Been a long time!!

Hello all! It has been a very long time since my last post! Internet in China is not always reliable and honestly I was in a bit of a funk for a bit! Our winter here was very wet and very dreary and cold (in fact much colder than the winter most of you had). I had many China days! But I gave myself a real good talking and realized that this is life for me right now and to make the most of it!!

I have not had all China days! Natalie and I have done some exploring and now that the weather is nice , we are outside a lot! I am starting to feel like I fit in! I have met many wonderful ladies!

The boys continue to do amazing! They have settled in just fine! I constantly have kids coming and going through our front door! They both received excellent report cards! They hold student led conferences here in the Spring, and it was very cool to see both of our boys conduct a report on how they are performing at school. Nicholas presented his to us in a Power Point Presentation! I will admit the kid knows more about PPP than I do!!

Natalie is involved in ballet and then a multi sport class! She loves both! She is making friends that she plays with mostly after school as they are in PreK!! She will start Kindergarten in Fall. The school wanted to place her in PREK but because Chrysler will not pay for it and technically she would have started K back home, they are allowing her to start K here!! Will be a very sad day for me, but she is SO ready!!

As I mentioned, I am making friends and have had many lunch , coffee, tea dates! This Friday I am going to a Qipao Party! A qipao is an oriental dress! We are going to get measured and then after going to the fabric market to pick out our fabric, a tailor will make the dress for us! We will go out to dinner a few weeks later and all wear them! Should be fun!!

We recently went to Xi'an China over our Spring Break! The terracotta warriors are there! Simply amazing! These warriors were buried for thousands of years! It really was so cool to see! We had a wonderful little vacation! Even felt like celebrities! We had our picture taken so many times in four days! I can totally get while stars do not like all the attention!!

Greg is good. Work is going better! He is traveling to Beijing for two nights this week. This will be the first time I am alone in China with the kids. I am a bit nervous, but know we will survive! His Grandma did pass away about two weeks ago. That was hard to not go home for the funeral. We looked into it, but it would have been A LOT of traveling for just a couple of days, and we did not want to do that to the kids.

Anyways, we are still alive over on the other side of the world! We take each day at a time. If we (most of the time me) are having a moment, we just remember that we are together and that this is not forever! And then we think about all we are seeing and experiencing and smile!

Hope all is well with all of you!!
Love,
Wendi

Happy Chinese New Year!

Hello all! Month one is behind us. We have lived in China for one whole month. I will not lie, some days it feels a lot longer than one month.

With that being said, we really are continuing to do well. We just got back from spending a week in Langkawi, Malaysia for the Chinese New Year (CNY)! OMG!!! It was simply breathtaking!! I guess living in China has some perks! The five of us had an amazing time despite the many bumps we hit along the way (cut hand, two kids with swimmers ear, one kid falling in a ditch, same kid barfing on the shuttle back to the airport, and another kid running a fever the last two days of vacation)! I now know what paradise looks like! We look forward to seeing much more of Asia while living here!

The kids continue to do great at school! Both of them have very wonderful teachers. Energetic and very dedicated to the profession! They both are making friends and fitting in just fine! I am a little blown away with the freedom that some of the kids that live in our compound get. I know that I am somewhat of a protective mother (heck I JUST started letting the boys play outside in Michigan without me just this fall...as long as they were together and with a group of kids), but it blows my mind that I have had kids come knocking on the door to play inside. I have no clue where they live or who their parents are or anything. The same kid comes over almost everyday to play. He tells me what time he has to be home and he plays until that time. Then he gets on his bike or scooter in the dark and goes home. I am just a little dumbfounded that his mom is okay with this! I guess not all moms are as paranoid and protective as this one!!

Natalie is good. I am sure she is sick of me by now. The two of us have been inseparable since we arrived. There are very few kids here age to play with as most of them go to preschool full time. Chrysler will not pay for preschool so she is stuck with me until she starts Kindergarten in the Fall. It is one of my CNY goals to find something/someone for her to play with in the next week or two. I mean there has to be someone else here that is in the same situation as me (I hope)!!!

