As is typical of air travel, thus far, our flights have all been delayed. The first an hour and the second two hours. That left us leaving Vancouver BC for the trans-Pacific flight at 4:00 a.m.
The flight, except for the waiting time at the Portland Airport, to BC was uneventful. Evening is definitely a great time to fly. The airport was quite empty – and so from the time we were dropped off at PDX to the time we found the gate we needed (including checking two bags) was less than 20 minutes. Combined with the fact that they tell you to be there 3 hours early and the flight was an hour late, we had a LONG wait before we could leave. So we took the time to stroll the entire airport and grab some dinner. It was nice being together – it's been a long time when just the two of us have had that much “alone” time!
The wait in Vancouver B.C. was more annoying, just because of the time of night. We ended up having a 4 hour layover during the wee hours of the morning. For those of you who have never been to the Vancouver International Airport – you are missing something! Wow – it looked more like the Forest Learning Center up on Mount Saint Helens than an airport. The area we went through to change planes, so that we didn't have to go through customs and security again, looked like it was originally a visitor's center. It was decorated and designed to look like you were walking through the woods! We were the only people going through that section at all – it was upstairs and kind of it's “own thing”. The guard there that checked us through looked really bored :-). We got a picture of Michele on one of the bridges there.
Then later as we were strolling through the airport we came across a 12' wide, 40' long “river” flowing, complete with river rocks and fake fish, through the middle of the airport. It was like a fountain, but designed to look like you were outside in the woods instead of inside a large building. There were plants and trees all around, and not too far from there was a giant aquarium with fish over a foot long!
We rested and ate during our wait and finally were able to board the plane. It took almost 45 minutes before we finally taxied down the runway. We slept on and off during the flight. We cruised at about 31500 feet at speeds ranging from 550 to 600 miles per hour. And at that height it's great to have a pressurized, environmentalized cabin. The temperature outside was a negative 56 degrees! And how did we know all that? This airplane, a 777, is equipped for making long flights more bearable. On the back of each seat is a computerized display that tells you all of your flight information as well as having movies to watch, music to listen to and games to play. It's quite nice. Charles' display didn't work well, and my A/C plug and his headphone jack didn't work well either. But, it was still fun to have a few different things to do while we waited. Sleeping on a plane isn't the greatest – especially for Charles – he's so big compared to the seats that there aren't too many different ways he can sit comfortably.
Charles is fairly used to traveling. For Michele this was a totally different experience. She hadn't flown on a plane in 10 ½ years (and that flight was just to and from Salt Lake City, UT. Michele felt like a little kid with her nose pressed against the window during the first flight. She also felt the heartache at leaving her children for two and a half weeks. While she knows that the families she has entrusted them with will love them and take care of them well, she still misses them terribly. Each baby or child she saw would evoke smiles or tears. She was amazed at the number of babies she saw being carried in front packs – including a seven month old on the BC to Hong Kong flight.
We were seated during this flight in a row of three. Charles had the window, Michele in the middle and an Asian young man in the aisle. He was kind enough (and humored at the prospect) to show Michele how to use chopsticks. Charles enjoyed watching that :-).
Our flight took us along the coast of British Columbia, up over Anchorage Alaska and we crossed the international date line about at the point that Alaska and Russia are the closest. Then we continued down in an arc from there and went over Fukuoka Japan. We turned east and headed straight to Hong Kong.
The landing was uneventful really, as was the disembarking. But the Hong Kong airport is truly amazing. While Charles and I could easily walk the entire Portland airport in our leisure time, that wasn't even a choice in the Hong Kong airport. After getting off the plane, all three hundred plus of us went down a really long hallway and down escalators and down more long hallways and more escalators (which by the way, we rode on more escalators in 2 days than in the last 10 years...). Until finally we got to a subway – all still in the airport. We all got on the subway (it was huge) along with lots of other people. Then we rode that for several minutes (it went quickly too) before finally getting off and riding even more escalators and walking down more hallways. We finally got to the immigration office and stood in line. We were only in line 15 minutes or so – so that wasn't bad.
We could already tell the difference in climate – large parts of the airport weren't air conditioned, or at least not very well. After going through immigration we were able to claim our checked baggage (and were dismayed to find that they broke a handle on one of our bags that had previously been in good shape!). But they didn't lose any of it, so we weren't complaining too much. Then we found a place to sit and figure out what we were doing next.
It took us probably an hour to figure out what we wanted to do. We then went through customs and boarded a train. One of the kids asked Michele before we left if we would be riding a train on the trip. She told him probably not. Boy was she wrong!
The train was quite plush and quite empty – we were very surprised. In the airport we had each purchased what they call an “octopus card” that allows you to travel on all the trains and subways in the city. The train ride was really neat and we took many pictures.
It was amazing how much open, undeveloped space there was. There was A LOT of untouched area. As we were flying into the airport we descended low over the islands that make up much of Hong Kong we noted that there weren't much in the way of beaches. It's like mountains that just pop up out of the water. We always joke about Kalama being hilly – it's nothing compared to Hong Kong. The natural areas are probably natural because they are so mountainous. To make room for an international airport, they had to fill in a lot of land, and the runway starts just after the land does. A boy in the seat behind me as we were landing said to his mom (he was probably about 8) “Mom, we are really close to the water. Is that a bad thing?” and then a few seconds later, with a little more alarm “Are we going to be doing a water landing??” She assured him we would indeed be landing on the ground and NOT the water.
