Re-Evaluate and Adjust

Moving is never easy, especially when moving to a new country that is so vastly different from my own. It is not fun to admit, but the last few days have been hard. Really hard. We are over budget, cold, out of routine, Josh is sick, and we’re down one working computer. That is on top of all the craziness that is China. We fell asleep on Friday feeling overwhelmed and helpless.

Maybe it was the fact that we both finally slept the entire night through, but we both woke up on Saturday feeling inspired. I woke up with a clear head, positive attitude, and ready to adjust my life to fit the needs of the world around me.

Our first order of business was to buy coats. We are already over budget due to the early departure from Guangzhou, but it had to be done. We purchased $15 heavy coats from across the street and felt an immediate lift to our spirits.

[Note: My coat was a 2XL and Josh’s was a 5XL.]

Because we are over budget, Josh is temporarily shifting his priorities from writing to working. Unfortunately, he needs a working computer and word processor to do that. We remembered walking past a few electronics stores when we were out the other day, so we took the computer and the broken cord to each one and played the “point and shrug” game. We didn’t have any luck, but it confirmed that we needed to move to Plan B (buy Word for my computer and share).

Feeling physically comfortable with the coats and mentally comfortable with a resolution to the computer/budget problem, we continued our walk further in to town to explore. We visited the Sun and Moon Pagodas which were just pagodas, but the surrounding park was very peaceful.

On our way home we tried a new neighborhood for lunch and had an amazing meal. We ate a big bowl of pork dumpling soup and our favorite style of fried rice for about $1.80.

Josh had the sniffles all day, but really started to feel sick as the day progressed. We went back to the hotel, bundled up, and took a nap. We only left the hostel again for dinner, which was not at all what we ordered, but still decent.

As part of our inspiration today, we were determined to make some friends. We planted ourselves in the common room and started playing a game. We didn’t get any bites, but when a group needed to use our table, they kindly invited us to join their game instead.

We enjoyed a fun night of chatting and Taboo with two different groups of travelers, two women from Israel and a couple from New Zealand. The women just wrapped up their term in the military and were taking a few months off to travel around China, SE Asia, and India. The couple are ex-pats who met in New Zealand. She is a French woman who is a Spanish teacher and he is a civil engineer from Mexico. We stopped keeping score in Taboo, but I think my team won. Although I am sure Josh would debate that.

It was a great way to end the day. Although Josh is still sick, we are still over budget, and I am still getting my feet wet every time I brush my teeth (more on that later), we solved all of the problems that were holding us back. I’m feeling a lot more confident about the next couple of months and looking forward to our next adventures.