One Year

One year ago today William, Rosie and I took a one way flight from Shanghai, China back to the USA.

My mom had this block calender in our room when we arrived. It said November 9th. I've left it on that date for a year. I guess I felt like if I turned it, I would be moving farther and farther away from China.

Tomorrow I'll turn the date over. Tomorrow it will be more than a year since we left our city, our Shanghai.

If you'd like to read about my last day in China you can go HERE. If you'd like to see a picture of the van my mom had to rent to pick us up from the airport and our ridiculous luggage go HERE.

Other wise, here are some pictures of our last couple days in China...

Last family picture in China.

Visiting the Shanghai Art Museum one last time

I spent the my last day in one of my favorite hang out places, Tai Kan Lu, with my dear friend Shirin and her baby boy.

I'm so glad Rosie is such a happy baby. Her joy has gotten me to many sad and lonely times.

Shanghai is such a fun mix of modern and traditional

William went for a walk on our last day... He took some nice pictures

and got him self some street food breakfast one last time.

Here is William sitting in the airport waiting for our flight and chewing on a Cuban cigar. We knew we would not be able to get those in the US.

Thinking about who and what we're leaving behind and wondering what we're about to get our selves into.

It's been kind of a weird emotional day. I'm happy we came back to the US and I know my mom is too. I think it was the best thing for our Rosie baby, for our marriage and for our health. But that doesn't mean we don't miss it sometimes.

To commemorate our one year anniversary we went to a new "Asian Cuisine" Restaurant. Most of the staff are from China and they were wonderfully nice to us. They even brought William a plate of dried fish that wasn't on the menu because he was craving it so much. They were happy to meet an American that appreciated real Chinese food. Now if we could only find some Hot Pot.

 Picture from William's tumblr account.

Family Fun 132/365

This is the first Memorial Day we've celebrated in 3 years. There is no Memorial Day in China and we'd almost completely forgotten about the holiday. 

Then Stevie and Annie told us that they were coming down for the weekend.

Steak, BBQing, Family, and sitting outside drinking homemade ginger ale.  I think I love Memorial Day.

No More Visa 91/365

There are several places in the world that require permission to travel to. This is called a visa. Usually it's not too hard to get. You visit the nearest consulate for the country you want to visit, fill out some paperwork and give them some money. A few days later you go back to the consulate and pick up your passport with a shiny new sticker that says you are allowed to visit.

OR... You can just hire a visa service to do all that for you. It costs a little more but it's way worth it. When we got our first visa to visit China I spent two days waiting at the Chinese consulate. One day to drop off my passport and one day to pick it up. It would have been worth it to pay someone else to do that for me.

Our first Chinese visa was a tourist visa. It was good for 90 days. It allowed us to get into the country. After we arrived the company we were working for got us a business visa that allowed us to stay for a year. Finally we ended up with a "Permanent Resident" visa that came with William's "Alien Worker" permit. Both had to be renewed every year.

To get our Permanent Resident Visa we had to fill out lots of paperwork and get a very silly but very long "physical exam" that required half a day spent at a specific hospital shuffling down a long hallway in a flimsy hospital gown with all the other foreigners trying to get visas. Then we spent another day at the "Exit Entry Bureau" waiting for our number to be called. Luckily we were allowed to wear our own clothes at that place and it was close to the fake market so you could get a little shopping done on your way home.

To renew it every year we had to fill out more paper work and spend another half a day at the Exit Entry Bureau, and then report to our local police station.

It all sounds very tedious and silly, I know. And trust me. It was.
(You can read more about the silliness of the red tape on my friend Shelly's Blog, Tai Shan.)
Maybe that's one reason why we felt a little sad this week when we realized that our permanent resident visa expired on the 6th of April as we were flying back from a week with William's parents

It definitely feels like a chapter closing. We are no longer residents of China. We can no longer just jump on a plane and fly back there. We can't visit without applying for another tourist visa, just like every one else. We are now solely residents of the United States.

It feels a little sad. It also makes life here feel a little more concrete.