one month

Today marks one month since landing.  I'm especially aware of the date because it also marks the day that our entry visas expire.

Complex situation that only three of us had entry visas, the other four had existing visas that expired in early July but that paperwork was in process ASAP after landing... Isaac too got to jump in the process with the other four, but John Paul and I sat it out, waiting for some of his previous paperwork to clear.  Here it gets more complicated.... John Paul's previous Chinese identity was still on the books - in his old province - making it difficult for us to get clearance for his new U.S. identity and process his paperwork.  Still with me?  So on Monday at 5pm I finally got word that John Paul's old identity was fully cancelled and we could start processing paperwork for his new identity.  Which was good news, since we only had about 36 hours before our visas expired.  And which was bad news because it sent John Paul and me downtown on our no drive day.  (Our city limits cars on the road with a system that assigns each vehicle a "no drive day" based on license plate number.)

We started out strong, leaving the other four kids with my neighbor and house helper, and quickly finding a taxi.  John Paul was pumped to be out on the town alone with Momma.  When all the "sit still and wait" caught up with him I pulled out the iPad.

Saved. The. Morning. (part 1)

Paperwork completed - well, at least the start of the paperwork is completed, now we wait again, but no risk of overrunning our visa - and we headed out to find a taxi home.  Ha.

An empty taxi is the proverbial needle in a haystack, especially downtown.  We waited and sweated and waited and sweated.  When an empty taxi did show up we were never quick enough to get inside - it gets a little cutthroat with everyone sweating and impatient and a foreign mama plus her 3 year old?  Well, we are no way savvy enough or aggressive enough to snag one for ourselves.

So I gave up.  And we headed for the subway station.

Saved. The. Day. (part 2)

As soon as I mentioned the subway John Paul perked up.  He walked - oh so much walking - motivated by the promise of "holding the ticket" and "riding the train".

The subway did not disappoint and we arrived at our stop - which is still a little over a half mile from our house.  I figured I'd pressed my luck with the almost-noontime-sweaty-3 year old-walking and we hired a three wheeled motorbike for the final leg of the journey.

Sat down at home for lunch and starting thinking about heading for the pool.  On the bus.  At this point it was starting to feel a bit like Public Transport Appreciation Day or something of the sort.  The kids were pumped about the bus/pool combo.  I pared down our pool bag to the bare essentials and loaded them in the kids' backpacks.  Sunscreen, floats, water bottles, pool toys.....

I put Luke on my back (in the Ergo) and we headed out.

Our new favorite pool is just two stops away on a convenient (air conditioned!) bus.  We haven't been bus riders for years.  I felt like it was just too many, too little (children, that is).  I didn't have enough kids who were big enough to navigate the steps on/off the bus.  I had too many who couldn't walk a block or two to the stop, etc.  Yesterday was a big jump for us!  I can do a bus with the 5!  Luke even did the whole trip home on his own two feet - not getting in the backpack even once!

Yep, it was a hot one!  But the pool cooled us all off so nicely.

And we'll do the bus again.  But probably only on a no drive day.  It was still a LOT of work!