Pictures of our Apartment!

Nick got me a new camera for my birthday since my old one broke over a year ago. Hopefully now I can be better about posting pictures. Our apartment came furnished so we only had to buy dishes, and linens. It is super comfortable and we love our neighborhood. We have made friends with a cute Chinese couple that lives above us, and Nick flirts shamelessly with groups of 60+ year old women when we go out to walk at night so he is quite popular.


The front room. This is what you see when you walk in the door to our apartment. We have a great balcony out that window that overlooks the ocean.


DIning room. Everything is still pretty bare. We are slowly decorating.


The kitchen. We were so excited to have a dishwasher. We haven't lived in an apartment with one since we got married and now we have one in China where most people have never even heard of them.


The stove. We are seriously missing having an oven. Hopefully we can buy one soon.


My closet!


Our baby washing machine. I can fit about 6-8 pieces of clothing in at once.


Guest bathroom. Love the tub!


Nick's office.


This is our bedroom. You can see the bathroom door in the background.


This is our "reading nook" in our bedroom. It has an AMAZING view of the ocean and of downtown Dalian. We still need to furnish it though. I'm looking for a cute little chair and table, or maybe just a rug and about 50 pillows?


Our shower. The first thing we noticed was that you had to plug the water heater in right behind you while you shower. Super safe!


Another shot of our bathroom.

Well Herrro

Here is the first 3 months rent for us. I went and took it out of the ATM. Walked into the hotel room where Dana was reading and proceeded to make it rain.


Life in Dalian is great. Things are moving along so fast and falling into place. Above is my new pride and joy. It actually came into the house. It is a full jet powered bathtub with built in CD player and radio. Bingo. And it looks right out on the ocean. Our ocean view is normally nice. BUT today there was a ton of smog. And we couldn't see much past the shoreline. The wind is coming in tonight and should push the smog into North Korea by tomorrow.

Below is one of the best statues I've ever seen. Please note the mane on the keyboarder. It is in a park, called Peace Park. Right by the mall that is now Dana's favorite mall because it has 1) H&M 2)Zara's and 3) a massage place that gives a 60 minute massage for $5 USD.
I've been really busy with work. The one thing they never tell you about working for a start-up company is that full-time isn't 40 hours. I work everyday. I wake up at 6am. And then work until late at night. It's a great job though. I really like the people I work with and they give me a lot of support. I was in Beijing all last week. And Dana was here. Being real tough. Traveling for business is sweet. Especially when the CEO is around. Because you eat. And you eat good.

Dana and I are happy. So happy. We are hoping to get out to see Zack and Amy here in the near future. Most likely around Thanksgiving. But with Dana and I both working now. We have a lot of schedules to line up. But I really want to get back to Taiwan. And i'd love to show Dana around and let her meet my buddies there. And there is a lot of business there.

I need some motivation please!

I'm seriously considering THIS! I need a good pep talk though. I have over 7 months to train for it I just need to get started NOW. What do you all think?

Productive Day

We figured out the public transportation system here in Dalian so I can get to work easily while Nick is in Beijing (I was scared to go alone before, now I feel just fine), also because taking a taxi in the morning with crazy traffic just wasn't logical. I feel like such a local now! HA! Really though, we went to the bank and even got me a special card that I put money on so I don't have to carry around a bunch of change. Plus it saves me exactly .05RMB every time I ride the monorail or bus (that's less than a penny).

We also made a few important discoveries along the way. Most important being that only a few stops on the monorail from our house we have McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Subway so if the craving hits us we can just hop on over there. There's also a huge market so we can get most of our shopping done conveniently close to home.

We also went down to Carrefour for a few other things. Hopefully now we have all the basics we will need for our house for awhile. Our ayi is coming for the first time tomorrow to do a little cleaning. I am going to be so spoiled! But honestly if all she did was ironing I would be happy. I forgot what it was like to live without a clothesdryer although I did it for a year and a half in Spain. Is it ridiculous to iron your towels? I just don't like that crunchy feeling!

First week in Dalian!

Wow, we have had a busy week! It all started at 4 am last Tuesday, we had to get our 7 bags onto the hotel shuttle to head to the airport. After getting our bags checked (4 of which were overweight even after all the weighing and shuffling around we did) we could relax a little. We had a fun layover in Seattle spent with Anne, Allie, Luke and Ava. It was fun to get out of the airport and see them. Then we had the long flight over to South Korea. We watched a lot of movies! After that it was just a short little flight to Dalian, but by the time we got on the last flight we were both exhausted. I fell asleep immediately and didn't even notice the flight attendant had put food down on the tray table in front of me until we were landing.

We got a taxi, and somehow he managed to fit all our bags and us inside, and headed to the hotel. It was quite the adventure as the trunk wouldn't close, and bags filled up every space imaginable. Not to mention that driving here is a whole new experience. People weave in and out of lanes and get so close to each other it still makes me jumpy every time I get in a car. The taxi drivers are used to it though, and have very quick reflexes!

Our first few nights we spent at the Howard Johnson hotel in Dalian while we met with a realtor and looked at apartments. We found one we both love and were able to move in after only 2 days. We are on the 29th floor of our building and have an amazing ocean view. Our apartment has 2 bedrooms, but one of them we are using as Nick's office. There are 2 bathrooms, a pretty normal kitchen, a big living/dining area and a balcony overlooking the water. We are super happy and settling in comfortably.

Nick is now in Beijing for a few days for work, and I am on my own at home. I don't know how much I'll venture out on my own just yet, but I've got lots of catching up to do on our blog and plenty of books to read. Not to mention about 7 channels in English on the satellite TV. I got a job that starts next week, so I'll be plenty busy soon enough. I'll post more details about that later on.

Dalian is great! We are both excited for the next few years.

Just a little preview of more pictures to come. This is my view while writing this blog.

Korea!!!

Anyang! We are sitting in the Seoul airport. Dana is asleep on the seats. I just woke up. Dana did some magic math and found that I had slept 3 hours in the last 48 hours. Maybe the explains how and why I am so tired. We are going to hop on our plane now! We are sooooooo excited to get out Dalian and be settled. The guy I sat next to just got wasted. I don't know why they offer free beer and wine on these international flight. He stunk super bad after about 2 hours. That's the second wino in on the last 2 trips out here.

September 14th is the big day!

That's right we bought our plane tickets! We are leaving for China on September 14th, and will be in Dalian after a short layover in Seattle, and one in Seoul, Korea. I am getting super excited! We've been talking about moving forever and now it's finally happening. I'm not looking forward to the packing though, I don't know how I'm going to only take 2 fifty pound bags with me! I'm going to need some serious motivation to start throwing clothes away.

We have been in contact with the branch president over in Dalian and were super excited to find out we'd have other people to meet with on Sundays! There are about 50 members living out there right now.

Nick also did a lot of apartment searching while he was out there last week, and we have a place in mind. It is right by the ocean and beautiful he tells me. I guess I'll find out for sure in about 2 weeks. It will be our 3rd home since we've been married. Crazy. Hopefully this moving so often trend doesn't continue and we can be settled for a few years.

Now that we have our travel plans anyone is welcome to schedule a vacation to come visit!