The first part of the train ride was great for picture taking. But as it got closer to city, more and more was under ground. We got off at the station we were told to and with some difficulty, found our first connection to another train. That train was our first experience with what REAL subways in Hong Kong are like. No plush seats and emptiness here ! Standing room only! We transferred again to another train – this time it was really easy figuring out where we were supposed to go. But as we traveled further, the standing room only became more like “is there even breathing room here???”. And remember, we were hauling all our luggage too! We transferred yet again to another train before we reached our destination.
Because we got in so early, our hotel room wasn't ready – it wouldn't be ready until 3:00. So in the airport we decided to first stop by the mission office. Ann Marie Van Blankenstein had given us a small package to deliver there. A friend of her's had a daughter serving in the Hong Kong mission. The mission home was located right next to the temple, and since we wanted to go to the temple the next day, we figured it was good to find out where it was. The problem, was that it was about 90 degrees outside with even higher humidity, we were hauling all our luggage, it was raining off and on (enough to get us wet, but not enough to protect us from getting burnt) and the mission home/temple was at least ½ a mile from the train stop – all up hill. Whew!
The underground train stations were air-conditioned somewhat, and the trains themselves were well ventilated so that when it was moving you had a strong breeze blowing on you and it made it quite comfortable. But hiking up toward the mission office wasn't pleasant. We hadn't really gone very far (even though it seemed like it) when I looked over and saw a Caucasian man crossing the street towards us. I'd say only about 5 percent of the population here is Caucasian. He had on a black name tag, but it looked funny. My first thought was “missionary?” but the tag didn't look right from a distance. But as he got closer and was obviously heading for us I saw that the reason it looked funny was the normal text on the tag was in Chinese and only his last name was in English. I then noticed his wife that was ahead of him. We all greeted eachother warmly. I think they thought we were a little nuts carrying all our luggage up the hill. They were from Northeastern Washington and so we talked for a few minutes. They offered, and we agreed, to take the package for us to the mission office, since that's where they were headed. They knew the sister the package was for and assured us it would reach her.
So we gratefully headed back to the semi-airconditioned train terminal to figure out our next move. We decided to head for the hotel (it was 11:15 by this point) and find out if there was a place we could stash our luggage until we could officially check in. So we boarded another train, transferred only once this time and got off at what we figured to be the closest station to the hotel. We got up on the road and walked, with all our luggage, there. It was a mixed feeling. Here, we were finally “experiencing” the “real” Hong Kong. Our route took us past many street vendors and shops and past lots of people. The problem was, we were hauling all this luggage and were miserably hot and tired! We had over 50lbs we were carrying – and large suitcases just aren't meant for those kind of distances. Our progress was slow, but we tried to make the most of it by soaking up everything around us. We ended up walking a long distance before reaching the hotel.
Along the way we noted all sorts of interesting things. First off, and I think most importantly, the people are VERY friendly here – whether they be vendors, pedestrians or civil workers. And yes, there are a lot of people, but the train system was definitely more crowded than the sidewalks along the road we were walking on. It was more like any typical large American city as far as the number of pedestrians. The lack of traffic I found quite startling. While there were cars parked along the sides of the roads almost consistently, the traffic wasn't any more crowded – or even less so – than that of say downtown Woodland. About half of the vehicles were privately owned cars. A quarter were taxis (all red and all looking the same) and a quarter were buses. Wow – my dad would find this city neat. The British influence is very strong. We took several “lifts” (elevators), saw many “misspelled” signs (spelled in the British fashion) and found that all cars are have the steering wheel on the right, not the left. Now, as far as which side of the street they drive on, I'm not exactly sure yet. It's kind of hard to tell – it seems to be mostly a free-for-all when it comes to picking where you are going to drive... And they park their cars in the lanes of traffic – so you have a two lane (one way) street with no shoulders, and cars parked on both sides of the street. So it turns it into a one-lane (tight) road. Pedestrians use the crosswalks and crosswalk signals as suggestions. You can tell American tourists right away. They stand there waiting for the “walk” light to change before crossing. The locals look at it, look both ways and then cross no matter what it says.
About the time we thought we were going to die we finally got to the hotel. We were thrilled when they took our luggage to stow for us while we explored the rest of the city. We just carried along the notebook bag (with computer, paper etc... in it) and I popped some pepto-bismal pills in my pocket. Then we set out to explore the city and figure out some place to eat lunch. We hadn't eaten since the breakfast on the plane at 6:00 and were pretty famished. We meandered down the streets until we found a place that was called the “food center”. And that was a pretty apt description of it. The first floor was fresh meat and fish (much to Charles' nose's displeasure!) The second floor was all fresh vegetables and fruit and the third floor was a series of privately run “ma and pa” restaurants. Now, the way this whole thing was set up was very different than what we are used to in America. This building was set up like a Farmer's market. You could buy fish and meat on the bottom floor from dozens of different vendors all set up trying to sell you things as you walked by. The same with the second floor of fresh produce. The third floor was no different. It was just one big open room and each vendor's tables flowed into the next's. It was really interesting. The vendor that ended up getting our business was the one who spoke excellent English and really went out of our way to “accommodate” our tastes and suggested things that might ease our palates from Western to traditional Chinese food. Charles had a spaghetti noodle base with pork and veggies and a tomato juice (not sauce) flavoring. I had a rice dish with eggs some other unidentifiable things. It was pretty good actually – I think I like traditional Chinese food more than American Chinese. It tends to be less greasy and less flavored with extra things. We had been advised to take one pepto-bismal tablet before eating anything over here and we did. It seemed to work because even though we were eating in something that wasn't a normal restaurant – we had no ill-effect from it.
