San Francisco Gathering Cancelled.

The gathering in San Francisco at the Tonga Room has been cancelled due to time constraints and schedule conflicts. Basically, we have to be in Chengdu by Aug 3rd and there is simply no time left. We are truly sorry about the inconvenience but we look forward to seeing everyone when we return!

Love to all,
The Fagan Family

Contact Information

Hello!

It's official, the landlord signed the lease yesterday!
So, here is our address in China:

11-1, China Garden, No, 9, Tong Zi Lin Dong Rd, Wu Hou District, Chengdu, China

Our phone numbers, both mobile and home, will follow in a couple of weeks.
We hope you are well and happy.

All good things,
Harley, Lisa & Harley

Chapter One: What a way to start.

Hello everyone!

Well, after a rocky beginning, we are finally looking forward to our new adventure in Chengdu, China.

I created this blog to keep you all abreast of what the latest happenings are with us in China. Because keeping everyone up to date is a major chore on “MySpace” and “face book”, this will be the only forum I will use for our China adventure, although I will probably let everyone on both of those sites know that there is a new post to this blog.

As most of you know, we had to cancel our going away party here in Arizona, although you may not know why, so here's the full story.

On the night Harley and I were due to fly out of SFO, June 23rd, we stopped at Lyon's restaurant to grab some dinner before our flight. When we came back out to the car, we noticed that the driver side passenger door window was smashed out. We looked inside and found both of our backpacks.... gone! Among the items taken were both of our laptops, my cell phone and iPod, Harley's day planner and passport, (mine was on my person) little man's passport, all of our medical and dental records and every password to every online account we have, (we we're going to pay bills while we were there.) So much for a "welcome home."

Needless to say, we were devastated and we could not fly out. Luckily, because we were all three born in California we could obtain our birth certificates in person and fast track Harley's passport replacement, which is what we did.

It was replaced by Thursday, June 26th and we were on a flight out to China the next day!

Now, at the time, we were both in emergency mode, and the impact of getting stolen from didn't really hit me..... Until we arrived in China, that is. I did my best to hold my head up and do what needed to be done, but I have to admit that losing two years worth of photos hit me harder than anything had in years! I missed my son tremendously and just wanted him near me, but he was in good hands with our dear friends David and Alicia Baedeker, so I knew I didn't have to worry about him!

So, back to Chengdu. It really is an amazing place and much more "city" than we thought it would be. On the first day we took a taxi and went out and about together, to an outdoor "mall" where we found prices for upscale things like cosmetics 2 to 3 times higher than here in the U.S. There was also a public display of photos from the recent earthquake that devastated the area and displaced thousands of people. Some of the photographs were extremely hard to view, but very profound, and I was surprised that they were allowed to be in public view but also glad to see them displayed. Later, in the evening, Harley and I set out on an adventure by walking across a gorgeous bridge that also held a restaurant atop of it. We drank 2$ Budwiesers while watching little bats "swoop" to catch the millions of little bug in the air. The "Bridge Restaurant" is pictured far below, with the Shangri-La in the background.

On the second day, Harley had to go to Intel to replace his stolen laptop. He ended up having to be there from 10a to 8pm so I had the day to myself. We met up in the pub at the Shangri-La where we were staying for dinner.

The third and fourth days were the beginning of our house hunting chapter, led by Miss Faith Chen, and we saw many nice properties to choose from, although we really liked two particular properties, located in China Garden, better than any other! We checked out where Harley will attend school,(see photo below) found a great bookstore, and saw where many westerners like us grocery shop as well as other ex-pat hangouts. Faith was a wonderful tour guide and a terrific consultant! We are really glad we met her!



On the fifth day we interviewed three drivers and conference with our car consultant, Mr. Yao.

All in all I really think this relocation will be a great thing and all three of us are really looking forward to this new chapter in our lives. It will be very hard, not having our friends and family around, or in close proximity, but we know we will be back before we know it because time really does fly! Also, I have had the good fortune to connect with a fellow Intel ex-pat who lives in Chengdu. Her name is Kim Dallas and she is truly wonderful! Her husband works for Intel and they and their two children have been in Chengdu for three years, with another two years on their horizon! We have not met in person yet because she was in the states visiting her family while we were in Chengdu, but we look forward to meeting up with them as soon as we arrive. (This should be easy because they live in China Garden too!) Kim has really been wonderful and made so many terrific suggestions, I honestly don't know what we would have done without her help, recommendations, and guidance. Thank you Kim!!!!

So, there you have it. Not the best way to start out our new journey but we know things will get better over time and we'll be able to let go of what was lost and move on with our lives!

One final thing. Because of the loss of time due to the theft, we will not be leaving Arizona until August 1st or 2nd so hopefully we will be able to reschedule a gathering with everyone before then. I'll keep you posted!

Love to all & all good things!
Lisa and the Harleys