Arriving in Wuhan!
The day finally came for us to take the leap and go to China! Adam and the girls arrived Tuesday, routing through Shanghai. Bella and I arrived Wednesday. I flew with her separately on Korean Air as they are pet friendly. It was so exciting to be reunited—at our home in China!
Thursday Adam and I went to the consulate and the staff took us to China Mobile for our Chinese phone numbers and to the bank for our local account. (I already think banks are incredibly boring but sitting in a bank where I don’t speak or read the language for over an hour while jet lagged took my dislike to a new level.) The consulate staff (US and local staff) took us out for a yummy lunch.That evening we attended a welcome dinner for us and two other new consulate families at the Consul General’s residence. (The Chinese embassy and ambassador are in Beijing. The other State Department offices in China are consulates with consul generals.) The Consul General, CG Lan, has her own chef and the food was amazing!
Friday we spent trying to get our technology sorted. It’s a little complicated as right now we have T-Mobile, Google Fi, and China Mobile, plus communication apps and email. We have a VPN, home internet, and some things work with cellular data, some with data and the VPN, some with wifi and some with wifi plus the VPN. So having three cellular providers and all these combinations makes for a lot to figure out! Thankfully Adam is good at this stuff. Adam was off for mid-autumn festival here which was really helpful. We went out to dinner at a sit down Chinese restaurant, ordered 6 dishes (we got adventurous and ordered octopus!), and were charged about $37. In DC it would have easily been $125.
Saturday Adam and I took a didi (Chinese Uber) to Sam’s Club. Usually I’m a faithful Costco shopper but walking into Sam’s Club here trumps any joy I’ve had walking into Costco. They don’t have everything we need (baking supplies are hard to find) but they had a lot. That afternoon we went to a BBQ with the consulate crew plus a few American expats who work at the school the kids will go to and live nearby.
Today (Sunday) we watched the Saturday sessions of General Conference. Having the tabernacle choir blasting while Adam made French toast made it feel like home. We did an evening walk and found a park and path where we didn’t almost get taken out by a scooter every ten seconds. There are scooters everywhere and they’re electric so you don’t know they’re coming. They drive on a sidewalk/frontage road along the main roads that you can walk, bike, or scooter on.
As for some pics:
We are stared at ALL THE TIME. Many of the people also get excited to meet us. This cute girl was giving out samples at the local store. When we told her we’re American she did a little arm dance and asked for a picture.
The plaza right outside our neighborhood
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