Left - The view from our kitchen window.

Above right - The beautiful mountains around the Hong Kong airport, where we had an 11 hour layover!
Below left - The children in the Los Angeles, California airport at 3:00AM, waiting on our plane to Hong Kong.
Below right - The children with Granddaddy before leaving the Columbia, SC airport bound for China!

Well, we really did leave the USA and we really have been here in China for almost two weeks now! We just got our internet connection in the apartment today - hooray! The school is on holiday here and the Dean of the Computer Science Department had to come over and set our laptops to be able to use the network here in our on-campus housing. Everything is a little more complicated over here, especially when you can't speak much Chinese! We had a fairly uneventful trip (it took 54 hours!) and are trying to finish unpacking all of our things in order to make our "flat" (apartment) our home. We are planning on making some modifications so that we will be a little more comfortable and things will be easier for our family here. The homes here are geared to small families, since the "one child policy" has been in effect for some time now, so to see a family of six is a big adjustment for our Chinese neighbors. We have 1100 square feet - 3 bedrooms, a kitchen/den and one bathroom (no western fixtures, if you know what I mean). Most of the food that we've had is really wonderful in our city, and we've made friends with some students who are learning English here at the college. They have been so much help in getting things done, especially going to the market and getting food so that our "bottomless pit" children won't go hungry. Albert starts classes at the end of August, after a much needed week-long vacation in Thailand. We will take a train on Wednesday (a 6 hour trip) and then fly across the border. We can't wait! Now that we have an internet connection, we will be keeping you informed on a much more regular basis about our adventures and what is happening with our family. Thank you for your thoughts - Please keep in touch!

Love, The Allens in China :)