Rummaging

We've been trying to sort through our things and unpack for the last couple days. It's been.... fun, I guess.

When we packed our stuff (in 2009), and when I went out to storage to sort it (in March), we had no idea where we'd be living. There are various housing options, even here in Shenyang. They range from a free-standing house with a yard or an apartment outside the city, to a high-rise apartment that's part of a hotel or a serviced and fully furnished apartment like we have. Don't get me wrong, everything is furnished, but furnishings range from basic (tables, chairs, beds, etc) to complete (pots and pans, pictures hung, decorations and rugs). We needed to be prepared for the former and ended up with the latter.

So as the movers were bringing stuff in, they kept wondering where they were going to put everything. So did we!

So DO we!

We had the apartment management take away a bunch of stuff (most of the dishes, a bit of the furniture, etc). They were surprised at every request. I guess most people who move into an apartment like this don't bring the kitchen sink with them. Well, enter the Fishers.

We're sorting through things, organizing the kitchen, putting books on shelves, and it almost looks like we will find a place for most of it. It's been funny to see what sorts of things we ended up with, though.

When I sorted through our storage in Maryland, the boxes were generically labeled, and I had no idea what was in them. One box, though, was labeled "Comics." I was pretty sure it was either Kevin's childhood comic book collection or his series of Chinese comic books. We decided to leave them in storage. However, now that we've unpacked and found the childhood and the Chinese comics (as well as the children's books and our DVDs, which were my 2 other guesses), I have NO IDEA what might be in that box that we left in America. Any ideas?

I'll tell you what we DID end up with, though. When we stored our things at Kevin's parents' house in Washington, they were in the same space as his brother Ryan's childhood memorabilia. Even though it was clearly marked and separated, covered with a tarp, and OBVIOUSLY not part of our things, we ended up with boxes and boxes of pictures, yearbooks, and an extensive Coke bottle collection. Ryan, if you want to swing by and pick it up, we'll have it here for you!

We had a set of dining room chairs that we left in Maryland, however, all the cushions wound up here in China.

Along with a few other surprises, I'm just frustrated with how shuffled all the boxes were! I had baby clothes sorted by age and size in cute little boxes. Instead of keeping them as-is, they were all unpacked and used to cushion the rest of our stuff. And then it's not like we had 3 boxes of Ryan's stuff mixed in among our boxes. Oh no, it's like a handful of stuff on top of one box is Ryan's, and the rest is ours-- kitchen stuff, some books, and maybe a few towels from the bathroom. Ugh!

But I have my bread-maker back. Chinese bread is all white (the whole-wheat has a fleck or two of bran in it), has a weird too-sweet taste, and comes in bags of 8 slices. I am so excited to make me some bread tonight!

And maybe someday-- in 15 years or so-- we'll get to put the cushions back, return Ryan's stuff, and find out what exactly's in that Comic book box.