Moving Out

The movers will be here in less than an hour and that will be it!  Goodbye Ridgemoor Ct.  We've had some good times here are will miss this house.

Now we're moving on.

Not much left in the living room....

We wish to live deliberately- and see if we can not learn what China has to teach....and not, when we come to die discover that we have not lived.....

Chinese Lesson- Di ba ke

I had my 8th Chinese lesson yesterday!

Nothing will make you feel stupid like trying to learn Chinese.

Sarah was at the store in Shanghai yesterday and needed something- so thought to call me to ask how to say something.  In a panic, I folded.  Couldn't remember a single word.  Nothing.  I had to open my Google Translate app just to fumble through like 2 words.  I better pull it together quick.

Not to mention, I feel bad for my instructor.  He's a professor at PSU, can speak Mandarin, Spanish, Chinese, English, French, German, and some other languages I've never heard of......and I feel like he deserves a better student.  Someone who tries hard.  One day he'll find that student....

Phone Call Away....

We've had lots of people ask about calling and/or texting us while we are in Shanghai.  I've spent a ridiculous amount of time figuring this out but I think I have a winning formula!  Here is the breakdown:

• Calee's current phone number will still be in use- I'll be call forwarding all calls to my current number to our home phone in Shanghai.
• We will also have a home phone number in Shanghai with a (503) area code which means no intl' calling rates for you!
• Sarah will have her regular cell phone and possibly a second cell phone for China.
• Calee will have a cell phone, but it'll be a Chinese iphone.  If you call this phone, which will have a crazy china number, you'll pay the big bucks for it!
• Text message from iphone to iphone (called imessage) is free....no intl' rates at all.
• If you don't have an iphone- the application Whatsapp will be needed!

Seems simple, we'll soon find out.

Here is the last piece of information that I'm going to throw out there about phone calls- don't forget the time change!  Here is an easy way to remember, the best times to call would be:

5:00pm-7:00pm Oregon time = 8:00am-10:00am Shanghai time

6:00am-8:00am Oregon time = 9:00pm-10:00pm Shanghai time

Those seem to be good times to call, so it works out pretty well.

Click here to see a rad cover of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" which seems to be a relevant song for this post.....and yes, that my friends is a keytar!!

Bye Sarah! Hello China!

Well Sarah left for China today!  Bags packed, rental car returned, a few calls and text messages to friends and family and just like that she's gone!

The adventure begins.  

It'll be a 10 hour flight to Tokyo, and few hours in the airport, and then another 4 hours to Shanghai.  A rough start to the adventure.....that is, unless you're Sarah Cariaga-Jolley.  Sarah has the ability to fall asleep on an airplane or in a car the second she sits in her seat.  I'm going to guess she's going to get more sleep in the air today that she has got all week.

At any rate, I wish her safe travels and I miss her already!