Good luck, Will!

I got a note from my dad last night by email and it made me sad in a surprising way. The email was an update on my youngest brother Will's search for his first job. Will interviewed with a mining company in South Carolina last month and he was really excited about the prospect, but they are either dragging their feet with the hiring process or they've found someone else. He was also offered a position kind of in his field of Geology, and he's decided to go for it. Here's what dad wrote:

"Hey, Don't know if anybody is keeping you informed about Will.  He left yesterday morning in the Jeep to go to Midland, Texas for training.  It is about 1200 miles and he spent the night last night in Plano outside of Dallas at Kit and Needie's house.  He has about 350 miles to go today.  The truck is not ready yet but the guy in Texas was tired of  delays and wanted Will there asap or not at all so he left out.  We will figure out how to switch vehicles later.  I think he may be in training about a month and then perhaps moving to Pennsylvania.  You guys are spreading out all over. Love, Dad"

Hope you don't mind that I shared that, dad!

My first thought after reading the note was "Not Pennsylvania - it's so far away!" Which is pretty ironic given that I live in China right now. But I know we will return to Atlanta in the future, and knowing that my little brother probably won't be living there when we return makes me very sad. It also makes me suddenly feel older. Andy is very settled in New Orleans with a wife and baby of his own. I have a little one running circles around me. My parents are truly empty nesters.

I'll miss Will poking his head in on skype calls when I talk to mom and dad, or knowing that he'll be home for the holidays - all of them. I have never been to Pennsylvania or even known anyone from there (that I know of), so it seems so foreign. Again, probably kind of ironic for me to say, but I can't help but think it. Pennsylvania is a strange new land for an Adgate to venture into.

Mom and dad, I guess this is what you get for exposing us to the world - we've scattered like seeds on the wind. I'm glad you have wings and you're always ready and willing to use them.

Beijing & Dongguan

So much for all the speculation on typhoon Megi. We are safe and sound in Shenzhen. As of Thursday evening the storm was on a path set to pummel us. Sandbags were in place everywhere, like in the lobby of our building and local restaurants, in preparation for hard rains and possible flooding. Fishermen were told to empty Shenzhen Bay and secure their boats, which made the water extra calm and a little eerie. Hong Kong elementary schools were even cancelled Thursday and Friday in anticipation of strong winds.

On Friday the typhoon took a bizarre, sharp 90 degree turn to the north of Hong Kong. We never saw dark clouds or even a drop of rain here. It seems as if the typhoon in the South China sea succeeded in blowing away all of the pollution and haziness we normally have in the city, leaving behind pure blue sky and sunshine. Instead of intense waves and flood waters, this morning I saw an amazing sunrise. As the sun rose over the mountains of Hong Kong (our apartment overlooks Shenzhen Bay and the New Territories island of Hong Kong), the sky held a candy apple red fireball which exploded into oranges, pinks, and rich shades of buttery yellow, then melted into a cool turquoise blue tickled with a few feathery clouds above us.

Matt, Dean, Tic Toc and Grandaddy Langford are on their way to Beijing this morning to do some touristy exploration. The capital is about 3-1/2 hrs from Shenzhen by plane. They plan to visit the Summer Palace, Tianamon Square and the Great Wall while there. Matt plans to take lots of pictures, so hopefully I'll have some good ones to post by the end of the week. I'm a little jealous that my baby boy gets to see these wonderful historic places in China before I do!

While they are off playing, I'm in a car for the next 2 hours heading to a city called Dongguan. I'll attend the Canton sourcing fair for work this Sun-Wed with the team from ATL plus several of my Plaid Far East colleagues. We'll meet with existing vendors we do business with as well as search out new suppliers for manufacturing. The show is also usually a source of inspiration, especially for Halloween and Christmas. Buyers come from all over the world to place orders now for 2011 products. I expect to see a lot of trinkets and dust collectors, but hope to stumble on some cool new ideas in the mix.

All About Dean

I haven't talked too much about Dean lately, so this post is dedicated 100% to him.

The little guy is now 15-months old and bursting with personality. He's starting to talk and his vocabulary consists of the following words: wow, hi!, ohhhh, daddy, mama (when he's clingy and upset), uh-oh, mmmmm, nummie nummie (for yummy yummy), eye (watch out--that one comes with a bonus eye poke) and a phrase that sounds kinda like "over there?" but comes out as "obbar dare?"