Once our tummies were full, we wandered down and tried to figure out what to do next. There was a harbor cruise we wanted to take, but had a hard time figuring out how to get there. So we boarded the underground train and got as close as we could figure out. Then we asked for help from a worker there and she pulled it up on phone and showed us a map of where we were and where we wanted to be. Unfortunately those two weren't very close together! So we decided to hop up to the road and try to grab one of the billions of taxis we kept seeing zipping around. That proved to be really difficult as well. They were always full! So after vainly trying that route, we walked half a block over and happened to notice a classic “vendor street” where there were dozens of vendors and hundreds, or more, of people crowding and filling up a whole street. It was quite an experience. This is where the bargaining, selling and haggling occurred as a matter of course. The first thing we bought was a hat for each of us. We had left our hats in our luggage and we each found one we liked better – and they only cost us $5 each! All in all, prices at the vendors were better than things you'd find most anywhere in the US.
We spent most of the afternoon here, looking, watching and even buying a few souvenirs. It was hot, and Charles endured it well while Michele debated and haggled tried to figure out what she wanted :-). We finally made it back to the hotel around 4:45 totally EXHAUSTED, hot, soaked in sweat and dirty. We were very dismayed (to put it lightly) that the room we had been told would be ready at 3:00 wasn't going to be ready for another half an hour. In the states that would have been totally unacceptable. But apparently, they are much more laid back here. Checkout is 12:00 unless you want to stay later. You can pay a extra and have the room as late as 6:00 – even if someone else has it booked for that next night.
Michele was NOT happy. Water is a scarcity here – you DON'T drink it from the taps – you only have bottled water. IShe assumed the hotel would provide drinking water (even in the form of a drinking fountain) and was told there would be water in our hotel room, but that it wasn't ready yet. She was really dehydrated at that point, and looked pretty bad, because when she told the person behind the desk that she REALLY needed a drink, he ran outside and came back a few minutes later with a bottle of water. Come to find out, he ran next door to a store and bought it! We don't know if he did it on his nickel, or our's but Michele was grateful. We sat in the slightly air-conditioned lobby until our room was finally ready. We came up and found that while the hallways weren't air-conditioned, the room at least was. It wasn't super cool, but it was better than anything else we'd had recently. But we were again dismayed to find that we didn't have luggage! It took about 45 minutes to track it down (mostly due to language barriers). Fewer people speak good English than Charles thought there would be. Many (not most) speak passable English, but few speak good English.
Michele took a shower while Charles tracked down the luggage. At that point, she was too tired to eat – she just wanted sleep! But Charles was famished, so we headed back out and stopped by McDonalds (traditional Chinese food is not Charles' favorite!). We then came back to the room and Michele typed a quick email letting the people watching our kids that we were still alive and then crashed (about 9:00). At that point we had been up for 44 hours with just the sleep we managed to catch on the plane. I don't think I'd ever been so tired!
Michele woke up about 5:00 this morning thinking of all the things she wanted to type – so she got up while Charles' slept. Then we switched and slept while he worked :-).
Saturday was a full day – even though we really only did two things! We first went down and explored around the hotel looking for a place to eat breakfast. We finally found one, but were disappointed with the fare. It ended up being a Chinese version of a fast food restaurant. The food was served to us almost immediately, and was Chinese (as opposed to being an American fast food restaurant) but it was pretty low quality. Charles was disappointed that his sausage ended up being nothing more than plain cheap hotdog :-).
Hong Kong's underground train system is what every big city imagines having. It's efficiency and quality are beyond superb – they are unbelievable. The trains run every two minutes in most places 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Even the escalators in the terminals are designed to move people quickly – they are much faster than what we have in America. The trains run mostly underground in the city and drop you off at just about any place you want to go. They have designed the terminals so that it's easy in most cases to hop from one train to the next. It truly is amazing. Even the ventilation in the train is excellent.
After breakfast we went up and changed and headed over to the temple. It took us about an hour to get there from our hotel. Things are so different here than at home – we think of “time” as the amount of time in the car to get somewhere. We took the MTR (the underground train system) there, but the actual train travel time is pretty short – maybe 15 minutes or so was actually spent on the train. The rest of the time was spent getting to the station, transferring trains and getting from the station to the temple. The weather was miserably hot and sticky, and we had to walk up hill to get to the temple (but at least this time we didn't have a bunch of luggage!). It felt so good to finally get inside the cool air-conditioned temple. The temple was small, but the Spirit was strong and the people very friendly.
