5 August, 2010
Greetings all,
Just a quick note to let you know we’ve arrived back home, safe and sound here in Shenyang, China. As you may recall by the last update, Sarah was working in Clermont-Ferrand, France on passing an important milestone for her project since the 19th of June and Rod joined her there on the 11th of July. On the 19th of July, we started a “train vacation” going through parts of France, Austria, Italy and Switzerland, flying out to China on the 3rd of August, arriving here in Shenyang on the 4th in the afternoon.
You've probably heard about the devastating flooding on the news. From what we can tell, that's all in the South of China and nowhere near us. Of course we're thankful for this, but we keep those families in our prayers.
I'll dose in some pic’s and stories from July in coming updates when I get them downloaded onto my computer, but for now, I just wanted to let you know we arrived!
Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers as we traveled, and continue in our adventures here!
Sarah & Rod
7 August 2010
Greetings all and Happy Saturday!
As I write this the sun is getting low in the afternoon sky here in Shenyang, and for most everyone on this list, the sun is just starting over the horizon in the morning!
We're still not quite adjusted to the time change yet (after being up at 2:30am-4:30am and going back to bed, we slept until 10:00am...unheard of for us!), but we're slowly getting back into our little world here.
It's been since June that I actually wrote an update, so I'm going to go back in time to July 4th! For those of you on Facebook, you may recall that I was in France, worked as usual, but Rod was with me by the 14th of July and we had a nice day off together. Here in Shenyang on the 4th of July, Rod was his American Patriot self and, true to form, he got out his tenor tuba and stood at attention outside the IC hotel and under the Chinese flag in the shadow of the biggest Mao statue in the world, played the US National Anthem perfectly to a small crowd of curious Chinese and some fellow Americans! One of our American friends took his picture as I show below! I was and still am very proud of him and grateful for his service to our country!
Rod Playing the Star Spangled Banner in Shenyang China on the 4th of July 2010 in front of our home, the Intercontinental Hotel, standing under the Chinese and US Flags
After Rod joined me in France, I had to work for a few more days in Clermont. As many of you know, I work for Michelin, and Clermont-Ferrand, France is the world-wide headquarters for them. While he was in Clermont, he did some exploring on his own and took a few pictures around town. I go there quite often, so it's not noteworthy for me, but I have to admit, I was very pleased he took some pictures. I don't think I've ever taken any and so I'm pleased to share them.
Center of town "Place de Jaude" in Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Last year, Michelin created a very nice museum in Clermont. They had always had a small one, but it was difficult to access. Now, they have a 1st class place and for those of you on this list who will have the occasion to go to "Adventure Michelin", do it...it's well worth 2-3 hours to see the history and evolution of the company over the past 100+ years. One of the highlights of the museum is the "Micheline, a train that rode on tires". It was inspired by a rough train ride. One of these trains still runs in Madagascar (almost reason enough for me to go there to see it...in addition to the interesting wildlife!)
Rod standing in front of a restored "Micheline" train in the Michelin museum in Clermont-Ferrand, France
For those of you who are interested in the history of Michelin, check out the following link:
http://www.aventure-michelin.com/
As of the 19th of July we were on vacation! As I said in my last mail, we took a train tour through parts of Europe. Several of you have said you'd like to hear the tales and see pictures of our vacation, so I'll include some in this and future updates.
Our trip started when we went to Thiers, France on a mission (my mission, not necessarily Rod's!) to get some cutlery for our apartment in China. Thiers is known for their knives and we went there several years ago when we lived in France. We didn't have a car, so we took the bus from Clermont (about 1 hour away) and shopped around the knife stores in search of a set that would go with a set I bought 13 years ago that was now of course, in storage! (I knew that would be an impossibility, but still held out hope!). Found the pattern and they still made the knives, but not the forks and spoons...so we ended up buying a different set. It was made there in Thiers and so I was happy. Rod reminded me I could have bought 10 sets in China for the price of that one...but he had to admit the quality was not comparable either! Thiers is a small town, and, like may French towns, it's built on a hill with the Church in the center. On of the things that is so beautiful about most any town in France is the flowers! They have the beautiful hanging geraniums everywhere!
A typical building in Thiers, France on a Friday afternoon. The window boxes with the flowers are just beautiful,and what a nice place to put a bench!
So, that's about it for this update...I went to work for a little while on Friday just to reacquaint myself ! I'll go back on Monday and I'll be in China for a little while now...at least until mid September!
Thanks for your prayers for safe travels...we really enjoyed our trip, but we're glad to be back home!
Sarah & Rod
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