When we moved to Hong Kong from California back in August 2012, it was, undoubtedly, a major life event. Major! We were picking up and moving our family to the other side of the world. We were going to start a new chapter in our lives in a different country. The culture would be very different and unfamiliar. And we would know no one there and be completely on our own. Definitely kinda sorta major.
I started a blog back then, titled Four Days In Hong Kong to write about our new life adventure. For a while, I was good about writing about my life here. But unfortunately, I eventually lost the motivation and inspiration to write.
Fast forward almost 5 years later and now I am piloting A Day In the Kitchen! And just to be clear, I love writing about food and cooking and travels. A Day In the Kitchen is a huge part of my life! However, I just remembered my Four Days In Hong Kong blog the other day, and I thought it would be fun to share those posts, too.
I'm starting from the very first post, and I plan to publish my old posts every couple of weeks. I hope you'll join me in re-living our journey and transition from California. Feel free to leave a comment below!
(Note: The writing from the original post is all the same, but I decided to add a few more photos at the end.)
Four Days In Hong Kong - Pack and Ship Day
Original post from June 29th, 2012
Today marked a major milestone in our move to Hong Kong - a bunch of our belongings were packed up and loaded into a wooden container (aka lift-van) which will then be loaded into a metal shipping container. That container will then be loaded onto a cargo ship which will then leave the port of San Francisco next Friday and start its 20-30 day journey to Hong Kong. Once there, the containers will be unloaded from the ship and go through customs before being released. Hopefully, it will arrive and be ready to be released as close as possible to our arrival date of August 20th so that we're not sitting without the majority of our belongings for too long.
With this huge step being taken today, there was a jumble of emotions: a sense of accomplishment for having completed this step, excitement about our adventure taking a more definitive step, apprehension about our adventure taking a more definitive step, and some sadness about our adventure taking a more definitive step. Once that lift-van was boarded shut and the truck drove away, it was one more thing that signified there was no turning back.
We are going on this adventure at this point - no matter what!
So, while there is some sadness, there is definitely excitement about what lies ahead. In the meantime, we are enjoying our summer in San Jose, spending lots of time with friends, and have a trip to Canada to look forward to in July. The boys are excited to go to Kelowna and Vancouver to visit family, and they also can't wait to be reunited with their Lego collections in Hong Kong.
Amy says
I remember packing day too!! Ours took a bit longer from Michigan to Hong Kong since they trucked it from Detroit to a port in NEW YORK for the LOOOOOONG way around to Asia. Yes, our stuff actually took the "Slow Boat to China"
Isn't it weird thinking back to your packing day? I can't imagine our container taking longer than 20-30 days to arrive...can you imagine being a member of the crew on that freight ship for that long?