As we were coming out of the temple a young woman asked, in obviously native English, where we were from. We struck up a great conversation. She was from Alberta, Canada and had spent the last year and a half in Hong Kong as an English teacher. She had been to the temple for the first time, in Alberta, just a couple of weeks before. She lived in Hong Kong, not too far from our hotel and told us how to get to church. Her name was Laura and she was very friendly. She looked like her heritage was Jamaican and she said that she was adopted (natively from Canada). We walked with her back to the MTR station. Then we headed back to the hotel and on the way stopped at a grocery store and bought groceries for snacks as well as breakfast and lunch for Sunday so that we wouldn't have to go out to eat on Sunday.
Then we headed back to the hotel and cooled off and figured out what to do next. We headed out on the MTR to Victoria Bay. There was a light show and ferry ride that we wanted to see. By the time we got there unfortunately, the tickets were sold out. The walk from the MTR station to the bay was significantly longer than we had anticipated. So we bought tickets for the ferry ride an hour later.
There was a bank that was in one of
the sky scrapers near there that we had read about online, that had a
great observation deck near the top. So we walked over there from
the pier we had been at (took us about 25 minutes of walking) but
when we got there the “guard” indicated in broken English that we
(tourists) weren't allowed up there. We were disappointed, but like
everything else, the walk, besides being good exercise, allowed us to
soak up even more of the Hong Kong aura. So we hiked back to the
pier. By missing the first ferry ride we missed most of the light
show. The light show consisted of sky scrapers on each side of the
bay lighting lights in interesting patterns up and down them.
Michele took a few pictures – hopefully they turn out. They also
had colored lights shining from the shore lighting up the buildings
in alternating colored patterns. There was a certain radio frequency
you could turn to and listen to music that matched the patterns of
the lights.
The ferry ride was rather dull – it lasted an
hour and we were both quite finished when it was over! Our last
ferry ride was during our honeymoon when we sailed up to Victoria
from Seattle. We weren't all that thrilled with ferry riding that
time either. We both agreed that a cruise was never going to be a
tempting option. We both like variety and being able to “experience”
not just watch as things go by. After the ferry ride we had the long
walk back to the MTR station and then the train ride back to the
hotel and then the walk from the station to the hotel. We stopped
for dinner at a restaurant between the station and the hotel. The
food was much better here than where we ate at lunch. The prices for
eating out tend to be about a third to half of what they are in the
states. After dinner we came home and packed and finally got to bed
a little after 1:00 a.m.
We were up early in the morning to finish packing and dress for church. We left our luggage at the hotel and took the MTR to church. Thanks to Laura's instructions we found it pretty easily. It was in a large brick building, probably at least 15 stories tall, in one of the nicest sections of Hong Kong. It was near the waterfront, and not too far from where we were the night before. It was strange because the inside was decorated very similarly to church buildings in the United States. If you didn't think about it, the inside looked so much alike to any other church building that you wouldn't remember you were on the other side of the world! The temple decorations had an oriental flair, but the church didn't at all. There are many branches that meet in this building. The first was our's – Victoria first branch. It was about as big as our ward back home. It was an English speaking branch, as are most of them. This branch serves all those people who are in Hong Kong to teach English, families who have been transferred because of work and visitors. There were five or six visitors when we were there, including us. The family sitting behind us in Sacrament Meeting had 6 kids – wow! That was definite rarity. The mom, about my age, said that she would get stopped on the street so people could take pictures of them! They had just moved last week from Tennessee (job transfer). They were definite “Utah Stock” and their blond hair was quite out of place :-). Her kids ranged in ages from 3 months to 10 years. So there is someone as crazy as us :-). We spent a lot of time during the meeting watching their little ones.
The unit we attended met on the second floor in the chapel there, with Sunday school and Relief Society meeting in the chapel. Priesthood met on the sixth floor in a much smaller chapel.
After the meeting we had lunch in the kitchen from sandwich materials we brought. Michele was adventurous at the grocery store and bought what was called a “dragon fruit”. It was fairly bland tasting – kind of similar to a bland kiwi. The color was amazing though – BRIGHT fluorescent pink outside and white with tiny black seeds on the inside. We visited with the sisters in the kitchen who were also eating lunch. They were from the next branch – and had a what we considered a hard life. The entire unit (except for brought in priesthood leadership) was all Filipino women. Their families were all in the Philippines, but they were here themselves, working to support them. They were allowed to visit their children three times a year. They all worked as “domestic helpers” to the richer Hong Kong Chinese people.
After church we scurried back to the MTR station, back to the hotel to grab our luggage and then back to the MTR station for the hour long ride (with four transfers) back to the airport. Only the last transfer was really confusing – but we made it to the airport about 2 hours and 20 minutes before our flight. Then we stood in line to check our baggage for 20 minutes, only to discover we were in the wrong line! So we hurried to the otherside of a huge building, to stand in line again. We finally made it through that line, through security (at which point they made me throw out the rest of the jar of peanut butter I had, but let me keep my carrots), and through customs. We rode a bus from the major terminal to the one our plane was at and arrived about an hour before our flight. Whew!
We made some interesting observations about Chinese culture while we were in Hong Kong. First were the striking contrasts between the rich and the poor. In America people talk about the growing gap between the two, but it is nothing compared to Hong Kong. So many people live in tiny, filthy apartments here – crammed so close to eachother, that you wonder how there can possibly be enough air between the buildings to support life! And then on the other extreme you have the waterfront area that has hotels and recreation spots straight out of “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”.
