Going Home for a rest

After a couple months of cold weather and endless hours of hard work I was able to get away from China for a couple of weeks. Yes, it was time for a home leave. I decided to head home the last day of Feb and the first couple weeks of March. I thought this would be a good time to be home as it was going to be the start of spring. The weather would be nice and warm and I would get some fresh air.

Well, the day I left here which was Feb 27th, it was snowing. I thought as much as it was snowing that my flight would be canceled. It started to snow on the way to the airport and by the time my flight was to take off a couple hours later there was a couple inches of snow on the ground. They cancel flights here in China for smaller storms than that one. I lucked out though, the flight took off. I was on my way home for a few days of relaxation.

The nice thing about flying back to the states is you leave here in China on Saturday and you get home on the same day a few hours later. Never mind the fact that you are still on the road for about 24 hours. The flights themselves were not too exciting. Nothing special happened. It was a long flight between Seoul and Los Angeles. The best part of this flight was I got to fly in the upper portion of a 747. That was pretty cool. It was very comfortable and a quiet ride. The time actually went by very quickly. I got home around 4:00pm.

Both Kathy and Kevin came to pick me up at the airport. The first thing I did was get in on the drivers side of the car. I had not been driving for about 4 months at this point. I have really gotten used to not driving. I told Nicholas, my China driver, that I was going to have Kathy drive me around and pick me up when I needed it while I was at home. Of course, I knew that wasn't going to happen. It was easy, you don't really forget how to drive. On the way home from the airport the first place I wanted to stop was Red Robin. I was craving a good big juicy messy hamburger and of course, their bottomless fries. I know, not healthy, but good. After that is was off to home.

I spent the next few days working on our taxes. Boy, when you live in another country like China for part of the year it is a big pain in the neck. It is a good thing that Intel is providing a company to put our taxes together for us. The amount of taxes paid in china is about 45%. I thought we had it bad in the US. With the China goverment taking so much of peoples income here I can see why everything is paid in cash and that there are so many street vendors and farmers. When they only make a few dollars a day they sure do not want to give almost half of it up to the goverment. I am trying to figure out all of this and figure out if I owe both the US goverment and the China goverment. I hope it becomes clear.



After I continued doing things around home for a few days I was able to get with all my racquetball buddies and play some good games. I played just about every day. It sure felt good to get back on the court. I really miss running around in the courts. It was even better seeing my friends again. Many of them that haven't really played since I left showed up again to play. It was great and really fun. Now I can't wait to see them again when I come home in May.



Kathy and I were able to see many of our friends. We met some for dinner and others just in passing. They all ask the same thing, "How's China?" I am always happy to share my experiences from here. I make sure I tell them this is one of the most interesting places in the world with the kindest people you would ever want to meet. I have been so lucky to have the chance to be here and enjoy this new culture.



My parents pulled together a small get together with the rest of our families to help celebrate Kathy's 50th birthday. We had a nice visit and enjoyed the time together. Kathy's birthday was the 15th and our 29th anniversary was the 21st. We were able to celebrate both of these together. How nice was that? I didn't put together a party for Kathy while I was home because the plan was to have a really nice party in China when she came to visit in a few weeks. She was going to be coming to China on the 18th and stay until the 10th of April. The party is being planned by Barbara, Wendy and Lisa. All I am going to do is pay for it. They are doing the rest. I think Kathy will really enjoy it even though we have no idea what it is going to be like. The theme is a hat party so we will see how this proceeds.



One thing I was able to do again while at home was to get down to Mexico to our condo. I was so looking forward to a couple of days on the beach in warmer weather other than snow. Kathy and I headed down there to rest for a couple of days and pay our taxes and renew my visa and FM3. I have to do this every year since I own a place there. After spending some time down there I really now miss not getting down there. The weather was great, virtually no crowd and the sun was shining. I am looking forward to when I come home in May to spend a few extra days down there and soak up some sun.



After all of this it was time for me to head back to China. It was hard to leave again but I also knew that Kathy would be in China to see me in a couple more weeks. Something to look forward to.