We Are Alive!!!

We finally have internet! Yeah!!! When the internet is our only way of communicating with friends and family back home, a week and a half without internet is a HUGE pain! I checked my email today and recieved a lot of emails from people wondering if we fell off the face of the earth because we haven't written or called. Just for the record, we are fine and doing so great!

We have already experienced so much in the two weeks we have been here, I just don't know where to start. Since I can't fit it all into one blog entry, I'll start where I left off last week and write more as time goes on.

Last Monday, we moved into our apartment. I have attached pics to show what our home looks like in China. We were shown three apartments and our number one deciding factor was cleanliness (that tells you something). Unless you have been to China, the housing and apartments here are nothing like the states. I don't even want to tell you about the first apartment we looked at. Anyway, from the outside, the apartments look pretty bad, but the actual apartments inside are not too bad. It's actually better than what I was expecting before we came. We spent the first day scrubbing down the apartment (since the people before us didn't bother). Here are a few of the highlights...there is no oven, our fridge is in the family room, our mattresses are similar to sleeping on the ground, and the shower and toilet are in the same stall. But on the bright side, we do have a clothes washer and a normal toilet...no squatter for us, thank you!

We laugh about our first impressions now, only because we look back and realize that we experienced our own kind of culture shock the first night we moved in. After that first night of "shock" in our apartment, we have absolutely loved every minute here and have so much to tell!

Speaking of housing, we have seen two extreme ways of living here in China. While our housing is a typical city apartment for the upper middle class, we have seen and heard of others who aren't so lucky. I understand we are in a third world country, but I can't believe what some people have to live in. We have seen a few Hutongs around, which are an underground type of housing that families live in (we will post pictures of these later). We are so spoiled in the United States...

On the other end of the extreme, we have seen the "expatriate" lifestyle as well. Expatriates are people living in a country with a foreign passport. There are many of these families from America who go to our church. We have been to a few of their houses for dinner and I went to a baby shower this week. They live on the outskirts of the city in American style neighborhoods in huge, beautiful houses. The neighborhoods have water fountains, security guards, and beautiful landscaping. It is amazing. Just to give you perspective, the international schools for the children cost about $22,000 dollars a year, and the house rent ranges from $5-8,000 a month (US dollars). But, of course, all of this is paid for by the companies or the US government (embassy employees). Oh, did I mention they all have their own drivers, maids, and access to all imported goods? Seriously, I could live like that! But, the people in our ward are wonderful, humble people. We went to a ward party last weekend at the international school. It was so much fun!

Ok, I've once again written a book. I'll continue the rest of our adventure in a few days. Thank you for the emails, we love to hear from you! We love you all!!!