Saturday, October 17, 2015

I'm off to Beijing tomorrow, and update on my "40 week plan"

In case you missed the first post on my 40 week plan, you can catch up here.

I have an early flight to Beijing tomorrow (my 6th international trip of the year, with one more on deck, in case anyone other than me is counting). ;-) This one involved copious amounts of time at the Chinese consulate in the city. SO, so many hours lost at the consulate. But, I'm cleared for takeoff tomorrow, supposedly. :-) We'll see once I get to the airport.

In big news, I'm about $700 short of having $100K saved for my big project. WOOHOO! I am so excited about this. :-) I'm making big progress on my plan to leave at the end of June. Honestly, the trip to Beijing & my upcoming trip to Sao Paulo, although painful, are just further motivation to keep all possible spending in check and save, save, save.

In other news, I have one child at a sleepover, one watching Harry Potter. I've made homemade pizzas, both boys won their soccer games (eldest scored two goals today), I've made muffins, packed for my trip, gone on a run, and generally just had a nice day.

Hope it was a great Saturday for everyone!!

6 comments:

  1. Ah, you've gotten to experience the Chinese visa process first hand. We've done it six times (3 adoption trips, 3 school trips for the girls) and it's been different and a pain every single time!!

    But, I hope that while you're in Beijing you'll be able to get out and see the sights: The Great Wall, Tiananman Square, the Forbidden City, the Summer of Palace and the Temple of Heavenly Peace. Other fun things to see/do is visit a hutong (if they haven't torn them all down yet) and catch one of the acrobat shows. And of course, there are all the Olympic buildings to see as well. Have fun, and I hope it's not too smoggy while you're there.

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    1. I have so much sympathy that you had to do the visa process multiple times! The good news is that I now have a 10 year, multientry visa, so hopefully that's over!

      No sight seeing on this trip. Strictly airport to hotel to office, and back. We did go out for a few dinners, but I hope to see more next time! The smog was okay - dangerously high, but lower than it's been recently. So, I guess that's a good thing? ;-)

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  2. It must be cool though to get to see China. I'm sure it's hard on the body, all that flying but so interesting.

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    1. I wish I could stay & actually sightsee, but I'm generally in & out. Beijing was definitely an experience though!

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  3. I hope you can sleep on the plane - something I am never successful at. At least you are collecting air miles on all these trips for maybe some future family trip. Have a safe flight and see you on the other side!

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    1. I managed to get about two hours of sleep, between the two flights. I'm super, super tired today. :-) And yes, I'm finally United Gold, almost to Platinum! Can't wait to use these miles for something fun in the future!!

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