The Eagle Has Landed

we landed safe and sound are relatively in decent shape today, especially considering that anna fell asleep at 7 pm and woke up at 11:30! she actually woke up for the night at 11:30 PM. Now that’s some serious jetlag. Luckily, I went to sleep at 7:30 myself and Becky followed about an hour later after getting the boys down. Jacob woke up at 1 and eli at 3.

Becky and I took turns being up with them. Nothing like watching Finding Nemo at 3 am. By 4, I took anna for walk through the quiet streets of this very nice compound and se fell asleep. i assumed that would last a while but she was up by 5 and we watched our first Chinese sunrise together.

They all seem fine today oddly enough. I am over at kathy chen’s house (she works with becky and has been really helpful.) B went into the office to make an appearance and rally the troops. Our kids are all off playing with Kathy’s kids and others and being watched by ayis (nannies). The kids have adjusted like nobody’s business. So far, this is like a trip to Florida for them. great playgrounds, a pool, lots of kids to play with. They love it here. We are staying in an apartment at kathy’s complex… similar setup towhere we will live, about 15 minutes away. Hope to be in the house asap but we’re told it will likely be three weeks. The kids will take a bus to school while we’re here. The apartment is three bedroom and it’s fine, but def. feels temporary. The Peets African blend I brought made it seem more like home.

The trip here was relativley uneventful, other than my getting sick and putting one of the four first class restrooms out of commission about halfway into the flight. I think I got food posioning from and egg and cheese sandwich I ate at A&W’s in the Airport. I felt fine, then nauseous. threw up about a half hour later and felt fine again. Who knows.

we flew first class thanks to the weird fluke of a great special and buying one-way tickets. probably will be the only time we do so for our whole stay here and it was pretty damn nice. I think it was my first real time in the front of the plane and I kept thinking of that seinfeld where jerry is in first class and Elaine in coach. it really is a joke, being so pampered. and seeing Jacob and eli stretched out like kings in their fully reclined seats was pretty priceless. I have photos of this which I will get up ASAP. i’m on kathy c’s computer right now. As soon as I get online on my own I’ll post pics.

Coming in, we flew over the Wall and had great aerial views of it snaking through the mountains Northwest of Beijing. Quite a sight. i was sitting by the window with anna and I called the boys over. They came over and all four of us had our faces pressed against the windows staring out. jacob said, “yep, that is china all right.” then anna kept pointing out the window and saying, “that china.”

we needed two vehicles to get our 12 bags not including carryons and the five of us over here but no one blinked. And being here witout our stuff for up to three weeks, I’m glad we have all this junk, as absurd as it seemed while sitting in joan and ben’s living room.

more soon.