is pouring so not sure if we will get any pool time or not. I went golfing with John Docherty (fellow Intel employee) as a spectator earlier in the week and had a good time and were teamed up with 3 German Expats that live and work in Beijing. Two of the guys had lived and worked in China for over 15 years so it was good conversation about their experience in China. On the back 9 it poured for about 45 minutes - thankfully there was a cabana with cold beer and we were able to stay dry. I wanted to golf, but since my back surgery in 2005 it is not possible.

Angelina, Pam and Marilyn (John's wife) have had a chance to get in some pool time and hang out around the resort which is absolutely beautiful. Angelina loves the water and we cannot wait to get here into swim lessons back in Shanghai. She has become the little "star" around the resort and has made friends with most of the hotel staff that now call her by name and approach her when they see her. Her confidence and charm really pulls people in and she waves to everyone saying hello, hello. There are also many families with children at the resort so she is getting the benefit of socializing with others her age and making some new friends.