He can also say at least 1 word in Mandarin. If you hand him a cell phone he will hold it up to his ear and say "whaaah?" in an attempt to say "whey?" which means "to speak" in Mandarin. This is what people here say when they answer the phone, the same way we would use "hello?" It wouldn't surprise us if he knows more than this one word in Mandarin since his Ayi knows only a handful of English words, but we haven't heard any others clearly enough to understand quite yet.

The little guy is also fascinated with how things work, especially buttons like those in the elevator of our building (he knows where the number 17 is). Shoving stuff in holes is another favorite hobby (no drain is safe) and he recently learned to flush the toilet. He loves climbing on and off anything he can reach. Furniture, beds, toys, drawers, and boxes make up his indoor playground.

He can give a high-five, knows where his hair and belly button are, and is always ready to cuddle up on the sofa with a good storybook. He eats just about everything we put in front of him but is still super skinny, and he prefers eating from chopsticks over a fork.

I took this video of him last week playing with a stethoscope from a Dr. kit (hopefully it will post correctly - it's my first time trying a video using our China VPN). The stethoscope once belonged to his cousins Elizabeth and Will, and it's now one of Dean's favorite toys.

Dinner at Senor Frogs

We took Matt's parents to dinner this evening at a new restaurant two doors down from the Cheers bar near our apartment. It's a mexican restaurant called "Senor Frogs" with a squiggle over the n. The place opened about a month ago, and tonight is the first I've seen any real signs or menus. Previously we ordered off of the equivalent of a paper napkin with chicken-scratched food items written in ball-point pen. Bummer, they don't have white cheese dip, but their chicken quesadilla is pretty darn tasty.

We ate outside and enjoyed occasional bursts of extra strong wind due to the typhoon heading our way. At one point it blew over a sign next door and a large potted plant. We chatted with a few other "expatriates" from the U.S. about the coming storm and what to expect. We were reassured that the building we live in is very strong and built to withstand typhoon strength winds and rain. A guy name Paul told us we might see the glass windows in our apartment bow and flex in the wind, but we shouldn't worry because this is normal (he might have been pulling my leg, not real sure there). In any case, we were advised to not open any windows during the storm. (Duh! Who does that?!)

We also found out that the Cheers bar does a big Thanksgiving meal every year with deep fried turkeys and all the fixens'. I'm so excited! We were hoping to find a place that would serve a good meal, but thinking we'd have to go to a hotel to find it. Our back-up plan is still a duck with the head still on.

Dean was a little celebrity tonight as always, being passed to various extended arms from the Chinese women that work the bar. He was given a free bowl of chicken soup and also munched some nachos. We laughed about how when he's older, we'll have fun stories to tell about the ladies that oooh and ahhh over him here. We never have to worry about feeding or entertaining him when we go out.

Shenzhen Daily Highlights

On a plane now (though I won't be by the time I post this...), and just received a copy of the Shenzhen Daily newspaper. It's a small 16-page paper that publishes an English version in addition to Mandarin Chinese every Monday through Friday. Matt often buys it for about a quarter from a man with a newstand / snack shop set up about a block from our house, but since I'm flying on Shenzhen Air, I just scored one for free.

Today's paper has a few interesting articles worth sharing. The first is a misprint at the top that would be perfect for late night comedy: "Woman, 125, nation's oldest. Born in 1985, Lou Meizhen from Bama County in Guanxi has been named the country's oldest person."

Oops - I think they meant 1885.

Also on the front page is a photo of 2 men holding lit torches in honor of the Asian Games, which are similar to the Olympics, but focus only on participants from this part of the world. They kick off Nov. 12th and I'm sure will be the talk of the town, kind of like the World Cup was a few months ago.

Page 4 of the paper includes a brief mention of Super typhoon "Megi" (which means "catfish" in Korean). It just pummeled the Philippines and may or may not hit Hong Kong - we're waiting anxiously to see which path it will take. It's strength is estimated to be about the same as a category 4 to 5 hurricane, and even if it turns south on one of the non-Hong Kong paths, we're likely going to experience some serious winds and torrential rain storms toward the end of this week.

I feel giddy with excitement about the typhoon, the way a kid in Atlanta gets when the man on the nightly news predicts a chance of snow for the following day. Will it come our way? I'm supposed to travel into the heart of Hong Kong Wed through Fri to attend the "Mega Show" - will I be able to go? Will our 17th floor apartment sway left and right in the wind? Could we be told to evacuate the city and go further inland? Hainan, an island an hour plane ride southwest from us already advised 140,000+ people to evacuate.

