Reporting from Asia

We made it to Hong Kong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The journey isn't over yet, but at least the plane rides are.
It's a little after 6am here and we're pretty much just waiting. The ferry terminal window doesn't open until 7:30, and we believe the first ferry to Zhuhai won't be until 12:15. We have no idea if our luggage is even here yet, because when you take a ferry straight from the airport you don't go through customs until after the ferry ride.
As some of you know, our flight out of Portland was cancelled so they rebooked us to Vancouver, B.C. via Seattle. Immediately after we boarded the first flight to Seattle there was an announcement about a radio problem. They had to power down the plane completely, making us sit in the hot, dark plane. That didn't work so mechanics had to board to fix the problem. Our nerves were on edge because we were supposed to land at 10:30 and take off again at 11!

We watched from the window as they unloaded half the luggage for some unknown reason, then reloaded it. Oh, and this was after the woman at the ticketing counter who rebooked us asked us to describe each piece of luggage that we had so they could find it and load it on the right plane. What are those huge white tickets they attach to your luggage for, anyways?
Miraculously, the plane took off and the flight time was only 30 minutes. We still had to run through the airport to catch our flights (well, I ran while Peter struggled behind with the carry-on baggage) and managed to board at the last minute.
The 13 hour flight to Hong Kong actually was not that bad. We were so exhausted by 2am that we could barely stay awake to eat the first meal that was served. We got a chicken and noodle dinner, complete with a chocolate brownie, then a cold ham sandwich on a roll half way through, and a hot breakfast before we landed of an omelet and potatoes - not bad! For those of you who care, Air Canada serves free "beverages" all the way. There were tons of movies to choose from at our seats but we each only watched one because we slept almost the whole time. I'm sure we got in 8 hours and we're feeling pretty good. Not jet lagged yet at all, just a little nauseous from the flight (one of us, at least). And, we sat next to a youngish woman who has taught in Taiwan at an international school for 13 years and loves it! Very encouraging.
 
So now we are here, just anxious to get to Zhuhai and see our apartment. It was still dark when we landed so we haven't actually seen China, just the dark outlines of some mountains in Hong Kong. We're thirsty but the soda machine says that a coke costs 10 Hong Kong dollars. No idea how much that it or where to get money to put in it!
 
Check back soon so we can tell you all about our new home!

The Adventure Begins

Hi Everybody, and welcome to our blog!! We begin our journey across the Pacific today at 9 pm, from Portland airport. Thursday morning we will finally arrive in Zhuhai and see our new home for the next year (or two, at least)! We miss you all already and can't wait to tell you what it's like!!

Goodbye U.S.A!