Second was the SMOKING. Ugh!!! Smoking is a HUGE problem here. All ages from teens on up smoke – everywhere. There are vending machines that dispense cigarettes to anyone with money for them. The only places that we saw smoking not allowed was in the MTR stations and on the MTR trains. The second-hand smoke was thick – everywhere. Hong Kong has very little air pollution because it has very little traffic and industrial sections. But the smoking is horrible.
Third was the prevalence of air conditioners. Even the poorest apartments had two or more air conditioning units in their windows. But while they all did have air conditioning, what they didn't have were clothes dryers. Even the upscale apartments (everyone lives in apartments – no one owns their own homes there) have laundry hanging out on the porch or balcony (sometimes over the street). It was very strange to see!
Next was the Chinese peoples dislike of ice in drinks. If you ask for “just water” you will get hot water by default. If you ask for it cold, you will get it lukewarm. You have to specifically ask for ice (if they even have it) and then you are charged extra for it. Bottled water is always drunk at room temperature. Tea is of course a huge thing, and coffee is second (Starbucks is over here too! :-/ ) so if you don't want either you get REALLY strange looks. And if ice isn't available for your water, another popular drink is hot water mixed with some honey and a few lemon slices. It's actually really good.
We were quite surprised by the level of modesty (clothing-wise) over here. If it got as hot in Washington as it does over here, everyone would be running around in their underwear! But over here the vast majority of people, men and women have modest clothing (shoulders covered, mid-rifs covered, skirts and shorts below the knee). In fact, it was amazing to see how many people, even in the heat, wore long pants – and some even wore long sleeves.
Many people wore disposable masks – like the kind doctors wear during operations – when they were out in town. We couldn't figure out if it was because they were sick and were required to wear them, or if they wore them to keep from getting sick. And along those lines, all of the hand rails and poles and things (like in stores or trains or train stations) were covered in what they said was an “antibacterial coating” to prevent germs from spreading.
Oh, and women over here aren't afraid of saying how old they are. Where that subject is a taboo in our society (for some weird reason), in China it isn't at all. It is stated as matter-of-factly as a child's age would be. We wonder if it's because of the great respect the Chinese culture has for their elders.
What a world-wide city Hong Kong is! After church, there were four sisters talking together in a group (in English): An American (Michele), a Brit, an Australian and a Chinese sister.
The air flight to Fuzhou, China was uneventful and seemed quite short (an hour and a half) compared to the last one! We arrived in Fuzhou and took what seemed to be an odd route in and out of the building to finally get to customs. Except for the guard who never smiled and looked like something out of a video game with his extra large helmet, security and customs was easier here than anywhere else we'd been. In Portland Michele had to be completely “patted down” because of her skirt. Here they didn't do anything like that.
We grabbed our luggage, went out the door and our interpreter was there with a sign with our names on it. She was VERY nice. She was a happy positive person and enjoyable to be around. Her “American name” is Helen. She was with a non-English speaking young man who was our driver. He took our luggage and we all went out to their car – a newish minivan - which was parked really close to the exit. The weather outside was hotter and muggier than Hong Kong. The hotel was about an hour from the airport.
It was amazing to us how much the roads and signage was the same as America. The main roads, looked EXACTLY like freeways back home – even the signs, which were in both English and Chinese, were the same green and white. As we drove, Helen gave us the history of the town and surrounding area. The driver was SCARY. As Charles put it, the people in general are VERY polite and helpful, but when it comes to transportation they are ANIMALS! Wow. Pedestrians mixed with bikes mixed with cars mixed with buses mixed with lots of motorcycles made for a very interesting ride. No real rules over here. Red lights are suggestions and you can turn in an intersection and sit and block the other direction, even if your light is red. Lanes on the road are suggestions as well – it's pretty nutty. Our driver however, was VERY good at what he does. It's just amazing.
Our hotel was MUCH nicer than the one in Hong Kong (prices are much cheaper for things here). This is actually a VERY ritzy hotel – for less than $100 a night. It's rated as the best five star hotel in the city (and this city has 6 million people just inside it's city limits – that's more than 10 times Portland Oregon's in-the-city-limits size). The foyer, restaurant, entrance etc... are just amazing – this is the kind of hotel you only see in magazines or on TV when rich people are getting dropped of out of their Mercedes by their chauffeurs. There was a mix-up with the room and so it took us a while to get settled in. The room itself is one of the “cheap” rooms, but is quite nice and comfortable. And as opposed to the hotel in Hong Kong, this hotel actually has air-conditioned hallways too. We got to bed as soon as we could unpack, shower and prepare for the Monday.
Up to this point, this has been a spectacular trip as far as experiences and sights. But the real reason for the trip occurred on Monday. Monday morning we went down to breakfast in the “cafe” off of the lobby. Breakfast (long story made short) was included in the price of our room. It was a Chinese buffet. Charles had been saying the last three days that he really wanted a Chinese Buffet (so you can actually see the food you are getting!). They had about 50 or 60 different choices of things to eat (some American, some definitely NOT). We had such things as “preserved eggs” and “fried bamboo shoots” and sushi. Some things we didn't try were the “Pig's Blood Soup” and the live clams... It was actually kind fun.