So yes I have some CNY goals. I never set any new year resolutions a month ago b/c I thought moving to China was enough! Well now that I have been here a month I have some goals I want to tackle. I actually have done one already, and it was unintentional. I drink less pop than I did in the US, and I eat a lot healthier (way more veggies and fruit are in my diet now). And I do not pick on junk as much as I did back home....one of the reasons being who wants to munch on Beef flavored Cheetos!!

I want to start exercising ! I always had an excuse such as cleaning the house and doing laundry. Well thanks to having an Ayi that is no longer an excuse. I have plenty of time on my hands and a gym two minutes away. Looks like I will be hitting the gym soon!! The Ayi has watched Natalie for me a couple of times while I go to pick up the boys so I am feeling more and more comfortable leaving Natalie with her for an hour so I can go work out!! I really have no excuses anymore!

Another goal is to just keep putting myself out there to meet new people. While everyone is very friendly, I find that most of the ladies have there "clicks". I need to keep putting myself out there to find which click I can be a part of! I find myself searching for people that I may have something in common with...I had a lovely conversation yesterday at pickup with a Grandpa who was wearing a Red Sox cap. While he is just here visiting, it was nice to be able to talk to someone I had something in common with as we talked about the east coast and the Patriots hopefully kicking butt in the Super Bowl (that we probably will not be able to watch). I often wonder if these people who I "seek" out think I have a screw loose (or maybe even two), but then I remember I am living in China and that is what you have to do to survive living in China! So I will continue to just walk up to people and talk to them, and I just know that one of them is lonely like me and is looking for a placeto fit in.

Okay off to see what the kiddos are doing. Nat has a playmate today...Patrick was running a very high fever last night so he did not go to school today!!

Love to all of you!!!

Week One is Behind Us

We have survived our first week in China!

I am learning a few things about the Chinese.

* They love fireworks! The shoot them off for every reason and all hours of the night!!! They are not (at least so far) the pretty ones either that make you say OHHHHH and AHHHH but instead they are the ones that g0 BOOM, BOOM, BOOM really fast.

*They love to blow their horns while driving. But then again I can totally see why. I am very glad that we have a driver b/c it is beyond crazy. Although I am going to miss being able to get in a car and just go.

*They can fit a whole family (not to mention groceries) on a scooter or bicycle. I will need to bring my camera with me every time I leave the house b/c it is unreal how much one person can fit onto their "vehicle".

*They eat some really weird things. I guess I should not judge but when I go to the store to buy chicken it has no head or feet usually!! Again I will need to take my camera with me!!

Anyways, the kids are doing amazing!! They had their first day today, and it was very successful!! When Natalie and I went to pick them up they were all smiles! I must admit that I breathed a huge sigh of relief! I was very worried indeed. Granted it is day one and I am sure that there will be TIC (This Is China) moments, but for now I am happy that they are happy!! Natalie and I spend a great deal of our day playing games, drawing, practicing writing letters, and hanging out.

I am doing okay. I have met a few people . Everyone is very friendly. Everyone I meet says it is hard at first but that it gets better. Everyone has been telling me where to find imported food or items that are close to it (have no idea where any of these places are). It is a little overwhelming being the new person. It is hard to see everyone hugging and catching up after being on Holiday for three weeks. Makes me miss all my friends and family back home. I know that it has only been a week and that it is only the first day of school, and I know that with time, it will get better. I know that! I know that I am outgoing and that I am strong and that I can do this! I just have to keep reminding myself. I plan to stay at school on Friday for a PAFA (Parents and Friends Association) meeting. I was very involved at the kids school in Michigan and plan to be involved here as well. Plus that will allow me to meet some other parents. And since I really do not clean or do laundry anymore and I can not get into a car and just drive myself to Target, I have a lot of time on my hands! I just uploaded some books to my iPad and I look forward to catching up on some reading. Also hope to catch up on my scrapping when that stuff arrives.

Greg is good as well. He has been so very wonderful and I am so lucky to call him my partner. He is taking very good care of us. He is so happy to have his family back with him. Work is going okay. The launch is not doing as well as they anticipated. He is tackling the hurtles as they come and doing it with great pride. I am proud of him.

Zipper (our cat) is back. He had to go into quarantine for a week. He was a little skittish when we got him back but is doing better. The kids just love him to pieces.

Well this was a long one. Long story short, we are all well and we are adjusting and happy to be a family again.

