ready to move

We found a new place which has some benefits over the current apartment. It is bigger, though that is unnecessary. 1500 square feet is enough, but the new place is 2000. OH, well, we'll suffer :) 2 bedrooms and a nice office, a kitchen WITH A REAL OVEN, 2 good sized balconies, big living room, 2 bathrooms, nice dining room. Comes fully furnished and they will provide softer-than-Chinese-standard mattresses. Also there is central heat and air (yeah!) and centralized filtered water. No more water bottles. A clothes dryer and full-sized water heater are also very attractive to this lao wai.

The best parts, currently, are that no body will wake us at 7am with hammer drilling into the concrete in the apartments below and next door. Those who know me can only imagine what that does to my blood pressure.

Now it is time to run off for GP's teeth cleaning and to find a flat-screen monitor to go with my laptop. If I'm hear another year, I want to be extra comfortable :)

Oh, yeah, the new complex (Bai Ling Mansions = White Collar Mansions) has only 4 units instead of 30 and very tight security. This should be fewer people wandering about, stealing my bicycle, and hawking on the sidewalk :p

the next Warren Buffett

GP made a comment again the other day that she wants to be the next Warren Buffett. I made some comment about the US or something and she said, "I will be the Chinese Buffett".

When I was done laughing, I explained that many people might line up for dinner if they saw that headline.

(Yes, I know Buffett and buffet are spelled differently.)

Happy Birthdays and WooHoo US trip

A big Happy Birthday to Joshua who celebrates #4 today and to Airelle who adds a year on Saturday. I hope there's some good times in Iowa and Nebraska.

On the other good news front, GP got her visa so we will both be visiting in July. There's a lot to do and many people to see, so don't be surprised if we don't get to you. Mostly it's for catching up on stuff in Philadelphia and to meet the family in the Midwest. I'll see if we can rent a convertible for the Chicago to Omaha trip :)

Back in Suzhou - many happy wishes

Hi, there. I'm back from Israel. It was a fun trip, had some great food and there was not even one, small scary instance. Not so much as a car back fire. Felt safer than taking the train to Philly :) Photos and trip report some later time. For now, I just want to get over the jet lag. Last night I slept from 3:30 to 6:30 am. Bah! A little tired today.

Now for the wishes:
Happy Birthday! Especially for my Dad, but also to Mike who has his flag day celebration later this week.

Happy Anniversary! Wow, let's see. Erin & Trev, Mike & Rachel, Kelli & Chad. Anyone else?

The US trip is delayed again. GP's visa application was "suspended" while we gathered more documents. This morning I was told that China will not renew my work permit this early (5 months until it expires), but the US wants it renewed for GP's visa. A small dilemma. I emailed US Consulate and we'll see what they say. Keep your fingers crossed.

Stray travel observations and thoughts

The ride from Suzhou to Pudong was faster than usual. I moved to the front seat about 1/2 way there as I get a little car sick if I'm in back too long. Riding in China isn't much scarier from the front seat.

I checked in for my first flights ever on Lufthansa. I hope they got my United number entered in this time. 1 of my 4 Australia flights and 1 of my last Singapore flights haven't been credited. What a hassle to get the miles credited, too, but it's worth it to get the status.

Immigration at Pudong was busier than usual, but not bad. Especially when I noticed all the good-looking, tall European girls. All in the same orange polo shirt (well, similar shirts, they couldn't all wear the same one). I wasn't sure if it was volleyball or basketball team, until I saw the back of one shirt: "Nederlands Volleyball". The orange should have clued me.

Lufthansa was an interesting flight. My first one with everything in German and English. I tried to use some German on the flight and it mostly worked, but I kept wanting to mix in Chinese when I got hung up on a word. The opposite of what I did when I first started to learn Chinese.

Couldn't sleep on the flight well. And my PDA said "low backup battery power" What? I remove the main battery to look for the back up battery - like I'm an idiot! Now the machine has lost all of it's memory. My calendar, contacts, programs . . . :( Luckily I didn't lose a whole lot, except 1 or 2 programs I need to install back in Suzhou. and I determined the backup battery is internal, I can't change it anyway.

Frankfurt airport was a little disappointing. Not much in the way of looks, or stores, or, well, much. The good part was that it must have been a Chinese connection terminal, so there were quite a few Chinese there. I could understand more of those conversations than the German ones :) Not really, but it was fun. Other upsides: picking up a new book, getting Euros from an ATM, and seeing naked breasts right on display in the bookstore. I forgot they have a more relaxed view of nudity in Europe.

Flight to Tel Aviv was ok. Plane was quiet, but I still slept little and terribly. Then we waited on the plane while a medical crew removed one traveler (I'm not sure for what). Ben Gurion airport is quite nice. Surprisingly, all of the restaurants, shops, etc. in the airport were open at 4am. Incredible! and quite a few travelers.

Immigration was quicker than I expected. I had to show a second photo ID since I have a beard in my passport photo. She was smiling when she asked and I told her that everyone says I look much better now. She asked a little of the purpose of my trip and I was through the barrier.

I found the guy carrying the "Osborne Matto" sign and we went to his taxi. All of the taxis were either Skodas or Mercedes. He has a 3-month old Mercedes, 4-door, but sporty (I didn't catch the model). It was very nice! We did a 1.5 hour drive in about 50 minutes. Easy when you cruise at 100-110 mph (we were usually between 150-180kph). The car hugs the road and is super smooth and comfortably at 100+mph.

I checked in to the hotel. It's ok, even though considered fairly high-class. The room is ok, the neighborhood is nice with little shops and restaurants. By far the best was the buffet breakfast. About 10 kinds of cheese (including 2 or 3 cottage cheeses, and 2 or 3 soft, salted cheese), crackers, fresh fruit, figs, mmmm.

Now I'm done with my 3 hour nap and time to get ready for work tomorrow. Oh, yeah. They must have different number phobias here. I'm in room 1313 :)