Helen met us in the lobby at 8:15 and we headed out to the adoption office. It was about 15 minutes from the hotel. We were led into a room and just a few minutes later they brought Jonathan in to us. He looked to be in a bit of shock. A very nice lady was carrying him in. We were handed paperwork that told about him and what he could do and what he liked and in a minute we were in shock too, because it said that he could say “mama, and papa, and yes” (the “yes” being the Chinese version). How could a 2 ½ year-old fully deaf child say any thing??? Michele thought it had to be some mistake and brought it up. They assured us it was true and asked us if he was indeed the right child. He certainly was (from the pictures) and we started paying more attention to him. He was quite scared about being in Michele's arms at first, but once we were able to finish the paperwork and get out of the office and into the car again he settled down and sat stone-faced and immobile in her lap (no such thing as child carseats over here!). Our next stop was the grocery store and in there Michele saw the first glimmers of a personality. She carried him the entire morning – She felt it was important to imprint herself on him as much as possible. He started pointing and playing a bit. The longer we watched the more we realized he wasn't deaf – or at least not entirely. Hard of hearing, yes. Deaf, no. That was quite a shock (a pleasant one).
After shopping we got talking with Helen and she said we could get the next three-days of paperwork done right then, if we were sure we wanted him (they give you a day or two just so you can be absolutely sure you want that child). Well, we were SURE. So we went back to the civil affairs office we had been to when we got him. There was another family there at the same time – they were adopting their second Chinese child. We signed all the official paperwork (which included taking pictures) and then headed over the Notary's office. It was funny but predictable, every person we had to talk to about this adoption was shocked by how many children we had. So often the question, even from the Chinese workers, was “why China???”. And “how can you support them?”. The concept of where we live is beyond the grasp of any of the people we've met thus far in our trip. To them “out in the country” means not in an apartment. And “No, I mean WAY out in the country” means “in the suburbs”.
During the notary appointment Jonathan fell asleep in Michele's arms. He slept in the car ride to the next stop – a cell phone store. Charles needed a sim card for his phone (to use for calling around in China when we weren't at the hotel). That was a LONG process – Michele found a lobby-type area where she sat and let Jonathan sleep. She ended up getting in a conversation with a 20-something man who was curious why she had a Chinese little boy. She thinks the big thing was that he just wanted to practice his English (which was “passable” in quality). Right at the end of that Jonathan woke up and we all headed back to the hotel. There we parted with Helen for the day – we were now a “family” - just the three of us – and we had the rest of the day to get to know eachother.
Jonathan was quite shy and unsure of this whole thing at first. But as time went on he relaxed more and more. There was never any more crying (except at bedtime when Michele made him take off the special light up tennis shoes she brought for him...). He became more and more active and curious. To the point that we wonder how we are going to survive with him in a hotel room for two weeks... (if it was cooler, we'd be spending a lot of time outside).
He has been the only child at a foster home for over a year. He was obviously well loved and taken care of. I'm sure this transition is going to be hard. I'm sure his foster mother is having a hard time too. He's quite a special little boy.
He has quite the personality and is quite amazing actually. Yes, he can say three words – Mama, Papa (that is actually the Chinese pronunciation) and “Baba” which is actually, we believe, a take-off of the Chinese word for “no”. There are certain tones, especially in the lower range, that he seems to be unable to hear. But higher noises seem much clearer. Several times he has heard quiet sounds – so we think he can actually hear quite a bit. His volume level when he speaks isn't bad – sometimes he gets too loud (louder than a “normal” 2 ½ year old boy) but for the most part when he vocalizes it is as if he could hear what he was saying. And his “mama” and “papa” are VERY clear – not mumbled at all (as would be typical of a deaf person who had learned to speak. He is VERY active. He is an extrovert – not shy – loves people once he gets comfortable with them. He is VERY observant. Oh wow – there is no other way to put it. We have NEVER seen someone pick up so quickly on something he's only seen once. We think that because he is hard of hearing, he has learned to watch closely to make up for it. He is SOOOO smart. Those two things (and being active) make him quite the handful in a hotel room. We are excited to bring him home to meet his siblings – he'll have no problem keeping up with Steven. And boy, between the two of them, nothing will stop them! As part of his observance, he reads lips. Unfortunately, it's really hard to do that when people are now speaking another language! But he looks intently at people's mouths when they are talking.
Lunch and dinner were KFC brought into our room and snacks we bought at the grocery story when we were in town. Jonathan and Michele took a walk around outside and ran into the family that had been at the Civil Affairs office earlier that day. They were indeed adopting their second child from China. Their first, a girl, was adopted at 21 months, two years ago. Their second is 16 months, a boy, with “crying eye syndrome”. It's a muscle in the face that doesn't work right and one side of his face is droopy. Very easily corrected they said. They are from Holland. It's just amazing who you meet here!
Jonathan got to bed early – about 7:30 because it was a big day for him! It was for us too and we are excited for the next day! He slept very well all night – not a fuss out of him at all.
Jonathan surprised us by sleeping in until almost 8:00. Unfortunately we didn't sleep as well as he did. It will be so nice to get home to our own bed and room!
