Mediterranean cruise part 2: Mykonos, Naples/Pompeii, Pisa/Florence, Rome

 Mykonos

The windmills

Mediterranean cruise part 1: Venice, Athens, Ephesus, Istanbul

So Eric went back to work the day after we got home from the cruise. All his Chinese friends were asking him to see pictures of the trip. They were shocked to find that he hadn't brought any. "You didn't take pictures on your holiday?" they asked seriously. Eric then shows them the pictures I posted on facebook. "How come you only took 6 pictures?" Funny chinese.

In reality, we have over a thousand pictures. I decided to expedite the saving, sorting, and blogging process because my computer is disappearing on Tuesday. It and the rest of our possessions will be moved to a shipping container that may or may not make it to Utah by September. We're crossing our fingers that the shipping process will go a little smoother in this direction. You may recall, our stuff left our SLC home the first week of July and we received the shipment the week after Thanksgiving. We think the customs process will be quicker on the USA side.

But back to the matter at hand. I'm leaving China on Wednesday and I wanted to share our Europe pictures before I left. Eric and I had been trying to go on this Mediterranean cruise for a couple years now, but the timing never worked out. This year, we made it happen. Eric's mom and dad joined us for the trip. We had so much fun. It was totally worth it, I would recommend this trip to anyone. On to the pictures. It's a small taste of what we saw, but definitely shows you how amazing our vacation was.

Venice

On the lock bridge

The end is near...

Well folks, the China chapter of our adventures will soon be coming to an end. Yes, it's true, we're moving back to America! Our original plans were to be here for 2 years, but some changes in Harman opened up a new opportunity for Eric. He will be accepting a management position in the Sandy division of his company, which means we'll be coming back to Utah. We've enjoyed our time in China but I'm very excited to return to the land of dairy products and chocolate! Even now, I'm drooling while thinking about milkshakes and lasagna (hello cottage cheese). 

It's surprising news, we know. When we told our families, you could hear the crickets chirping over the phone, nobody knew what to say. Honestly though, we had all been physically and emotionally gearing up for 2 years in the land of rice and bad drivers. When rumors started flying in early spring about his boss relocating to Utah, Eric and I didn't really know what to think. We were open to the possibility of moving elsewhere in the world, but didn't want to get our hopes up about moving home to Salt Lake. Once things started solidifying, we were still very hesitant to tell people, even our families. It's very easy to start daydreaming about your future life in America: what your first meal will be, where you will live, what car you'll drive, the fun things you can do with friends and family. It's an intoxicating slippery slope of death and once you start down the path, it's near impossible to save yourself. We were so afraid that once we started talking about it, we wouldn't be able to focus on our responsibilities here. Neither of us could afford to get trunky (my new word for the month). 

But that was several months ago, and now we're getting ready to leave. I think we've now figured out the game plan. We're going to Europe on a fabulous Mediterranean cruise next week. The movers will pack up our house at the end of July and I'll fly home immediately after. Eric's going to stay a couple more weeks to hand over his responsibilities and fly home mid August. It's so weird to be counting down my time left here in days, not weeks. It's getting real now that my school semester finished up and we've started boxing up the house. 

Visit to India

I spent a week in India in May. This trip was mostly for business reasons but I fit in two days of site seeing to take advantage of being in the country. Harman has a few offices in India and I went to visit our research and development team at the beginning of the week. Our team in China and Utah work closely with this them, as they develop most of the software for our products. The last two days I spent in Delhi and Agra. In those cities I saw many great Mosques and Temples including the Taj Mahal.

Fun with the Kester's

Since coming to China, Eric and I have been able to find many "kindred spirits" among the expats (I've beenwatching Anne of Green Gables this week). We are so grateful for our amazing friends. They've kept me sane in this country, and have been there during the good and bad times. Thus far we've introduced you to a few of our friends: the Warrs, the Nashs, and a couple others. But today you get to meet the Kester family! We first met Brenden/Alicia/kids at church, and got to know them a lot better when I started helping Alicia with her home-schooling adventures.  I also teach her kids piano. Eric and I have since spent a lot of days and evenings with this fantastic family. They have some of the cutest, most well-behaved children we have ever met. And they have 5 of them! Eric and I are constantly taking mental parenting notes when we're around. We love hanging out with them! After 6 months of practically living at their house, we've essentially  become adopted into the family. When I went to Hong Kong Disney with them a while back, one chinese lady asked if I was a daughter in this family! I don't think that made Alicia feel very happy ;) as she's only a couple years older than me. The kids love to retell that story though. 

Last month, we went bike-riding at the Shenzhen Bay Park. We had great weather, it was even a smidgen cool. I love this park. When it's not very busy and the weather is nice, you can almost imagine that you're not in China any more. The first time we went riding, Eric and I rented a tandem bike. Never again... it was a miserable failure. Apparently Eric and I are good at cooperating with most things, but riding a bike is not one of them. I think my balance and coordination must just be really bad. So this particular day, we got our own bikes ;) and we had a great time!