After the typhoon write-up, there are a bunch of boring articles in the middle on topics like property taxes in Shanghai, China Walmart farming processes, AMD chip processors, China GDP rising, and tourism in a city called Qindao.

The last page of the paper includes a photo and synopsis of the 2010 Scream awards that aired in the U.S. last Saturday, a blurb about the new 3D Jackass movie, and an article with the headline "Georgia mom sues Tyra Banks". The first sentence reads "A Georgia woman is suing Tyra Banks for US $3 million after she said her 15-year old daughter appeared without her permission on an episode of Banks' talk show about teen sex addicts."

Great. Next time I meet someone new in Shenzhen and they ask me where I'm from I can now say proudly "Georgia, USA - you know, the place where that woman is from that's suing that ex-supermodel over the teen sex thing?!"

And there you have it, the highlights from today's paper.

Avoiding Strike 3

The missing Langford luggage was retrieved - hooray! Matt's mom, dad, Matt and Dean traveled about an hour by bus yesterday to Kowloon (downtown Hong Kong), ate a late lunch of dim sum, and did a little shopping before heading to the HKG airport to pick up the bags.

I'm traveling in northern China right now, in a car on the way to a factory outside of Nanjing, which was once the capital of China. There's a very large old brick wall that runs around the city, and we can see glimpses of it every now and then. It's amazing to see tall elegant archways where once the wall was solid, but now cars pass through freely underneath. Everyone else in the car - there are 6 of us total - is really quiet right now. I'm not sure if they are tired or just not in the mood to talk, but I've taken to typing this blog to fill the transportation time in the car.

I think I just accidentally offended the owner of the factory, Mr. Chan. I asked Simon, who is Chinese and VP of our office, if he could share any history with us about the area where we were traveling. He deferred to Mr. Chan, who speaks very good English.

Mr. Chan explained that Nanjing used to be the capital of China and is the only city in the country with an ancient city wall still intact around the perimeter of the city. In response, I said "oh yeah, like the Great Wall!"

Strike one.

Clearly, a city wall is NOT like the great wall, as it protects 1 city instead of an entire country. Duh!

I then asked how long it had been since Nanjing was the capital of China.

Strike two.

Mr. Chan quickly put me in my place when he exclaimed "I don't understand how an American can not know this. Beijing became the capital in 1949. China is a world power and people should know this important information..."

In my defense, I knew that Beijing became the capital 61 years ago. I learned it very recently because that is the reason National Day is celebrated on October 1st. What I didn't know was that Nanjing was the capital up until that time. China has such a long history, I figured they had time to bounce the capital around to several different cities.

I'm now remaining silent, hoping to avoid strike 3.

Reinforcements have arrived

Matt's parents - Dean's Tic Toc and Granddady - arrived safe and sound in Shenzhen around 10:00 this evening. We are so excited to see them!

Their luggage didn't make it on the flight to Hong Kong, so they are very limited on clothes. Hopefully they'll be able to track them down quickly! We have a washer but no dryer, so it takes extra time to do laundry at our apartment. Also, they tell us there are lots of tasty surprises packed in their bags. I love reinforcements. There better not be a single thing missing from the food bag when it arrives...grrrr...

I have to leave tomorrow for a grueling 4-day work trip away from home, and next week will be very busy due to big sourcing shows that take place every October in Hong Kong and Dongguan. It's tough to be away from Dean, but I know he's in very good hands.

25%

Today marks 6 months since we arrived in China. We've completed 25% of the 2-year contract we signed. When I say we, I mean it. Even though Matt's signature technically wasn't on the paper, he to be 100% on board with this move. It took a lot of persuasion, coaxing, and the occasional begging from me, his loving and devoted wife.

After we visited in April 2009 and I asked him how he felt about making the move, he said on a scale of 1 to 10, he was at about a 5 as far as wanting to go through with it. 50% in favor, 50% against.

In the end he gave up his job, his friends – his entire social world! – his outdoor sports, and more so we could “have an adventure” together living and working in another part of the world.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my husband?! Even Aaron, a guy Matt befriended in Shenzhen, told me last night I “got a good one”.

