Family, Friends, and Minnesota in the Summer

For the first time in 5 years this blog has a new look! Last time I did a major make-over to this blog was when we were staying on Pine Island in Florida in October 2014 before beginning our 7-month adventure in Central and South Americas. I wanted to make the blog simpler and lighter. While I enjoy writing blog posts, I don’t enjoy doing the back-end maintenance which means I hadn’t done any website design in 5 years. I had a lot to relearn and to learn. It was frustrating not knowing how to make simple changes but thank goodness for YouTube video tutorials.

Beginning with an Ending

Family Reunion

During the second week of August, we attended Martin’s family’s annual reunion at a resort on Lake Chippewa near Brandon, MN. About 30 aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings spent the week together fishing, swimming, boating, playing board games, cooking, and just hanging out. Of course, there was the annual crowning of royalty, the annual scavenger hunt, and the annual talent show. It had been 4 years since we had last attended the reunion, and it felt good to be back and reconnect with everyone.

More time on the lake

The third week of August was spent on East Battle Lake near Henning, MN with Martin’s parents. I finished writing my two essays for grad school while Martin puttered around helping his dad with miscellaneous projects.

Minneapolis Reminiscing

For our final week in the States, we visited our friends in Minneapolis while staying with Martin’s brother and his family. With friends we went for walks around Lake Hiawatha and Lake of the Isles. We had vegan ice cream…twice. We enjoyed a beautiful weekend morning walking across the Stone Arch Bridge and running across the Mills City Farmer’s Market, which used to be my happy place nearly every weekend. We went swimming with my college roommate’s children, had a sunset picnic, and went on an epic sunset walk through a park littered with deer.

Back to Shenzhen, China

And then it was the morning of the first day of the MN State Fair. Our plane back to China was taking off just as the gates to the fair opened. A bittersweet goodbye to say the least. Our flight back had a stop over in Chicago before our 16-hour flight to Hong Kong. It was uneventful but exhausting. We arrived at our apartment in Shenzhen Friday evening, and Saturday morning Martin went to work. The 13-hour jetlag made mornings easy but afternoons and evenings difficult for about 5 long days.

I’m happy to be back in my own home after spending 8 weeks away from it. Martin had been gone for 5 weeks, which means our apartment had been without climate control long enough for everything to be covered in a layer of grime and mold. My bike chain had rusted causing the shifter to no longer function. My backpack had mold growing all over it. I spent most of the last week of August deep cleaning everything.

Even though I’m happy to be back and excited to start teaching again, readjusting to China is always difficult. The air was ridiculously polluted when we arrived. Then a typhoon was nearby so it rained for 3 days straight. I missed having a sandwich for lunch every day.

However, the typhoon has passed, and the air has been clean and warm for the past few days. My skin is loving the humidity. My school built a new sports center over the summer, and now I can go swimming in a beautiful Olympic-size lap pool every afternoon. Several of my school’s cafeterias have been renovated – hopefully the food tastes better too! I had time to give my blog a make-over, help a friend move into a new apartment, and begin planning this semester’s classes.

Life in China is not easy for expats, so I have to focus on what I have instead of what I don’t have for my own sanity. This is the beginning of our fourth year in China, the beginning of our third “last year” in China. Maybe this time it really will be our last year here.