Soooooze is going back to China!

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It's been an actual whole year and 2 days since my last post from China--the move back post. I am writing from Louisville, Kentucky, our home for the past 10 months. It's been a great almost year in this fantastic city. We've really loved it here, though we miss Chicago. I am back to working full time, the kids made it through a somewhat rocky first year of school of public school, resulting in our decision to move to private school next year, but we are all well and happy. We've made some great friends, reconnected with some long-time friends, and have managed to stay in touch and connected to our friends and family all over the world through all of this change.

How fun to be back here and ready to report again as Mark and I embark on a 2 week Asian adventure (without our very seasoned traveling companions, Nathan and Emily this time). The purpose of the trip began innocently enough--we promised to return for our dear friends' wedding. Ray and Ting are friends who meant so much to us and were such a big part of our lives while we lived in China that when they asked us both to be IN THE WEDDING, how could we refuse? 41 year old American bridesmaid in a Chinese wedding--the stories should be plentiful. As it turns out, we have had a crazy, busy year filled with many changes and challenges, but having this trip to look forward to has been a really special goal.

And now we are almost ready to head back. Here's the scoop. We are going to Shanghai July 5-8, Beijing for the wedding gala July 8-11 and then Kyoto and Tokyo until the 16th I think. Dates are not solid in my muddled brain at this moment. We added Japan on a bit of a whim because the airfare difference was so small (once we were already in China, that is). We had always wanted to go to Japan during our 2 years in Shanghai but it just did not happen--cost, other trips, you know how these things go. It's like being in Chicago and never making it to Madison, even though it's SO CLOSE. Well, sort of like that.

So that's the scoopage. An adventure awaits. There will be many food pictures, stories of "coming home" to China, seeing what we remember and don't remember of our Mandarin, and of course the wedding. Sadly, most of our Shanghai pals are off to their home countries during the summer--many have moved on for good and are not returning to Shanghai, but we will think of them all as we wander and explore what will be a hot, steamy and hopefully memorable reunion tour of China. We also look forward to exploring Japan. Haven't had much time to prepare so we are going to be adventurous and explore as much as we can during our time there.

What are we doing with the children, you might wonder? Oh, they will be off on a Slaven Grandparents Camp adventure in lovely Mogadore, Ohio. There will be lots of swimming, treehouse playing, frog catching good times for the kids. And I'm sure many, many root beer floats (Grandpa's signature drink).

Gotta go pack. We leave for Ohio Saturday at the crack of dawn.

Stay tuned! It's fun to be back.

Love,
Suzanne

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