I'm back! This for sure has been the longest I have ever gone without writing here! Two things have made updating the blog difficult: 1) Life in general has been very busy trying to figure everything out and get settled 2) a veeeeery slow internet connection.
We have sorted out the internet connection. With the help of some of David's Chinese colleagues we are now upgraded to a speed that is faster than what we had in Australia - when it is working, which isn't always ;)
Life is still very busy though. Factor 1 still remains. Some things that take a short amount of time in Australia can take a very long time here. Case in point - banking. Simple transfers that only take a minute online in Australia can require going into the branch with your passport and filling out paperwork etc. There are other systems that are really awesome and efficient. For example, we can get pretty much anything we want delivered to our house at any time for free or next to free - and it is usually super fast! More on all that another time.
I am slowly working through the process of uploading pictures from all of our different devices, sorting through and figuring out what to share here. I decided to start with Erica' phone. Following is the past six months from Erica's perspective..
Erica taking a selfie on the balcony of the apartment we stayed in right before we left Sydney.
The view from the balcony. It was a nice spot, a short walk from Luna Park.
I did a braid in Erica's hair while we were waiting for our flight. She wanted a picture so she could see if she liked it, and determine whether to take it out and do her hair herself. The hairstyle was deemed acceptable and was kept.
Some selfies in the plane.
Taking a picture of Hong Kong outside the window of the plane as we had a quick stop and then onto Shanghai.
The girls had their faces painted at a grocery store. They are both cats. They get a lot of stares when we walk around under normal circumstances. After this they were turning heads all over the place.
Looking out the window from our hotel in Shanghai. Luckily for us we only stayed in the hotel for less than a week before our house was ready to move into. We've also discovered that we were very fortunate to find a house so quickly. Many wait for months before something becomes available.
Minion lego in a toy store.
With Winnie the Pooh in the Disney store.
The bottom 1/3 of the Pearl Tower.
The intersection outside of our hotel room. This area is about a 10 minute walk from our house.
The girls ready for Halloween trick-or-treating. There was trick-or-treating in our compound. Erica was a cowgirl and Clara was a witch Minnie Mouse (witch dress with Minnie Mouse ears).
Erica's lunch at Disneyland.
Picture of the castle at Disneyland.
Pretzel at Disneyland.
The girls at Disneyland. What type of animal is that?
Erica's favourite ride at Disneyland. It is a water rapids ride. Very similar to the one that has now been closed down at Dreamworld.
David, Clara and Ethan outside of the castle.
More of the castle.
Erica with a school friend we crossed paths with at Disneyland. Erica has asked me multiple times if we can stop taking her to temples and historical sites and just go to Disneyland. Ha!
Clara with face painting (a car). The face painting was from a carnival at the children's school.
Erica's favourite food here. A BBQ chicken and pineapple pizza. It is HUGE!! Erica is not a big fan of Chinese food. The rest of us love it.
Static hair on the trampoline.
Another selfie with a friend.
Erica's dinner at an American-style diner. Check out the humongous nachos in the background! It was ordered off the starters menu, but after three of us finished the dish we were full.
Cute shot of Clara.
A temple through the trees in Hangzhou.
A wall of golden buddhas inside the temple. The kids thought this temple complex was pretty cool, but still wished they could have spent the day at Disneyland. I thought that complex was amazing (the second biggest Buddhist temple complex in China). More about that another time.
What sort of driver would let their child ride like this?
A Ford driver :)
It snowed. Much excitement around here!
Not a real website :)
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