Recently Matt was asked by someone he used to work for about what his favorite experience has been so far in China. He passed the question on to me, and for a moment I was silent. Long, lonely days, culture shock and frustrations communicating, missing my grandfather’s funeral, the constant question mark hanging in the back of my mind about whether this move was a good decision or not, the guilt of taking Dean so far away from his grandparents, the feeling of being a million miles away from so many loved ones… these thoughts flooded my mind and I could think of nothing else.

But then I remembered this one time on the trip over together when we visited Splendid China, a cultural “village” kinda like a theme park without rides. As far as we could tell we were the only foreigners in a park full of schoolchildren on field trips.

A line of boys about 8 years old in school uniforms walked past us, and when one of them noticed we weren’t Asian, he said “hello!” Another followed, and then another, and suddenly we were surrounded by chirps of “hello! Hello! Hello! How are you TOO-day?! Hello! HELLO!” They were so excited to use this English greeting. A couple even snapped impromptu photos of us smiling and waving at them as we passed.

Matt made hand motions to ask one of the boys if I could take a picture of the two of them together, and in an instant a whole flock swarmed to his side.

For me at least, that moment was a turning point that sealed the deal for my desire to move to China. We were like celebrities! The locals were so warm and welcoming, and seemed excited to meet us.

Matt agreed with me that this was a pretty cool experience, and before we knew it we were rattling off a slew of other thoughts:

Matt – “Buying my first roasted sesame duck on the street was awesome…”

Emily – “Yeah, all the new food experiences are amazing! Except duck feet and pig knuckles...”

Matt – “…and riding a scooter through the streets of Shenzhen is fun…

Emily – “...don’t forget your nun chuck experience!” (note to self, must post a follow-up blog about the nun chuck incident)

Matt – “YES! THE NUN CHUCKS! Oh yeah, and remember the guy that approached us in that noodle bowl restaurant? When he stood in the shadowy entryway with his bald head and robes billowing in the wind with the kung-fu music playing out of the machine in his hand?!??”

(OK, so I embellished this Matt quote just a little…

We later were told this guy was a professional beggar, not a kung fu monk)

Emily – “…YES! Hilarious…. and you know, seeing fishing boats come in with the fisher men and women emptying their nets while the sun rose – especially watching this one lady wearing a straw hat and pearls – was pretty cool…”

Before we knew it we were both smiling. Living in Shenzhen, China has been such an amazing experience so far. We still have good days and bad, and we still miss our family and friends terribly, but we both look forward to more new experiences in the days/weeks/months to come.

On the Road Again

Monday morning at 6:30 I left the house for an overnight business trip to visit a factory in Heibei province - a 3-hour plane ride north of Shenzhen and close to Beijing - with my colleague Euan. After the plane, we drove for about 2-1/2 hrs and arrived at the factory around 2:30. Nothing like an 8-hour commute to work!

We were at the factory for several hours, then another 30-minute commute to the hotel and finally relaxing in the room around 9 p.m. It was a very long and exhausting day.

Unfortunately this is the norm for factory visits in China. Plaid works with factories spread out all over the country, which is roughly the same size as the U.S. Their transportation infrastructure is still developing though, with airport hubs spread far apart, limited mass transit options, and terrible traffic on the roads. It often takes a really long time to get where we’re going.

Just last week Matt and I read a news article about a shortage of pilots the airlines face due to future expansion and growth. The article predicts China will need to add 70,000+ new pilot jobs and over 96,000 other airline staff within the next 20 years in order to keep up with the demand and growth of the airline industry. If you’re in the airline industry and looking for work, now might be a good time to consider relocation options in China.

We live in an area with a fairly high percentage of foreigners, and it’s not uncommon to see men dressed in airline uniforms pulling behind them a small black rolling tote and catching a Shenzhen airlines bus to the airport. I recently met a woman from Slovakia with 3 children and a French pilot husband. On the Monday flight, the voice over the intercom from the flight deck had a distinct English accent – definitely not a native of China.

It’s great that the airlines are recruiting a lot of foreigners with experience, but I worry a little about this huge deficit. Will the Chinese airlines sacrifice quality for quantity? If they become desperate for workers, will they start cutting corners on training or flight time requirements for pilots?

It is interesting to me how many small airline options there are here vs. the U.S. Each region, or province (there are 22) seems to have at least one brand of airline specifically associated with it. Shenzhen is the hub for Shenzhen Airlines and most flights we take departing from here are on this airline, but I’ve also flown on Xiamen Air, Shanghai Air, and China Eastern Air (guessing that last one connects several provinces on the east coast of the country).

