Friday, December 29, 2006

Additional stress

The UPS package containing our passports, travel visas, and airplane tickets was delivered to different person living in in a different apartment building with a completely different address. I had asked that this package be sent to my work address, of course.

Fortunately, some kind soul called us up and gave us the package.

-- Dan

Thursday, December 28, 2006

One week to go -- YIKES!

Yesterday, I set up a going away party for the night before we leave. The flight's at 3pm; leaving plenty of time to recover from the hangover, hopefully.

Today, I woke up realizing that that party is in one week, and that we will be on an airplane a week from tomorrow.

The panic has officially commenced.

For the first time in a long time, I'm actually concerned about whether I have enough time to pack. Our agency assured us that the hotel laundry service is great and we don't need to bring more than a week's worth of clothes, but...

The apartment is still a mess, there's no time to practice our Mandarin, and I've already thought about three different client events that will take place while I'm away, so I have to draft the advance materials now. Yikes indeed.

The party, for those who missed the email, is at Druids, 736 10th Ave (between 50th and 51st Streets), at 6:30pm Thursday January 4.

Our flight leaves Newark Airport at 3pm the next day.

We're bringing our laptop to watch a few dvds during the 15 hour flight. Recommendations are welcome.

-- Dan

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Just call her C.J.

IN ANSWER TO THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION:

As some of you may know, Dan and I have been back and forth on the name. But after much deliberation, we decided we didn't want to relegate the name given to Cha Jiao by the orphanage to a middle name, as is often decided by adoptive parents. Cha Jiao, which means "lovely/sweet tea," is a pretty name, and according to Chinese friends and acquaintances we've consulted, the use of the character for tea (Cha) in a name is somewhat unusual. [However, she comes from Jiangxi, a province known for its tea, so her name may not be so uncommon there.]

In the end, we came to see that her given name, as with any name, is part of her identity. So we will preserve her given name. That said, we also felt it important that the name reflect that she will now be a part of our family so will be giving her Dan's last name too. Since we are using Dan's last name, we moved her surname to be her middle name.

Thus, her name will officially be Cha Jiao Ling Klotz, but rest easy: she will be known by the shorter and easier C.J. Klotz. -- Meg

Friday, December 08, 2006

Where we're going: the pre-pick up itinerary

So sorry for the delay in writing. There hasn't been a lot to report on--a lot of frustration with travel agents unable to figure out how we can visit the area where our daughter is from.

As we wrote earlier, Meg and I wanted to spend a few days traveling around the Shangrao area in Jiangxi province, documenting and photographing and exploring.

After reaching out six different ways, we finally found a tour operator in Toronto who will arrange for a guide to travel with us. The itinerary is far from final but would look something like this:

(Day 0): Travel to Nanchang, stay at Nanchang hotel

Day 1: Meet guide, travel to Shangrao, see Longhushan (on the way, stay at Shangrao hotel

Day 2: Sightsee in Shangrao, stay at Shangrao hotel

Day 3: Drive to Jingdezhen, sightsee in Jingdezhen (seeing this site and this site, perhaps), stay at Jingdezhen hotel

Day 4: Drive to Nanchang, see Lushan on the way, stay at Nanchang hotel and meet up with adoption group

We're also going to visit our friends Grace and Sammy in Taipei, I think.

And, for those wondering, we should be hearing on the actual travel dates real soon. Like, maybe Monday!

--Dan