Counting the days on the fingers--10 Days

Hello Friends and Family,
Well, we've got a week and a half before we are out of the country! We are busily preparing, trying to wrap up loose ends here and pack and prepare for our adventure there. As you can see, I have strategically laid out all of our luggage so that we can effectively place the items that are traveling with us in the suitcases this week. We hope to be all packed by the end of the week, so we can relax at Triangle Lake with our friends, and then do a final check and rest the last two days we're in the states.


Yesterday we had quite the day shopping. We were told by many people that it is hard to find our size shoes in China. So, after trips to Joe's, Payless Shoe store and Ross, we came away with 10 new pairs of shoes. Normally we would never ever buy that many shoes in one day, I usually have only two to three pairs of shoes ever, but since we are going to be in the land of little shoes, we decided we had best stock up. So, I think we have enough shoes...hopefully. We have two suitcases each, a carry on bag, and a personal item; a guitar for me and the laptop for Kealy. We might have to stuff our pockets with random items as well to take everything we want with us. It will be nice that we can buy a lot of items over there (i.e. hairdryers, razors, alarm clocks, etc.) but it has still been hard trying to downsize and fit everything in. Oh well, it's just stuff.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

Food blog? Bird blog? Travel blog? Blog, Blog, Blog!

Hello Friends and Family,
Wow! What a great weekend! We had a lot of fun getting to spend time with friends in Salem and be encouraged by our family there. We are down to under two weeks before we take off, and we have our suitcases strewn about our apartment as we begin to clean/pack/prepare for our adventure. Last night we received two great gifts: A Chinese bird book and a journal! Now, to some of you, that may not seem like much, but for me, I am really excited about this book. Being the lover of the birds that I am, I will be able to continue my hunting for the new species in China while we are there. Many of the great friends that we have been given pitched together and bought us the book and a journal, so that we can keep track of the exciting things about to happen. And, at the request of Conrad Venti, we will also be keeping a blog about what we are eating in China, as well as the birds that we see. So, this blog will be for fun, cultural things, sort of-everyday living-as it were, as well as our teaching experiences. We will have another blog that you can link to and sample the different kinds of exciting foods we have been eating and, if you are so inclined, I will keep a blog of the birds that I have spotted while in China. We may even create a blog for our different traveling trips that we are hoping to take. Hopefully this will give you guys plenty of opportunities to experience and enjoy our adventure with us. We will miss you all so very much, but we are very glad that we can continue to communicate with you. I will continue to post more frequently as the substance of our lives becomes more exciting and inclined toward our adventure in China! You can click on one of the links to the right and see the other blogs as they are begun.

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson

See the city-20 Days

Hello Friends and Family,

Wow! Less than three weeks and we will be on the plane to the Far East! We are getting very excited and enjoying getting a chance to see all of you and hope to see those of you that we haven't said goodbye to yet very soon. We are staying very busy doing a few last minute things, but we found this video on Nanning and thought, for those of you that might be interested, that you could click on and check out the city. The video is a bit of an advertisement, but it has some great shots of the city and exciting things that take place in Nanning. So enjoy!

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy Thorson


Here's the link for the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S69i3rbFPjI&mode=related&search=

Thank you Friends and Family-24 Days

Hello Friends and Family,
We have been touched by all the love from all our family and friends through our transition. We have been staying busy by traveling back and forth to sandy and salem seeing lots of people we care about. If we haven't gottin to see you yet, we want to before we leave. Ryan is busy painting house/sheds and working around the older Thorson's home while they are out of town. It's been fun spending time with my parents and my brothers here in sandy/gresham. I'm painfuly trying to finish my last class, it seems to haunt me. We just recieved word that are travel visas are in and ready to pick up. Ryan is all done getting his shots and I have two more to go in the series. WOW, I can't believe that we are going to be in another country less than a month, but WOW how exciting/scary. Thanks to all who are taking the time to hang out with us, it means a lot.

Sincerely,
Kealy and Ryan Thorson

Thank you Friends and Family

Hello Friends and Family,

A New Addition To Our Family...Its a MAC!-30 days

Hello Friends and Family,

That's right. After months of hard labor and eager expectations of saving money and deciding the best computer to take to China with us, we have finally recieved our very own MacBook! It came today via FedEx and it is everything we hoped it would be. We have already put a bunch of photos and music onto the computer. It is so easy and simple to use. This will be a great way for us to keep track of pictures and videos while in China and be able to transfer them to you for your viewing pleasure. Less than a month and counting. Please continue to pray for our preparations. Thank you for you love and support!

Sincerely,
Ryan and Kealy

Uh Whoa! Where the month go?--37 days

Hello Friends and Family,

My apologies for the blog tardiness. The last month has been a complete whirlwind...I think I forgot to blink...or a blinked and it was gone...not sure how that saying goes. Anyways, things have been really busy as we are still counting down the days. Fortunately, we've had great support from family and friends. Here's a brief recap on the past couple of weeks.

-Sine Die (end of legislature) on June 28th, finished up work on July 3, will miss everybody

-Kealy's 24th B-Day...Had fun with friends on Sunday...Momma Jo made a great b-day dinner

-Seeing miracles in the life of Brandon Scarth as he continues to heal from his car accident

-Moved in with the parents to save rent and have fun...loving the air conditioning.

-Getting shots and medical check-ups left and right for the ride to the far east.

-Applied for tourist visa and waiting to here reply

-Had fun at Triangle Lake...future mid-high camp site...with Lopez family

-Crashed with Jamisons in Salem for a crazy fun night with Clay, Gracie and Shelby

-Kealy's working her tail off to finish her last week and a half of school

-Ryan's unemployed...whoohoo...but staying way too busy

-Gonna jump in with the marimba band this weekend and hit some sticks on wood

That's just a quick update and as you can see, a whirlwind of a past couple weeks. Please think of Kealy as she finishes school. She's feeling the grind and ready to be done, I am so proud of her. I hope we can wrap up loose ends here before we leave and have energy to spend time with the people we love...YOU! Peace, love and hoppy ness (not a typo, you really should try hopping!)

Sincerely,

Ryan and Kealy Thorson