This morning we tried to talk to the kids at home, but the Internet connection wasn't very good so we are going to try again tomorrow. We had breakfast down in the cafe again - same strange food, except this time we had another mouth to feed. Jonathan wasn't all that thrilled about much of what was there. He really didn't eat all that much today – probably because of the big adjustment of being with us. After breakfast we went out with Helen for a walk. 95 degrees and 90 percent humidity was nasty, but we ended up being out in it for a couple of hours. We walked around the lake that gives our hotel it's name: “Lakeside Hotel”. Most of the area around the lake, and the islands in the lake are parks. Helen showed us the parks and flowers and monuments. It was all rather interesting and there were some really pretty things. We also found out about a new insect (new to us anyway). It sounds like a cricket, but is out during the day instead of evening. But it is REALLY loud - It makes a series of clicks and when you get a lot of them the volume almost hurts your hears. They are called “achoon” or something like that. They are about the size of large beetles (like roaches). We saw coconut trees and lots of Banyan trees and a funny “barkless” type of tree that the natives have nicknamed the naked tree.
On one of the islands we stopped for a couple of minutes at a little playground. It was reminiscent of playgrounds in American of 30 years ago. In many ways, we've seen that China is about a generation behind America. Jonathan LOVED the slide (and wasn't happy when we had to leave). He was very good at climbing ladders. He was very good in the park – he didn't run off or anything. By the time we got back we were SOOO soaked we looked like we had jumped in the lake instead of walking around it. Helen was very surprised because she was just lightly sweaty. It was quite obvious then, that our reluctance to being out in the heat wasn't just because we were “wimpy” but that our bodies physically couldn't handle the heat in the same way her's (and other natives) did.
After that we changed clothes, put Jonathan down for a nap (he fell asleep in Michele's arms on the way home) and washed clothes. Here in China they don't have laundromats. EVERYONE has a washing machine. They do have professional dry cleaners though – which get a lot of business by being located near hotels. It would have cost $1.50 (U.S.) just to have one shirts washed there (and taken 2 days to get it back). Helen took us to the store yesterday and we bought a bar of laundry soap (similar to the Fels Naptha back home) for 30 cents (U.S.). We have since handwashed all our laundry in the sink in the bathroom and hung it to dry in interesting places around the room.
While Jonathan slept Michele worked on writing captions for the pictures she had taken. After that, Charles worked on the website about Jonathan. During that time Jonathan woke up and so Michele and Jonathan went for a walk outside around the hotel building (easier said than done!). By the time they got back they were both soaked again. So Michele again changed her clothes and washed them. Helen was nice enough to bring us dinner from a local Chinese restaurant. Michele and Jonathan went out and investigated the pool. The hotel had a small children's wading pool in addition to a “normal” one. By evening time it was in the shade (and since it was still 80 degrees out it was quite pleasant). Jonathan really didn't like it though. He spent only a few minutes in it before handing Michele her shoes and trying to put them on her. No subtle hint there! He didn't want to go to bed later either – he climbed out of his crib whenever Michele put him in. But he was really tired by 7:30 and Michele rubbed his back like she does for Steven when he's troubled and it put Jonathan right to sleep.
Jonathan is starting to “attach” to Michele (and Charles somewhat). He cries whenever she goes in the bathroom and he isn't allowed in. He makes sure he can always see her. And he likes to sit on daddy's lap and push any computer buttons he can. He also likes being carried by daddy and holding his hand.
Today we were able to do some sight-seeing. After breakfast down in the cafe (and talking to all four older kids on the phone!!!) Helen met us in the lobby and grabbed a taxi for us. She took us a couple of miles away to a historic landmark. The buildings were in a sectioned off block that was dedicated to museums, small shops and old houses. The houses we walked through were from the Ming Dynasty (about 600 years ago). It was interesting. We also walked through a museum of things carved from a special type of very colorful sandstone. It was neat how the artists used the colors in the sandstone to bring out pictures (like a white section would be come a tree and a brown section below it would be a river flowing). We also did a little souvenir shopping. In one of the stores I found a little wooden puzzle for Jonathan (and the other kids when we get home) plus a few other things. The ladies in the store liked Jonathan so much they gave him a little kaleidescope to take home.
By the time we finished it was quite hot out again and we were pretty hot and sweaty. So we headed back to the hotel for Jonathan's nap time. Michele ended up taking a nap too while Charles worked on the computer. In the afternoon later, Michele and Jonathan took another walk outside and found it to be much cooler than expected. A thunderstorm was moving in (first time this trip) and the clouds and wind made the temperature much more bearable. It was only in the upper 80's. Michele and Jonathan came back, grabbed Charles and all went back out got another walk. We enjoyed the cooler weather and not too shortly after getting back the storm hit – with lots of lightening and thunder and a drenching downpour. It was pretty impressive – it didn't last very long though (compared to Washington standards). It rained and then it was done (none of the drizzle we are used to). Dinner was a very expensive Papa John's pizza in the hotel room and then we took another walk – much longer this time – in the evening. Evening is definitely the time to go outside here. It was warm but not too unpleasant (upper 70's, but still very high humidity) and the three of us walked part way around the lake near the hotel. A large part of the lake has a nice boardwalk system around it. So it makes for nice stroll – there were actually a surprising number of people on it in the evening. About 1/3 of the way around the lake from our hotel is a small amusement park. The ferris wheel there lights up in all sorts of fun and bright patterns in the evenings. Out front of the park is a large cobblestone-type area and there Jonathan found a friend. There was another little boy just his size there, with his family, who had a bouncy ball that lit up when it was bounced hard. It took a little while for Jonathan to relax, but eventually he enjoyed running after the ball and bouncing it too. It was hard to drag him away when it was time to go!
