On the 21st anniversary of our marriage, we arrived in Shanghai, China at the Pudong International Airport. Do we know how to celebrate or what? We were met by a school representative and a bus to haul our 13 large suitcases, 5 carry-ons, 5 personal bags, and the five members of the Bialik Bunch to our new home. Our bus ride was about 1 hour. During the ride we learned that we would be living in an all Chinese apartment complex, not with expats as we had in Saudi Arabia. Also that there were only 2 other children of hired teachers. This news was surprising, we definitely wished there were more teachers kids and some other westerners around but we wanted a new experience where we would be more a part of the culture and it sounded like we were going to get what we asked for... :0)
I was definitely a bit nervous about our housing when we arrived at our apartment building, but in my head I kept thinking "don't judge a book by its cover." I rolled the first suitcase up the ramp and parked it next to the apartment building entrance. Here we faced our first big shock.
The entryway was very dirty, dingy and smelly. The kids and David began to arrive with more bags. I was fervently praying the apartment would be better than the entry.
Solomon won a contest to guess what floor our apartment would be on... so he was the first person in our family to see the apartment for about a minute... during that time he claimed his bedroom. In true Solomon fashion, he picked the smallest room for himself. Triniti picked the bedroom across from Solomon and Abraham picked the room by the front door. The master bedroom for David and I was at the back of the apartment by Solomon & Triniti. The kids excitedly showed me their rooms when I got into the apartment. I volunteered to stay outside with all the bags. The elevator is small and could only fit about 4 bags a trip, and honestly, I needed a moment to be ready to be positive about our new home for the kids sake.
I was definitely a bit nervous about our housing when we arrived at our apartment building, but in my head I kept thinking "don't judge a book by its cover." I rolled the first suitcase up the ramp and parked it next to the apartment building entrance. Here we faced our first big shock.
The entryway was very dirty, dingy and smelly. The kids and David began to arrive with more bags. I was fervently praying the apartment would be better than the entry.
Solomon won a contest to guess what floor our apartment would be on... so he was the first person in our family to see the apartment for about a minute... during that time he claimed his bedroom. In true Solomon fashion, he picked the smallest room for himself. Triniti picked the bedroom across from Solomon and Abraham picked the room by the front door. The master bedroom for David and I was at the back of the apartment by Solomon & Triniti. The kids excitedly showed me their rooms when I got into the apartment. I volunteered to stay outside with all the bags. The elevator is small and could only fit about 4 bags a trip, and honestly, I needed a moment to be ready to be positive about our new home for the kids sake.
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