OK, enough rambling about air travel. I want to mention here that I love my job and I am so thankful to be employed. My heart goes out to the group of Plaid employees that were laid off last Friday. It was devastating news to hear and it makes me so sad. Many were friends with long tenure at the company, and I will miss their smiling faces when I’m in the Atlanta office again.

To anyone reading this – I urge you to run to your local craft store and buy A LOT of Plaid goodies, like Folkart paint, paint brushes, stencils, Mod Podge, cute wood surfaces, and awesome jewelry!!!!!!! You know you need to stock up for entertaining kids at the holidays anyway… and I don’t want to see any more Plaid jobs in the U.S. (or potentially our China office) eliminated! It’s a sad day when people who are smart, talented and good at what they do have to go looking for a new job due to this economic slump the U.S. still faces.

Fever

Last Thursday morning, the day we flew back to Hong Kong from Phuket, Dean woke up with a fever of 101. He was cranky and a bit lethargic, with a slight red rash. We were nervous traveling back since the customs process in both Hong Kong and Shenzhen require a temperature reading.

We gave him Motrin and hoped for the best. Either the medicine worked or the customs agents didn't care or notice, but we made it through fine. That night, the fever spiked. I started panicking when Dean woke at midnight with a temp of 104.

Matt kept a clear head and called the hotline for the international clinic we joined. He couldn't get through to the Beijing after hours center, so he called the U.S. extension, which routed him to Hong Kong, which eventually forwarded his call to an on-call Hong Kong Dr. traveling for business in Beijing. The whole process took about 15 minutes, during which I kept telling myself to remain calm and not call my mom. I knew tears would be inevitable, and would only cause her to fret and worry something terrible on the other side of the world!

Thankfully the nurse instructed us to start alternating Tylenol and Motrin every 3 hours, and it worked to bring the fever down to under 101 for the rest of the night.

The next morning we took him to the local clinic and the Dr. said it is probably a passing virus. Or Malaria or Dingo Fever caused by a mosquito bite in Thailand... but probably just a virus he picked up somewhere along the way that will run its course over a few days.

Thankfully this morning he is nearly fever-free at 99.2 degrees Fahrenheit, and based on his perkiness we can tell he's feeling much better. Also, we learned that we can dial the local clinic after hours and they will automatically put us through to the on call Hong Kong Dr. rather than play skype phone tag around the world. This could make a big difference if we have a real emergency in the future (anything involving blood is what I consider a "real" emergency!) I still hope we never have to experience a hospital visit in Hong Kong.

Phuket, Thailand

We just finished celebrating another holiday in China: October 1st was China’s National Holiday, which is kind of like the 4th of July in the U.S.

The National Day of the People's Republic of China (PRC) - “guóqìng jié” – kicks off a “Golden Week” holiday where the majority of factories and many small businesses shut down.

Wikipedia describes it pretty accurately… Three days of paid holiday are given, and the surrounding weekends are re-arranged so that workers in Chinese companies always have seven continuous days of holiday. These national holidays were first started by the government for the PRC's National Day in 1999 and are primarily intended to help expand the domestic tourism market and improve the national standard of living, as well as allowing people to make long-distance family visits. The Golden Weeks are consequently periods of greatly heightened travel activity.

This holiday can be a frustrating time for our U.S. office. It falls during a busy time for product development and causes big delays in receiving samples, price quotes, and shipments of goods. The Chinese government has considered eliminating the arrangements for extended days off in the past, but for now the holiday remains. Read more about it by clicking here.

Since we don’t have family to visit in China and we didn’t want to fight mass quantities of Chinese travelers, we decided to leave the country and explore a new destination: Thailand.

We booked flights to Phuket, an island in the southern part of Thailand. We spent the night before our flight at a Hong Kong airport hotel; since it’s connected to the airport by a walkway, we figured it would be easy to roll out of bed and start a relaxing vacation.

Wrong! We’re so bad about running late for things, and even though we were practically sleeping in the airport terminal, we still almost missed our flight due to forgetting luggage in the room, standing in the wrong check-in line, and other misc. delays. We checked in at 8:20 for our 8:55 a.m. international flight. The woman behind the counter told us we needed to run… or rather “hurry! HURRY!” shooing us away from the counter. We sprinted through the airport with 14-month old Dean in arms and made it with a few minutes to spare.

