Our Itinerary came!

March 11-Leave Cordova Arrive Seattle
March 12 and 13- Fly Seattle/Tokyo/Beijing
March 14-Tour the Temple of Heaven in the afternoon.
Evening-Orientation meeting at the hotel
March 15-Morning-Tour to the Great Wall and take photos of the Olympic venues
Afternoon-Back to the hotel and have dinner nearby

March 16-Morning-See local people doing morning excises in a park, back to the hotel for breakfast, then visit CCAA and calligraphy class at BLAS
Evemomg-Transfer to hotel after dinner.
March 17-Morning-Check out the hotel and transfer to the airport. Fly to Nanjing
Afternoon transfer to Yangzhou by bus.
Evening Have dinner and check into hotel.
March 18-Morning-Anniversary Ceremony at Yangzhou orphanage and make dumplings at
the orphanage for lunch.
Afternoon-Look around the orphanage and meet the caretakers.
Evening-Welcoming Banquet.
March 19-Morning-Have some cultural events in a local park, including the puppet
show, paper-cutting, fly kites...) and learn to make the famous
Yangzhou fried rice for lunch.
Afternoon-Visit Slender West Lake scenic area
Evening-Visit and have dinner at a local family
March 20-Morning-Visit a local middle school, and shop freely at Dongguan Shopping
street.
Afternoon-Packing time at the hotel after lunch.
Evening-Farewell dinner

March 21-Fly from Nanjing to Beijing
March 22-Fly Beijing,Tokyo,Seattle
March 23-Seattle-Cordova

Map of Jiangsu province

Testing

This is a test to see if my Mac from School will blog for me...

And by golly it looks like it does at least from Alaska. Next test from China!

Visas

My sister emailed last night that the passports have been returned to her and the visa stamps are inside so we are good to go! Glad we started in Decemember as soon as I heard about the reunion. How comes the fun part. Report cards finished (actually started and then finished), lesson plans written, cell phone rented, packing lists made. Packing and repacking. Oh yeah I forgot I'm adjudicating the Alto 1 cds for the honor choir for the music festival. I got 12 done last night and have 24 more to go. Do Re Mi Fa... I love to sing...I went to bed singing that last night!

So we are going...

on a reunion trip to China to visit the orphanage where Cadi spent her first 7 months of life. She got the official invitation with a Christmas card. This is the first correspondence we have had in 10 years, so it was very exciting to get the card and invitation. My sister decided that she could go with us and we started the preparations right before Christmas. The passports have arrived, we have signed up and paid the deposit, we have applied for the visas, but they haven't arrived yet. The flights are booked and paid for. I still need to send in the remainder of the money for the cost of the tour in China.I will attempted to update on the preparations during the last few weeks and to keep the blog up while we are in China. This all depends of course on what kind of internet connection I can get in China.