One Week

One week. Seven days. A lifetime of change.

It's hard to wrap my mind around everything that has transpired since we loaded up our 12 passenger van and drove away from our lovely (still for sale) home in Minnesota. It felt so surreal driving down our driveway the last time. It honestly felt like we were leaving on vacation, but for some reason we had decided this vacation was going to necessitate that we pack 750 lbs of personal belongings in 10 suitcases before we go.

We are still acclimating to our new surroundings and figuring out our new life and routines. A lot of time so far has been spent in taxis to and from stores picking up the rest of the items we need to make our house a home. Overall, jetlag has been tolerable and we have been able to find almost all comforts of home that we need.

Here are some highlights (and a few lowlights) of our first week with boots on the ground:

1. All of the household goods that were shipped by boat arrived and were unloaded into our apartment without any breakage.

2. Louis arrived healthy and safe (though very VERY thirsty and hungry!)

3. Lydia successfully signed up for her high school classes and seems to have a generally positive outlook on her new school.

4. A tv has been selected and is set to be delivered today!

5. It's HOT. And HUMID!

6. In-home gecko spottings to date: Three

7. In-home roach spottings to date: One, who thought he was a possum and pretended to be dead until I went to sweep him up. Then he miraculously revived, and I screamed and Brandon put on his hero cape and removed it. Good thing roaches are solitary creatures and live a solo life. Ahem. Right?!?!? (We won't concern ourselves with counting the outside-our-front-door roaches).

8. We can walk to the beach in 8 minutes.

9. Finally figuring out how to order and pay for Marcus' amazing-ly uncool British uniform. Hope the sizes I ordered are correct! He'll find out at orientation tomorrow.

10. We made it to church (on time!) for Sunday services and are hoping Island Evangelical Community Church www.islandecc.hk/ could be a good fit for us. (Prayers for connections please!)

11. We navigated the process of applying for our Hong Kong ID cards with relative ease and even commented "that wasn't so bad!" when we walked out. How many U.S. government agencies would we say the same about?? Pickup is in 7 business days, so praying that Part 2 is just as smooth!

12. IKEA trip. And another IKEA trip. And another IKEA trip. Followed by 4 hours of assembly.

13. Successful navigation of the MTR (subway system) without any family members fighting or making a scene in public.

14. Protection from experiencing the Hong Kong protests first hand.

15. Finding Pringles, Lucky Charms, avocados, not-from-concentrate orange juice, Haagen-Daaz ice cream, bacon, greek yogurt, Eggo waffles...

16. A lovely view of the South China Sea and mountains from our living room window.

17. Built-in exercise just by living life (funny how that road up to our house didn't seem nearly so steep when we drove up during our apartment search!). Did I mention.... It's HOT. And HUMID?!?!?

18. Locating and obtaining a large variety of transformers which allows us to use our coffee machine, printer, and small appliances.

19. Air conditioning. I love you. (Minnesota winter, my apologies but I STILL don't think I'll miss you.)

20. Friends and family who send texts of encouragement, leave posts via social media, and the ability to easily make and receive phone calls from halfway around the world. We are missing these friends and family so much already, but the incredible technology we have available to us in 2019 is making it a little easier to feel not quite so alone. What an advantage compared to our move to Prague in 2005!

The kids both have their school orientations on Tuesday of this week and then dive headfirst into their new schools and classes on Wednesday! What a big day for them! I am so impressed by their attitudes and confidence in this regard. I know I would not have been the same as as 12 or 15-year old. I am curious what discoveries, challenges, and adventures Week 2 will hold. We continue to take it day by day, and feel tremendously grateful for the health and safety we have had so far.