The official TA was received today. These official Chinese documents are so cool to me. They are almost beautiful with all of the characters and the red stamps and such.
We do not yet have confirmation on the U.S. Consulate appointment. The agency requests 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice dates (in our case 12/11, 12/12, 12/13) and the U.S.C. decides which date works best for them. Once that is confirmed, we back out the travel from that date and can then finally start booking flights, hotels, tours, etc. We are so close now - I will feel so much better once everything is booked and $ paid!
Since we will be doing Beijing on the front end of the trip; we will be leaving the week after Thanksgiving - (thinking about 11/28) and then returning on 12/16. Will be a long and hopefully perfectly wonderful trip.
Clothing is going to be a bit of a pita as we will really only need the warm clothes in Beijing and basically carting around all of those warm clothes, coat, etc the 15 remaining days of the trip in warmer "southern" weather.
I am having one heck of a time with my packing. I have a rolling duffle this time - b/c I swore I was going to pack light [wasn't really thinking that I am packing for 3 this time around!]. My bag is FULL and I haven't added any clothes for Chloe or I yet. Snacks, meds, a few outfits for Gige, bjorn, diapers, painting roll, wipes yadayadayada - amazing how quickly the darn thing filled up - I'm sure that I will be unloading and loading about 3-4 more times before I get done.
I read back through my travel journal from last time (I highly recommend doing this for any of you BTDTs as there was so much I had forgotten) and found out that during the first time I only brought 3 outfits (pants/shirts) for myself and we traveled in January - I can't for the life of me figure out how Sis and I did this as we only did laundry one time I think - geez, our clothing must have been standing on its own for a number of days! I am going to try to be a little gentler on myself this time around - still 3 pairs of pants but a number of shirts so that I can layer and also mix/match with the pants so it doesn't "seem" like I'm wearing the same outfit over and over again. No time or space for glamour or fashion on these trips that's for sure. I certainly can not forget my baseball hat either!!!! This has become a staple since working from home (i.e.; short hair motivates the absolute worst morning rooster-bed-head on the planet!).
Space Saver bags were a huge plus on the first trip so I will definitely be incorporating those again. Still debating on the Pmates - (http://www.pmate.co.uk/) - (check it out - is that hilarious or what?). I'm thinking this may be a neccessity - I can totally see one of us peeing on ourselves (between my knee issues, mom and Chloe's age - one of us will most likely NOT be smelling like roses at some point - not to mention going back to the "wearing the clothes more than once" issue!). Don't we sound like a group y'all are just dying to hang out with???? I suppose I should order some of the darn things as funny as they look, they might come in handy and it might be a hoot to try peeing standing up for a change (note to self - make sure the camera battery is charged :-)
Ciao for now.
We do not yet have confirmation on the U.S. Consulate appointment. The agency requests 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice dates (in our case 12/11, 12/12, 12/13) and the U.S.C. decides which date works best for them. Once that is confirmed, we back out the travel from that date and can then finally start booking flights, hotels, tours, etc. We are so close now - I will feel so much better once everything is booked and $ paid!
Since we will be doing Beijing on the front end of the trip; we will be leaving the week after Thanksgiving - (thinking about 11/28) and then returning on 12/16. Will be a long and hopefully perfectly wonderful trip.
Clothing is going to be a bit of a pita as we will really only need the warm clothes in Beijing and basically carting around all of those warm clothes, coat, etc the 15 remaining days of the trip in warmer "southern" weather.
I am having one heck of a time with my packing. I have a rolling duffle this time - b/c I swore I was going to pack light [wasn't really thinking that I am packing for 3 this time around!]. My bag is FULL and I haven't added any clothes for Chloe or I yet. Snacks, meds, a few outfits for Gige, bjorn, diapers, painting roll, wipes yadayadayada - amazing how quickly the darn thing filled up - I'm sure that I will be unloading and loading about 3-4 more times before I get done.
I read back through my travel journal from last time (I highly recommend doing this for any of you BTDTs as there was so much I had forgotten) and found out that during the first time I only brought 3 outfits (pants/shirts) for myself and we traveled in January - I can't for the life of me figure out how Sis and I did this as we only did laundry one time I think - geez, our clothing must have been standing on its own for a number of days! I am going to try to be a little gentler on myself this time around - still 3 pairs of pants but a number of shirts so that I can layer and also mix/match with the pants so it doesn't "seem" like I'm wearing the same outfit over and over again. No time or space for glamour or fashion on these trips that's for sure. I certainly can not forget my baseball hat either!!!! This has become a staple since working from home (i.e.; short hair motivates the absolute worst morning rooster-bed-head on the planet!).
Space Saver bags were a huge plus on the first trip so I will definitely be incorporating those again. Still debating on the Pmates - (http://www.pmate.co.uk/) - (check it out - is that hilarious or what?). I'm thinking this may be a neccessity - I can totally see one of us peeing on ourselves (between my knee issues, mom and Chloe's age - one of us will most likely NOT be smelling like roses at some point - not to mention going back to the "wearing the clothes more than once" issue!). Don't we sound like a group y'all are just dying to hang out with???? I suppose I should order some of the darn things as funny as they look, they might come in handy and it might be a hoot to try peeing standing up for a change (note to self - make sure the camera battery is charged :-)
Ciao for now.
2 comments:
Our daughter is from Yulin Guangxi. We were in Nanning in June. Very hot! Have a wonderful trip & Congratulations!
Hi Kim -- It's May! :) Guess what - Karla sent me one package of P-Mates (there are 5 in there) that she didn't use -- OF COURSE! :) And I think I'm going to order a couple more packs so I can give each of my sisters a pack! If nothing else, it will be kinda funny. I think Karla actually used them, though, so maybe it won't be a bad idea to have them. :)
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