drumroll please.....

 

( My dear husband, giving an empowering speech in a pool of pink bubbles. Not exactly what I came to chat about, but I had to show him off. <3 )

Ahem.

What I wanted to say issssss.....

We are coming home for Thanksgiving!! yaayyy!!!

I am so crazy excited.  Excited to see some friends and family, excited to have an OVEN for a couple weeks ( oh man am I wildly excited about the oven, I have had mad oven withdrawls.  Every day I think "oh I should make this for dinner"....but I can't.  So mom, Simona, anybody who we will be crashing with for those couple weeks...be prepared for me to raid your kitchens.  I'll share the bounty, I promise. ) 

I'm excited to drive, in a car.  I am excited to drop a piece of candy on the floor and say "3 second rule!" and then eat it.  That's right, I will.  But not in China, oh my GOSH.  NEVER EVER do that in China.  If it falls on the floor, it's dead to you. Get rid of that thing, don't even touch it.  Blech.  ( In case you didn't catch on...the ground is dirty beyond imagination, what else do you expect when kids are allowed to drop a deuce on the sidewalk?)

I am excited to take a deep breath of clean, cool, mid-west air instead of smelling burning garbage.  I am excited to hear church bells ringing instead of fireworks at all hours.

 Seriously, the fireworks.  They set them off when somebody dies, when a baby is born, a store opens ( which is almost every day, this city is growing rapidly and new shops /restaurants are popping up all over ) No occasion is too small for a massive fireworks show. Fireworks in broad daylight, in the middle of the street, setting off car alarms, covering people, cars, and homes in a daily layer of ash. I honestly hear fireworks at least 3 times a day, and often in the middle of the night.  Last night there were fireworks at 3:30 am.  They lasted for at least half an hour.  Come on! This gal's gotta get her beauty sleep.

While I am super happy to be coming back for a while, seeing all you fine folk is not the first thing on our agenda.  We actually were not planning on returning until the summer but we have to take care of some visa madness.  We were supposed to go to Hong Kong to get it sorted but unfortunately that fell through because the laws changed and now you have to return to your home country to fill out forms and alll that junk.  Hopefully it all is resolved without any further complications.  It has been such a headache,  eeeeeh.  Anyway, we're returning to Minneapolis on November 21st, (through December 13th) then will be making our way down through Wisconsin and to Chicago.  No concrete plans yet when exactly we will be where. But I'm super pumped to see you all soon! <3