How (not) to move to China

We are in China. We have moved our four plastic bins, two suitcases, two backpacks, guitar and ourselves into my brother’s room. The boys have built a fort on the porch and will be staying out there for the time being. My family lives on floor #20, which is actually the 17th floor, but the building doesn’t have a 4th or 14th floor (unlucky in China), or a 13th floor (unlucky in America). It’s sunny and warmish, in the 50’s but windy, which is actually nice because it the blows away pollution and you can see the mountains to the west.
Most of you know about how we decided to come to China (perfect job, suited for our abilities and passions, lots of encouragement for others about the job, the right timing for our lives, etc.). and most would will already know that getting here has been quite a process, so as per our experience we have some advice about moving to China.

1. Visas: Get them early, and get them sent to the right address.
We had to push our leave date back three times, because we didn’t have our visas. The main issue was actually just that our Work Permit had been sent to an address that didn’t exist and was returned to China as undeliverable before it was resent to us and we got it.

2. Health Certificate for the cat: Nothing ever gets lost in the mail unless of course it is important.
In part so that I could avoid the label of “chronic cat abandoner” we decided to bring Pigeon with us. We had the vet check her out and prepare the official documents that we needed for exporting her to China, all we needed was for them to be certified by the USDA. Unfortunately the vet sent those documents to the wrong address as well (seriously, again with the wrong labeling). Discovering this error just days before our flight we had to set up a new appointment with a new vet and drove the documents to the USDA for same day certification.

3. Baggage: If you think everything will fit, you’re just kidding yourself.
We had been pretty optimistic that we would be able to fit all of our stuff into the four black and yellow bins that we had, until of course we actually started our final packing. Each of the four bins weighed between 49.3 and 49.8 lbs. The last bag, in which we packed the “few” things left weighed 69.0lbs. (We were prepared to pay the “overweight baggage” fee at the airport, but found out that we could have packed all of the bags up to 70lbs).

4. Delays: Always plan on the possibility that your plane may be struck by lightning.
We got to the airport almost 3 hours early in order to make extra sure that we would have plenty of time for the cat check-in and our extra bags etc, which was good because it did take a long time. But finally after tearful goodbyes to the Kelbles, extra scrutiny of the scary, bearded, guitar wielding guy with the weird passport issued to him by the American Embassy in Beijing*, and a light lunch at Chili’s Too, we were ready to get on our plane. But we didn’t because it had been hit by lightning and wouldn’t be leaving till the next day. They set us up in a room at the Radisson (which didn’t allow pets) so Kara’s dad came back and picked us up and we stayed one more night with the Kelbles.

5. Long Flights: It’s not really possible to avoid being in front of a seat kicking 4 year old, unless of course you would like to be right behind a screaming infant.
Our eleven hour flight from Minneapolis to Tokyo was pretty uneventful. The “whole grain industry…soy and corn” guy that shared a row with us was nice. He was kind of flirty with the flight attendant. She mentioned that she usually brings her Bible study with her, but her Bible was too big to fit in her bag this trip, as to repel his advances. If anyone was wondering I got the 4 year old from Minneapolis to Tokyo and the infant from Tokyo to Beijing. Also “Dan in Real Life” isn’t as good of a movie as you might think it’s going to be.

6. Layovers: Next time you’re in Tokyo get a Johnsonville brat.
Northwest airlines gave us a total of $110 worth of food vouchers over the course of two days. We had sit-down breakfast and Caribou in MN, Starbucks and Johnsonville Brats in Tokyo and still had $40 left over. We ended up being in Tokyo for 5 ½ hours, and we literally (not figuratively) couldn’t find anything else to spend our money on.

7. Arrival: Sometimes even scrapbooks look potentially dangerous.
We finally arrived at our destination. The cat was admitted to country after a short debate about whether the USDA stamp was clear enough on the forms. On our way through customs we were asked to send just one of our bins through the X-ray. The Customs Agent then called be over and asked me to identify a large square object on the x-ray screen. I had no idea what it was so he needed me to open up the bin (apparently it is very rare for them to actually look in your bags) and we discovered it was a scrapbook.


So, yeah, now we’re here. The boys gave us a tour of the neighborhood and a nearby park this morning. My mom brought us to the store to buy cat food and litter for Pigeon (who will be delivered tomorrow). We discovered that the cord for uploading pictures onto the computer was left behind so you’ll have to wait a bit for some pictures.

*That guy was me (Matt).