Here's the whole group

Our neck of the woods - photos

Hi friends and family! The Leonard's of China aren't dead. We've just been living our normal, not-exciting life. I kept waiting for something earth-shattering to blog about, but that something never happened. We haven't traveled anywhere crazy, China is still China, and the people here think North Korea is just as crazy as the American's do. All in all, regular. Perhaps some of you have had this revelation previously, but it took me until this move to figure it out. No matter where you move to (even across the ocean), your life will invariably become a similar type of life that you had before. You will continue to have a job, go grocery shopping, clean your house, cook your food, and raise your children. You will make friends and you will hang out with those friends. You will do a bit of traveling. You will stay in the house when the weather is bad, and get out to play on the good days. Whatever you spent your time doing before, you will probably do it again. I'm saying this just in case anyone is thinking that an international move (or national for that matter) will automatically morph you into a different person. It won't. You'll still be you.

That being said, the Leonard's are still the Leonard's. Eric is remarkably busy fixing all the problems at his job...and all the computer technology of the Shenzhen International LDS Branch. It took about a second for the branch to realize that Eric was handy with a soldering iron and could repair electronics. His engineering fix-it brain has been well-utilized here. He's been enjoying his job and looking forward to lots more adventures with Harman. I have been able to put my music, teaching, and medical skills to good use. I'm frequently planning music for one church event or another, and have enjoyed teaching piano and music to some of my little friends in the neighborhood. I've also been able to teach English to the Chinese, both kids and adults. I just spent a week whipping some Chinese doctors into shape, they were preparing for an exam that would allow them to study medicine in Germany. I'm happy to say that almost all of my students passed. We're pretty busy most of the time, but Eric's really happy to not have homework in the evenings any more. I'd highly recommend graduating from college, and getting a full-time job was the best thing he's ever done! It's so great having a normal schedule. That's one thing I don't miss about our old life: the terrible schedules (mine at the PICU and Eric's at school/work/homework). Working nights and weekends, never spending time together, no thanks. I'd rather not go back to that.  

Well on to my post. Several months ago my brother made a request (hi Sean!). He said when he thought about Crystal and Eric in China, he had no image in his head, nothing to picture. The reality was, all our family could see of "China" was the window in our living room, the area directly behind our skyping station. Yeah, I think we failed in our documentation of the place we actually live. We've done really well documenting all the places we've GONE, but not what we see every day. So I know it's 8 months too late, but here are some photos from our neighborhood. I made some videos too, I'll post them next time.

Chinese New Year in Thailand: beaches and curry at their finest

After a couple weeks in the States for Christmas, we came back to find that China hadn't really changed. I'd really hoped that "longing makes the heart grow fonder" would hold true to the country where my bed is located, but alas, the time apart only brought the dichotomy between my two "homes" into sharper clarity. Our driver was being rude to us, we had several close calls with buses on the road, and fireworks rang in the complex from 10 pm until midnight. On top of it, Eric was having one of those weeks where no one was understanding him at the office. We were fighting a losing battle...China: 1, Leonards: 0. We were grateful when February finally made its appearance, it was time for a break from China. We decided to go to Thailand for our Chinese New Year holiday. 

They come, they eat, they leave (Christmas in the States)

The Cocoa Powder incident of 2013

I promise we didn't come to Utah for the food, but that's sure what it looked like. For those that are curious, the title comes from a fantastic movie, A Bug's Life. It's the ant's mantra when the grasshoppers come for their annual food collection, "They come, they eat, they leave..." I'd be lying if I said we didn't stuff ourselves silly with American food every day during our vacation. It was fantastic. But we also had a blast hanging out with friends and family. Before we left, we swore that 2 weeks would be plenty of time to get everything done on our agenda. We had a long list of friends to hang out with, and lots of wonderful family to catch up with. In addition, we had a 3-page shopping list (not kidding) and all our annual medical exams. Did we have enough time? Not even close.

Safari park and feeding the tigers

China, the land of rules and regulations, is surprisingly apathetic when it comes to the worth of an actual person. Maybe this culture develops from living in a country with almost 1 billion people. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there and you better fend for yourself. You see examples of it every time you walk out your door. The fact that I barely get a "ni hao" and absolutely no eye contact when I check out at the grocery store. The old man in the subway that shoves me out of the way to get to the door first. The constant game of chicken that you play every time you try to cross a street (I have a green light AND a little crosswalk man that says it's MY turn). The stories could go on and on. I don't like it, but I'm a little more used to it. It's just China.

Even knowing all of this about China, we were surprised to find ourselves in a metal cage surrounded by a lot of hungry tigers, thinking, they'd NEVER let us do this in the States!