Busy in Shanghai

Preparing for Shanghai was a mad dash in the end. We barely got ourselves out of Raleigh, leaving many loose ends. We didn’t get to properly bid good-bye to many friends and return all the email well wishings.

It’s been a busy 7 days in Shanghai. We had many accomplishments:

• Passed our health check-up (required for residency permit)
• Opened a bank account (with debit/ATM card)
• Bought transportation cards
• Found an apartment and signed the lease
• Attended the symphony
• Had the phone and ADSL installed
• Had our hair cut
• Visited with Sun-Ling’s relatives.
• John attended 2 days of IDF (Intel Developer Forum) at the Shanghai Convention Center last week.
  

Busy in Europe

It's been a very busy three weeks in Europe and one more week still to go. Not only have we been touring at our usual lightening speed but John has been emailing, phoning, scanning, and faxing back and forth with folks from Intel China in order to get his pre-employment paperwork done.

The past 2 days we have been staying with Sun-Ling's father's cousin in Gießen, Germany. We started in Krakow, Poland which was awesome, survived Oktoberfest in Munich, and are looking forward to Copenhagen next weekend. More trip info later.

China job landed!

News: John starts his new job as a QA Manager at Intel China in Shanghai on October 24th.

Top Ten things we’ll miss about Jacksonville

10.Chamblin Gold … I mean … Book Mine
9. Beaver St Farmer’s Market
8. First Wednesday Art Walks
7. Orchids
6. Book clubs and the Willowbranch Library
5. The beaches
4. Evening walks in Riverside/Avondale & Tuesday's @ the Cummer
3. The view of the St John's River from our apartment
2. Paddling with the Seminole Canoe and Kayak Club
1. Friends

The view from our apartment one morning last winter

The big migration

I have resigned from my consulting job at Winn-Dixie effective September 2.

We are moving back to Raleigh on August 27. I'll drive back to Jacksonville on the 28th to clean up the apartment and finish out the week at Winn-Dixie.

On September 3 we fly to Europe for our biannual European vacation. The rough itinerary: Krakow => Warsaw => Berlin => Weimar => Munich => Frankfurt => Copenhagen
When we come back from vacation, we’ll be busy getting our affairs in order so we will be prepared to leave for China.