Train ride

Coming back from Christmas with our friends, Aaron and I decided to take an 18 hour train ride back to our city so that we could transport luggage that we left with our friends when we came in April.

in the train station waiting to board

aaron on the train

The train was amazing! I was a little bit nervous because I have only heard about how long the ride is and on such hard seats, so I was pleasantly surprised by the soft sleepers that we had. I was in a room with a young couple traveling together, and an older gentleman traveling by himself. Aaron bunked with 3 guys who kept calling us their "foreign friends" and one told us that we, Americans, are very pretty.

our rooms

People in the train station and on the train were pretty interested in us. Loading our luggage onto the train we got several "hellos" from random people walking by, and one guy on the train smelled like he had been drinking some liquid courage as he came up to us to try out his english. The conversation quickly switched to his language so that we could talk a little more.

views from outside of the window

When we came to Asia in April we dropped off three suitcases, 50 pound each, at our friend's home. For our flight to Asia we were both each allowed 2 fifty pound suitcases for free. We decided to make one of the 4 bags we had together overweight to 70lbs and pay the difference. We paid $130 to have those extra 20 pounds. The suitcases that we picked up from our friends, a total weight of 150 pounds, only cost us $25.50 to ship on the train and $113 for both of our overnight train tickets. So for roughly the same amount as we spent in the airport for an extra 20 pounds we were able to ship all of our bags to our new home. I am so glad we brought those extra bags in April! I don't want to think about how much the extra 150 pounds would've cost us at the airport!

the crowds waiting on arrivals at the train station

We've been enjoying having our bags with all the extra goodies we packed....though we were bummed to find that TSA had taken out our case of Cheerwine and bag of grits from our suitcases....WHY DO YOU HATE SOUTHERNERS, TSA?

Christmas Review

We were really thankful to get to spend this Christmas with such good friends, and to spend time reflecting on Christmas. This Christmas we have enjoyed lighting the advent candle and preparing our hearts in expectation for the second coming of Christ.

Christmas Eve we spent the evening celebrating with a feast. In Asia we can't get ingredients for our traditional Christmas dishes as easily or as inexpensively as you can in America. So all of the meals that were made were made from scratch and made with a bit of a sacrifice to make Christmas special. We are definitely going to head back to our city a few pounds heavier than when we came.

After dinner we followed the O'Hare family tradition and watched Christmas Vacation. This was by far the largest screen I have ever seen the movie on....and by screen, I mean wall.

Aaron wanted Christmas to be classy this year.....

Aaron shaved the Fu Manchu on Christmas Eve to give everyone the Christmas dream we've all been wishing for. He still hasn't shaved it and it is Sunday evening here.....I'm hoping shaving is his New Year's resolution.....or 27th of December resolution.

We skyped our families and were jealous as they flaunted Rick O'Hare's famous molasses cookies, Honey Baked Ham at the Shepard's, and inches of snow on the ground Christmas day in Greensboro!

While we missed family, we had a great Christmas, and can't imagine a better way to spend Christmas in Asia.

Feliz Navidad!

This post is especially for Aaron's mom, who was sad when she thought about us not having any Christmas decorations in Asia and so provided the stockings and fireplace :) They were the first things I put up in our apartment.

Also, thank you to all of our friends who sent us photo Christmas cards last year....I saved them anticipating not getting Christmas cards for a while, and they are hanging on the windows. So, Riddles, Montagues, Hursts, Bacons, Krebs, Flanders, Shelleys, O'Hares, Jungs, Vuljanics, Bass, and Nunns, I hope you liked your 2009 Christmas cards, because they are going to be a part of our Christmas decorations for a while to come!

Footage from the aforementioned kitchen cleaning

It took 4 hours to drip out and filled two bowls...

I have the most amazing and loving husband. That is a picture of him on his hands and knees cleaning out the most disgusting kitchen I've ever seen. He has poured bleach all over the kitchen, suffered some cuts from cleaning and scraping, and worked really hard over a few days to clean it. He is doing all this to serve and love me. He's done all of this work without complaining once - in fact he's whistling Christmas songs to himself right now! If I were cleaning the kitchen I would cry....and vomit, probably.

I just wanted everyone to see this, because when he's finished I probably won't recognize the kitchen and when you come over, you would never have known otherwise what kind of work went into the kitchen. Thank you, Aaron.

Week in Review

It's been a busy week for us, moving into our new apartment. Here is a quick review of all that has happened:

1) We painted the walls in our apartment...or rather we paid someone to paint the walls in our apartment. He was really good at painting - he painted the walls, the trim, the floors, etc. Then he got a mop and made sure that the paint was spread out really well over all the floors. It took a couple of days to chip off the paint afterwards, but it's looking good now. I tried to capture the mess here:

2) We finally got internet in the apartment, so Aaron was excited to be able to watch Carolina games again.....

3).....The power went out in our apartment Sunday morning really early - at the exact moment that Aaron got up to watch the UNC v. Texas game - 4:50am. Uncanny! (turns out we needed to pay our bill).

4) It snowed here! Not enough to have snowball fights or build snowmen. But we could see a strong amount of snowflakes, and there was a light dusting on the trees.

5) We bought all the furniture we needed that didn't come in our furnished apartment. And this is how Aaron was able to make sure it got to the right address:

The week in numbers:

3 - trips to Ikea

3 - meals composed purely of steamed dumplings

3 - trips to American fastfood chains (hey, I can't make food at home yet, and McDonald's is so good in other countries...)

3 - nights spent in our new home

2 - adults, 3 children spotted peeing or worse on the sidewalk

2 - plane tickets booked to spend Christmas with the Shelleys and the Jungs!

2 - days spent cleaning up our newly painted floors

1 - disappointed husband after no power to watch the Carolina game, and finding out we lost by 2

1 - Christmas movie watched (Home Alone!)

1 - new best friend (oh - and Aaron's new best friend, the full sized clothes dryer we just bought!)

Let me tell you 'bout my best friend!

We found a place to live. After jet lag woke me up at 2am on Thursday night and I sorted through all the pros and cons of all the apartments we had looked at in the week, on Friday we looked at one more apartment - and that is the one we're going to live in! We put a holding deposit on it on Saturday, and Monday morning we pick up the keys and start painting.

Better than finding a place to live though, I found my new best friend, the Asian Kate Hudson. If Goldie Hawn had married an Asian man, Kate Hudson would look like this. Just take my word for it.

Our real estate agent is this cute lady from the north of the country with such a sweet, soft voice - which really stands out in this area where everyone speaks in loud, harsh tones. Her office is right next to the complex we're going to live in - which made me excited because that meant we could really be friends. I was already imagining us laughing together, going to the wholesale warehouse together, saying hi every morning on my way to school.....then I found out she's going to be our neighbor. She lives in the apartment next door. NEXT door. New BFF, for sure.

We might not have internet for a few days as we move into our new place, but we'll post pictures of Asian Kate as soon as we can.....and maybe I'll post a picture of our apartment :)

november goodbyes