Not Quite Excited

by Ruth

It's only two more weeks until we head back to China, and I'm not quite excited about it.  There have been times in the past when I have dreaded going back to China because it was China.  Now I am starting to feel a lot more at home in China; I am just intimidated by what lies ahead of us.

First, we'll leave here at around 3am to start our ~30hour trek across the world.  We will be tired before we even start!  After three long flights and a couple of long layovers, we will arrive in Yinchuan.  We have an apartment waiting there, but we don't even really know where it is or how to get there.  Someone is supposed to meet us at the airport to lead the way.  When we find our apartment, we will need to carry all our luggage up to the 6th floor.  Our baby will want to crawl around on the dusty, dirty floor while we look through our boxes of belongings (already waiting there) to find useful items like sheets and towels.  Too bad I have no idea where they are packed.

Then we will spend the first week staying up all night with a jet-lagged baby and trying to get her back onto a normal day/night schedule before our classes start.  During the day we will be trying to unpack and get settled in, find the supermarket and vegetable stores, buy cleaning supplies and clean up the apartment, buy a refrigerator and water machine,  set up internet, and entertain a tired/confused baby.  And after that restful week of getting settled in, we will start our very busy lives as students, where we will try to fit in both of us taking classes, meeting with tutors, having team time, doing regular household stuff - oh yes, and taking care of Juliana all the time.

On second thought, let's just go back to Weinan.

Grumble, grumble, groan.  Anyway, we will get through it all, and I am looking forward to a few months from now when we have gotten more settled in and are figuring out our stride with life as students.  We will know where to find thing at the supermarket and which vegetable ladies are the nicest.  We will have found some favorite restaurants (including a PIZZA place nearby!!).  We will have gotten to know some of the other people around.  Maybe Juliana will be sleeping better (hahahahahaha).

I know these next two years will be difficult and busy, but I think they will be good as well.  I am looking forward to being around some families.  While I am daunted by the actual learning process, I am excited about knowing more Chinese and being able to communicate better.  I hate moving to a new place, but I like getting settled in there, and I'm glad we get to stay there for at least two years.  Who knows, maybe we will even be able to settle in for longer!