first post

This is my first post ever. Intrigued by the opportunity to log my life and share experiences - we'll see if I'm a 'blogger’ – who knows...

orientation visit

The past few months were full of events; from a final decision to relocate to China, the completion of our university duties and relocation-planning (including our re-wedding…) to our recent trip to Beijing.

Reflecting back (from a ~2 month’s perspective) it seems as if we made the right choice at the right time. Our orientation trip to Beijing was delayed due to the passing away of my grandmother. A call from my parents while everything was practically packed made us make literally ‘last minute’ changes and delay the flight by two weeks.

One of the items on our ‘relocation list’ amongst ‘moving’ and ‘health insurance’ was our wedding; our original non-orthodox marriage was insufficient to allow ‘Z-Type-Visa’ for Nitz. The wedding remotely planned and family oriented, was held on September 1st, at Nitz’s parents front yard facing the Kineret. Home made ‘catering’ and bottles of chardonnay made it at least as romantic as the first one (with much less stress I may say...)

The following night, excited and obviously worried from the realization of the relocation, we took the midnight flight to Beijing. The first day schedule was strict:
15:00 – landing
16:00 – hotel check in
17:00 – massage….
With a one hour delay (not too bad…) we found ourselves searching for the perfect venue for our first dinner in our new city. Describing this dinner (and the many to follow) would take many paragraphs – at this stage I would just say that the food is nothing but excellent. Excellent. Excellent!

The following Monday was Nitz’s first day in Beijing. While I headed to the office (just across the hotel on the ChangAn avenue – the main street in Beijing), Nitz headed to take the Forbidden City tour. Overwhelmed by the Forbidden City sites (it can also be viewed from the office) we met at 14:00 with Kristy – our legendary real-estate agent with whom we were about to spend most our time in the week to follow.
Making a long story short (we did see about ~30 apartments), we now have an apartment in the north east part of the city. Yes – we have a guest room as promised…

The office staff was as welcoming as can be; we enjoyed great help walking us through the bureaucracies of getting our visas, including health check in a Chinese hospital! The apartment contract signing (exactly one week after our arrival) released much stress and allowed us to continue and enjoy the remainder of our stay.
We met great Israeli new friends; friendliness and valuable advices made us feel like home; only two weeks in our new city and we already know some Chinese words as well as great places to hand out…

We are now on our way back to Israel until after Suckot. We will take the ‘one way ticket’ to Beijing on October 8th.