Sing this to the tune of that Russian Beatles hit: "We're back in the US of A" ... and we are very happy to be here.
We took off from Shanghai on Friday, Jun-27th on the last day of school. Above are some pictures of Marco and Maria leaving Newton preschool for the last time. They will be attending Dulwich next year with the other two Cazzato children. Marco and Maria's teachers expressed great sadness that their favorite students were not returning next year. I suppose they are paid to say that.
Juliana and Joseph were picked up next. We attended Dulwich College's "Recognition and Prize Day" ceremony where Juliana was one of only two 4th year (3rd grade) students to receive an award for academics.
As we left Dulwich, the rain in Suzhou that has persisted for almost three weeks was pouring down in buckets and we all got drenched before the long drive to the airport. The drive was very slow with many traffic delays due to the weather. Things got worse when our driver Michael tried a new route to the airport and got lost. We were seriously contemplating the likelihood that would miss our flight to Chicago and have to try to get six standby seats the next day.
We made it to the airport in time to be the last passengers to check in and were very relieved. After the harrowing and suspenseful trip, the weather ended up delaying the flight two hours on the tarmack, so our 15 hour flight became a 17 hour flight.
None of these challenges, however, could dim our enthusiasm for the annual home leave, particularly for Kathleen and the kids since they had been away from America for nearly 10 months.
Our good friend and neighbor, Greg, picked us up at the airport while Margaret and their children, waited at our house to greet us for our homecoming. Greg and family were the last people we said goodbye to on our last night in Peoria last August and the first people to greet us upon our return. It was a wonderfully warm welcome and we are truly grateful to have such great friends.
We took off from Shanghai on Friday, Jun-27th on the last day of school. Above are some pictures of Marco and Maria leaving Newton preschool for the last time. They will be attending Dulwich next year with the other two Cazzato children. Marco and Maria's teachers expressed great sadness that their favorite students were not returning next year. I suppose they are paid to say that.
Juliana and Joseph were picked up next. We attended Dulwich College's "Recognition and Prize Day" ceremony where Juliana was one of only two 4th year (3rd grade) students to receive an award for academics.
As we left Dulwich, the rain in Suzhou that has persisted for almost three weeks was pouring down in buckets and we all got drenched before the long drive to the airport. The drive was very slow with many traffic delays due to the weather. Things got worse when our driver Michael tried a new route to the airport and got lost. We were seriously contemplating the likelihood that would miss our flight to Chicago and have to try to get six standby seats the next day.
We made it to the airport in time to be the last passengers to check in and were very relieved. After the harrowing and suspenseful trip, the weather ended up delaying the flight two hours on the tarmack, so our 15 hour flight became a 17 hour flight.
None of these challenges, however, could dim our enthusiasm for the annual home leave, particularly for Kathleen and the kids since they had been away from America for nearly 10 months.
Our good friend and neighbor, Greg, picked us up at the airport while Margaret and their children, waited at our house to greet us for our homecoming. Greg and family were the last people we said goodbye to on our last night in Peoria last August and the first people to greet us upon our return. It was a wonderfully warm welcome and we are truly grateful to have such great friends.
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