The first couple of nights in Phuket we stayed at Kata Beach Resort, which is about an hour south of the airport on the southwest side of the island. Our taxi driver, who we hired for 500 Baht (about $16), misunderstood us when we left the airport and took us to Karon Beach Resort and Spa. It was beautiful, with doorways made of giant dark wood circles and brilliant purple orchids everywhere, and they greeted us with fresh fruity beverages plus chilled hand towels. We didn't realize we were in the wrong place until the woman behind the counter couldn't find our reservation.

She quickly sent us on our way to the correct hotel, less than 2 miles away, via a hired a Tuk Tuk. Seemed strange to us that we could travel almost 50 miles via taxi for 500 Baht, but a couple more in a sketchy rickshaw cost us 200 Baht.

After finally checking in, we ate lunch at the hotel restaurant and headed back to the room to sleep the afternoon away. Traveling can be so exhausting, especially with a baby in tow (plus, we just like to sleep!)

We tried to go to the pool around 8 p.m. but discovered it closed at 7. This was surprising to us, but I guess it’s the norm at most resorts in Phuket. We walked down to the beach and there were people setting off fireworks in the sand right next to a table of fireworks for sale. The fireworks scared Dean at first, but we calmed and reassured him. After the 3rd boom, he was curious enough to watch with big, round wide eyes as the fuse lit and the rockets zoomed into the air. This was his first time seeing big explosions of light in the sky. Every time the boom went off, he gripped my arm tighter, but then said “wow!” in the sweetest little voice.

We also saw two big paper lanterns almost as tall as Dean floating like fireballs in the night sky. I’ve never seen lanterns like these, but they made me think of UFOs. You light a fuse, which acts like a hot air balloon to lift the paper lantern into the air “for luck”. They are supposed to carry away bad luck, sins or worries. I think the paper might catch on fire at some point and burn up the entire luck lantern. Or maybe it's like a helium balloon, and it eventually lands again as rubbish?

After the beach trek, we crossed the street for an authentic meal at a local restaurant. We feasted on wonderful Pad Thai noodles and Tom Yum soup, plus shared a non-alcoholic fruity beverage served from a pineapple. When we got back to the hotel it was late – around 11 pm – and we crashed into bed.

The next morning Dean woke at 4:30 a.m. alert and ready to go, so we took a walk around the property. Here he is checking out a gold statue in his PJ’s:

After that first day it rained every day, sometimes hard and for the entire day, so it was pretty dreary outside most of the time. Ahhh... perfect weather for sleeping and eating.

We changed resorts after two nights and moved to the JW Marriott resort in the northwest part of the island. I think this is most beautiful resort / hotel I have ever experienced, and it’s really affordable. Here we are at the check-in counter after each receiving a Thai lei of fresh flowers.

The only problem with the resort was that we felt really isolated, with few options for dining other than room service and an overpriced steak house. There were also no good local markets within walking distance, and taking a cab to get anywhere decent started at 1700 Baht (about $56.00). We quickly learned that there’s a taxi mafia – you can get from the airport to your destination for cheap, but you’ll be paying double or triple to get back!

On Monday, the rain let up for a little while and we had our biggest outing of the trip: an elephant excursion. It was a very “touristy” thing to do, but it was a lot of fun.

Dean and I fed watermelon to 2 baby elephants.

Then the 3 of us loaded up on our elephant and took a 30 minute guided tour. We learned that elephants used to live wild on the island, but there is not enough undeveloped land left for them, so all that remain on Phuket are now domesticated.

Matt was completely against the elephant excursion because he feels it’s wrong to exploit animals in this way. One of the guides explained that elephants can live up to 70 years, and the majority of those used for tourist means today were originally used in the logging industry. The Thai government banned logging in 1989, which left these gentle giants out of work.

It makes me sad to think that the elephants will never be free again, especially considering the elephant is the national symbol of Thailand.

Another thing that was a bit depressing about the trip is that we visited 3 different beaches, and all were so polluted! Trash like plastic and glass bottles, candy wrappers, misc. plastic tabs or bags, and random shoes were everywhere.

Pretty much every day we either played in the pool or at the beach (often in the rain), slept a lot, and noshed on authentic Thai food or hamburgers with french fries (so nice to have that “western” option). Then we headed back to Shenzhen. Overall the trip was relaxing, and it was wonderful to spend time together with my two favorite boys.