Moldy Arrival

Wow! Our time back in the USA really went by fast. I can’t believe that we are back in China already.

We arrived on Friday night, and it took us a long time to get back home because the rush hour traffic in Shanghai was atrocious. The normally three=hour drive took us a little over four hours. We were exhausted.

When we arrived at our apartment, it didn’t take us too long to realize that mold had been working hard over the summer. Our bed, shoes, floors, clothes, and kitchen were covered in a thin layer of olive green mold. So not cool…

So for the past few days, Katie and I have been systematically cleaning and sterilizing everything in our apartment, all while fighting off jetlag, which has been rough this year. Saturday we laid down for a nap at 1pm, and woke up at 11:30pm. We stayed up and made it to the following night though. We thought it might be over until our four and a half hour nap from 4pm to 8:30pm yesterday. Jetlag is brutal when there is a 13 hour time difference.

We were overjoyed to have our kitchen back up to a usable standard. We popped out some cranberry scones, which turned out really well. We used a recipe from the Savoy in London. They were cheap to make, but tasted like royalty.

The good news is, I have another week before I start teaching. My students have one week of military training, and then there is the Mid-Autumn Festival Holiday immediately afterwards. This is great because we still have a lot of cleaning to do, and we are planning to go to see Katie’s parents this weekend.

All in all, it’s back to business. I’m just glad we had a great rest in the USA. We really miss all of you!

"But the most persistent situation is the mold."
-Dennis McBride

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