8/12/2010 (Or in the Chinese style 12/08/2010)

Hello all!!!!
We are officially moved in to China and now have internet access at the school. We have lived here
about 12 days and we are loving the country! There has been so much happening it is hard to tell it
all, but I'll try. Our flight was relatively un eventful, though we were stressed about the possibility
of needing to re-check our bags in Bejing. A very nice young man helped us and we made it through
all right. We were delayed in getting from b eijing to Shenyang a few hours but we made it in fine,
and SPA (Shenyang Pacific Academy_ staff were there to meet us. We made it back to our on
campus housing and slept there that night.

The next several days were occupied with dealing with issues in our apartment of broken and
non-working things (sometimes construction here can be very fast but not always very good) and
trying to find our way around our neighborhood and to get food. We laughed at ourselves a lot and
fumbled through ok.

There was a lot of uncertainty and confusion as we first began here, with our school director not
being on campus and there being little to no communication or direction, but after our initial anger
and confusion at that, all has since worked out. We have attended a huge media event announcing
the school, with television and radio as well as other media outlets here in China, and will do more
of those in the future. We are enjoying the food and people tremendously, and have also found a few
spots in the city where you can get a little taste of home (including air conditioning and toilets
where you can actually flush the paper instead of having to put it in trashcans next to the toilet.

I SUCCESSFULLY USED A SQUAT TOILET (which happened to be when I had to pee in a cup
for our medical screening) so I feel confident I can do it again when necessary and not fall over and
die.
Our pets made it in safely, though we had a lot of stress and fear in getting them here as the drivers
did not speak English, we do not speak Mandarin, it was very late at night and our school is in a
part of the outskirts of the city where addresses are somewhat subjective. We have shopped at local
stores as well as WalMart, Ikea, TESCO, and even gone karaokiing at a KTV. Overall, we are loving
it, and I'll update soon now that I have some internet access. It does happen to be only in one room
in our school, but it is better than nothing! Love you all and I'll post again soon!