Holding down the fort in DC

We made it to DC this morning at 7 AM.  A big thanks to mom and dad Schwarzmann for getting up before 3 AM to get us to the airport!  We were able to eat dinner (working on the 12 hour difference) but they only had breakfast food available, weird. 

Right now we have found a quiet spot in the Dulles airport and Julie was no longer able to fight off the urge to lay down on these wonderful airport chairs and put her Cheerios pillow to good use, however, I may regret not taking the opportunity to lay down as once we get on the plane that won't be an option anymore.  Only three hours to go.

Talk to you soon,
Ryan

Almost ready

We are almost ready to go.  We have been visiting Ryan's family in Sylva.  We had to make a trip to Belk to buy Ryan some shoes.  Someone (me) may have accidentally donated his other ones to the goodwill.  Sorry Ryan.  Soon we will be off Greenwood to see my folks.  Happy anniversary mom and dad.  Glad we get to celebrate be we leave.  Can't believe that we will be in the air in 48 hours.
~Julie

Goodbye Charlotte! Until Thursday.

We've made it to Sylva.  A big thanks to Mom and Dad Stiens, Laura and especially Aidan for there is no way we could have gotten those wrapping paper rolls, tennis rackets, and trash cans unpacked without him!  Julie was finally able to make the trip up after FedEx had a less than stellar day and she was able to chase them around all afternoon, but we have our visas and we are on the list for flights on Friday morning.

It was bitter sweet to lock the house door for the last time for the next ten or twelve months or so, but we are very excited and looking forward to getting off the ground on Friday morning.

-Ryan

One step closer

Well we must be excited because we were both up before 5 am and while Julie and I are early risers for the most part this is ridiculous.  The house is nearly empty and we'll be headed for Sylva today, Greenwood on Wednesday and then back to Charlotte with our eyes on a 6 am flight (Special thanks to Kenya and Michael for the flight help).

More to come soon,
Ryan

The paperwork's in the mail ...

Welcome to our first attempt at a blog.  As you all know we are headed to China for the next year.  There will be many challenges including accessing this blog through the Great Chinese Firewall and apparently the need to carry toilet paper around with us (recent Ryan comment),

 "We’ve heard about the toilets and are prepared to ‘adapt’.  I can foresee myself having problems remembering to carry TP around, that will probably only take a few incidents to cure any memory issues though." 

That doesn't even mention our first attempts at teaching and teaching English to children who speak Chinese, in which we are far from fluent.  This should provide plenty of interesting experiences that we look forward to sharing with you all.

As of today we are planning to take off on Monday, September 3rd from Charlotte and plan to be out of the country until the end of July 2013.  So if anyone had plans to visit Beijing during the coming year let us know!

所有的最好的 
(all the best)
Ryan