Sending hugs to all of you! Please keep in touch!

We are surviving!!

Ni hao!!! Hope this finds all of you well. Most of you should be fast asleep while I type this update.

After saying "so long" to my parents (one of the hardest things I have done), we boarded our plane for our long flight! The kids did an AMAZING job for 14 hours! (Zipper did great too!) Each seat on the plane has their own Tv screen with on demand . They had movies, TV shows and games to play. The boys never even really played their DS's. It was nice that we all could watch our own shows. Patrick curled up with his doggy around 11 and slept for about six hours. Nick slept only a couple of hours. Natalie slept but across Greg and I as that was the only way she could get comfortable. So that meant very little sleep for the two of us. I really am impressed at how well they did!!

Our first day was spent unpacking and hanging out. Around 4 we turned the TV on and we all ended up falling asleep in our bed. The jet lag caught up with us! We had the hardest time waking the kids for dinner and we were back in bed for the night all of us around 8 pm.

Yesterday the 3rd, we went into town for some lunch and then we went to some shops. It was like the mall the day before Christmas, but Greg says it is that way all the time! You pretty much can get anything you want here. You pay more for the imported stuff, but they also have a Chinese version of most things. Greg had many things in the cupboards for us...many comfort foods such as Oreos and Cheetos. We opened the Cheetos last night and they were not regular looking Cheetos (bright orange). They were pale in color and just gross looking. Well I tried one and apparently they are turkey flavored...YUM.....not!

While we were out we got a lot of stares. We were told that many Chinese (especially the elder ) will be fascinated by Americans. They see them on TV but never in real life. Natalie was "petted" a few times. She handled it very well. I had one little old lady talking to me a mile a minute and smiling. Have NO clue what she said!

Today I had to go for my physical for my residency permit. In 45 minutes, I had blood taken, an EKG, a chest Xray, an ultrasound, an eye exam, blood pressure taken and filled out paperwork. It was very interesting! I felt a bit like cattle as they moved you from room to room in a very organized fashion.

Greg went back to work today. He has been wonderful trying to take care of us and our needs and still do his job after being gone for almost three weeks. The launch has hit many bumps and he is being pulled in many different directions, but he is a handling it. He is a rock and I am really proud of him.

The kids and I went to their school to get their uniforms . The school was quiet as they do not start until the 9th. The boys looked around a bit and they were excited with what they saw. They had a huge map display of the world and then pictures of all the kids that attend SCIS and where they are from. My kids will be going to school with kids from all over the world! I think that is just amazing!

Well I guess that is it for now. Our AYI starts tomorrow. This will be the person that helps with housework and eventually will also act as a nanny. I am a bit nervous about having a woman in the house who speaks very little English. Not sure how we will communicate. I guess a lot of hand gestures and pointing!!

Packing, Packing, and More Packing

Hello friends and family~
Things in the Southwick house are pretty crazy these days! We are getting very close to our departure date of December 31st. Trying to figure out what to take and what not to take half way around the world is really hard! We are limited to what we can take so it makes it even harder! But with much thought and a few tears, we are figuring it out!
The boys actually were the easiset as they wanted DS and Wii games and LEGOS! Well we have pretty much packed every Lego we own, and they will be airshiped to our new home in China (although we do have a suitcase full of the new sets from Christmas).
Natalie was a little harder as she will be home more than the boys so we took a bunch of stuff for her. She got a lot of plastic bins for Christmas to put her new things in (Littlest Pet Shops, Polly Pockets, Little Pony, art suppplies).
My scrapbook stuff is coming to China as I will have some time on my hands. Hopefully I will be able to catch up as I am several years behind.
It has been an emotional roller coaster these last few weeks as well. The littlest things set me off. Saying "see you in a few years" to so many close friends has been hard. They have all been so good to us, and it will be hard to leave our support system!
We leave Detriot on the 31st. I was thinking of shouting out every hour starting at midnight on my watch Happy New Years!!! Has to be New Years somewhere right?? Probably would make a lot of passengers mad though.
We arrive in Shanghai at 7:30pm on the 1st. We will start our new year with this new adventure in a new country .
Hugs to all of you. Please do not be strangers. I will need to get some "love" for a few weeks! Happy New Years to all of you!!