House Hunting!

Nathaniel will be heading out in a few hours to look at possible homes for us. I am excited to hear what his impressions. I sent him a list of things I felt we "needed" and "wanted". Here it is...

things we need

oven

a/c

heater

washing machine

dishwasher (electric, not human)

a place to hang clothes for drying

2 bedrooms

2 bathrooms

a place outside for the kids to play

things that would be nice:

dryer

3+ bedrooms

nice view

pool

gym

microwave

According to the real estate agent Nathaniel is meeting with we should be okay except for the oven and dishwasher. I think I would be more ok with no oven before no dishwasher! I hate hand washing dishes. Max has volunteered his services, which I appreciate, but I know that his enthusiasm will not always be there.

He is going to take as many pics as he can and I will definitely share those. He is meeting with a different realty company on Monday and I will share those as well!

Blue Skies

Nathaniel sent my this picture this morning. He is in China right now, and this is the first picture he has ever sent me that I have seen a blue sky. Yes, the air quality is horrible, but at least my kids will be bilingual right?!?!

Making this a Habit

I don't have much to say, but I want to get into the habit of writing so that I don't slack off on this blog like I have the past 3 or 4 that I have started.

We got all of our passport information sent off and should have them in about 3 weeks. Once they are here, I will finish up the kids school applications and Nathaniel's company can do what ever they need to do in order to get our visas.

Nathaniel left for Hangzhou this morning. He will be there until the 4Th of May. The kids already are missing him. He took along his copy of Harry Potter so that he can still read to them via skype. He will be looking at apartments while he is there. I assume we will be in an apartment. There is a chance we may find a townhouse, but a very slim chance. I need to email him my list of must have amenities this week. When I do that, I will share the list. Apparently Chinese homes can lack a lot of things we take for granted. He is going to take pictures which I will definitely share so the everyone can see what we are in for.

I thought that I didn't have much to say, but I guess I have more than I thought. I am going to include a few links for anybody who is interested.

Here is a map of China. I put in a location pin on Hangzhou.

This is the link to Max and Isabel's school.

Finally, here is the gov. page for Hangzhou.

Hopefully next time I will be able to post pics!

passports

Well, I finally got the kids' paper work done so that we can get their passports. Once those are done, I will start to work on the Visas and school applications. I need to get a new passport as well. Changing everything over to my married name is a pain, even nine years later!

Nathaniel is headed over to Hangzhou on Tuesday. He will be looking at apartments and I really hope they let him take pictures. If they do I will definitely post them. I will at least post some pictures of the town.

Just to let anyone who is reading that in the future I will be posting as bclwsn, and Nathaniel will be posting as well as oursillyfamily.

Voyage post

I can't believe it! We are actually moving to China! Nathaniel and I both vacillate between terrified and excited. Fortunately, I am terrified when he is excited and vice versa, so we are able to talk each other off of the ledge. Max is just excited that he will always get to eat chinese food. Isabel is probably the least excited right now, but she is constantly looking at chinese books and speaking more chinese than the rest of us.

There are so many unanswered questions right now, and I plan to use this space as a place to work trough these questions. I also want to have a place for our friends and family to come and see how we are handling the transitions and what this adventure holds for us.

what is the first thing we have to do? I don't exactly know, but I am choosing to focus on the concrete. Passport, visas, and school applications oh my!