We have a leaving date.

It seems like it has been a long time getting to this point but we finally have a leaving date. Our last day in Camden is Sunday, February 7th. We will rent a vehicle on that Sunday and leave early the next morning to drive to Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport. We will say goodbye to Spot for a week and then turn in the rental. We will stay that night at the Houston Airport Marriott. Our plane leaves at 6am Tuesday the 9th so we will get up early and take the connecting tram to the terminal for security check-in. We will fly on Continental flight 89 all the way to Beijing changing planes in Newark NJ and arriving on the 10th at 3pm Beijing time, which is right now 14 hours ahead of CST. After customs we will take a taxi(s) to the Hutong Culture Inn & Hostel. A week after we get to Beijing, we will be able to get Spot out of quarintine. We will visit with our friends TJ and Jenni that live in Beijing and see some of the sights. Chinese new year is on Valentine day, the 14th, and then Spring festival until the 19th. The plan right now is to wait until after the Spring festival and take a train to Jiamusi on the 22nd. It is a 23 hour train ride so we will arrive on the 23rd. They already have an apartment ready for us and I will have orientation from the 25th to the 1st, when classes start. I can only send automatic updates about the blog to ten people, so if you have received notice of this post please forward to others that you think might be interested in it so they can save the link.