We left Atlanta on April 12th, so we've been gone from home a month as of today. I think it's appropriate to mention that there are a few things we miss and a few that we don't. Let's start with what we miss first...

- Our friends and family. We wish we had a transporter to beam you all over!

- The ability to speak and understand what everyone around us is saying. Jumping into a cab to get across town is cheap and easy, but actually telling the cabbie where you want to go is impossible unless we have a Plaid coworker write it down in Chinese or tell the cab if we happen to be together. Which brings us to #3...

- The ability to hop in a car and drive wherever we want to go. We don't miss our cars and don't have a desire to drive here, but it would be nice to have the convenience of wheels.

- Milk. It's different here. Extra sweet. Usually not refrigerated.

That's the big stuff we miss.

Now for what we don't miss...

- Carseats (grandparents, you might not want to read this part...) It's so easy to jump in a cab or car with Dean in our arms. You don't strap your baby into a seat, or even yourself for that matter. The cabs don't even have seatbelts in the back to strap in a carseat.

- Junk mail. We don't get any mail right now, which is kind of a bummer, but on the other hand, we don't have to spend 10 minutes every day sorting through junk mail (or have it sit in piles all over the house).

- Ice in drinks. We thought we would miss this lots, and maybe we will some when it gets hotter out, but I don't think either of us have had a beverage served to us with ice in it since we've been here. Restaurants serve hot tea here in place of ice water when you are seated.

- Getting pulled in a hundred directions during the evenings and weekends. Life here is much simpler for us. Dean is our main form of entertainment. Well, that and trying new local Chinese restaurants. It's nice to not have a list of a thousand errands to run or things to get done, people to please, etc.

We'll probably have more things to add to both of these lists as time goes on!