It's interesting, the water here is all green. The lakes, the ponds, everything is the same interesting color green. Maybe it's an algae peculiar to China that does this? The water doesn't look like it has algae, and there are NO mosquitoes at all – in fact there doesn't seem to be any type of biting bugs (at least that go after Charles).
Other things of note. Goldfish (or Koi as we think of them) are highly valued and respected here – they are in a lot of the art and stories. Bats are as well. As we were walking on the boardwalk, there were dozens of bats swooping all around, just above people's heads. Noone even seemed to notice. In America the women would have been running screaming...
We got back from our walk a little after 9:00 (the nice thing here in the city is that there are lights everywhere, so it is quite bright for an evening stroll). Jonathan should sleep well (and so should his parents!). It takes quite a bit of energy to keep him occupied here. We are SOOOO looking forward to getting him home (to a bigger house, more toys, more playmates and fewer breakables...).
This morning Jonathan woke up early – about 5:30 and it took Michele some time to quite him back down. He slept fitfully for another hour but then settled down and let his parents get some more sleep, until he got up at 7:30. We took a short stroll outside and then went to breakfast in the cafe again.
For our morning adventure, Helen came over and we took a taxi around the lake to a place called “Panda World”. They have seven Pandas there, including one that travels all over the world doing performances (she's 30 years old which is really old for a panda – they usually live in captivity to about 20). We saw red panda's too that look like red raccoons – we even saw a “show” where they did tricks with their trainers. We then walked from there back to the lake, through parks (with rides like the fair) and back around where we walked last night. All in all it was a couple of miles. The weather was a bit more bearable today – probably in the high 80's. It rained more last night and kept it a little cooler. The humidity was REALLY high though. Michele ended up carrying Jonathan most of the way – by the time we were nearing the end he was sound asleep in her arms.
After washing out our clothes when we got back, we sat down with Helen and went over the next set of paperwork for Jonathan's passport. After she left we talked with each set of our parents (both IM'ing and talking on the phone).
Michele was thrilled yesterday – Jonathan gave his first hug and kiss. She was bent over playing with him and he put his chubby little arms around her, squeezed and kissed the top of her head. She grinned, hugged and kissed him back and he did it again.
Interesting cultural difference here when it comes to potty training. Children are in diapers as infants, but once they are up and walking, the diapers are removed (except for sleeping) and they wear pants with the crotch missing. Then they just “go” where ever they happen to be. Carpet isn't common at all here – most floors are tile or wood. The parent just mops it up and gradually helps the child to figure out to do it in the toilet. Even when they go out in public, the child wears “open crotched” pants (or a dress with no underpants for a girl). If they are out at the park, they just squat and “go” like a dog. We assume if it's a poo, then the parent does something to clean it up. Its not unusual to be out and see a little boy squatting and watering the flowers :-).
Jonathan ended up taking a long nap today – between getting to bed a little late last night and getting up early this morning, he slept 3 ½ hours! Michele napped a bit during that time and Charles even got a little sleep off and on. It was nice just relaxing though, after the craziness of the last few days.
After nap time Michele took Jonathan for another “get your energy out” stroll, while Charles figured out what to do for dinner. We had originally planned on eating at the cafe downstairs for dinner tonight. But then we saw the prices! Ugh. It was equivalent to about $27 US dollars each! Ouch. Considering one of our previous dinners this week was only $1.50 each. (We eat breakfast at the cafe each morning because it's included in the price of our hotel – which Charles corrected me on, including breakfast it's about $75 a night – not bad!). So for dinner, we ended up taking a walk into town. Walking into town is a bit difficult with a rather stubborn little boy. He would only let Michele carry him and half the time he wanted to walk – the other direction. We finally found a restaurant that was the “cheap Chinese” version of McDonalds. It only cost us a total of about $5.50 US dollars to eat there – not too bad and the food, was well, “interesting” (Charles had sandwich that was pretty good). Then we came home, bathed Jonathan and “forced” him to go to bed. He wasn't cooperating much in that department – but he finally settled down :-).
Whew – another early morning from Jonathan – this time though it was 6:30 instead of 5:30! Last night too, a bunch of people came in after midnight talking VERY loudly in the hallways – it sounded like dozens of people all laughing and having a great time :-(. They were out there for at least 15 or 20 minutes being very obnoxious. I wonder how many of them had a little too much to drink...
This morning we had our usual “before breakfast” stroll down the boardwalk along the lake. Then we had our “usual” breakfast and came back up to the room. Jonathan needed to get out about 9:30 (he was getting antsy) so Charles stayed and did computer stuff while Michele and Jonathan wandered around the hotel and surrounding area. Apparently there is a big conference or something happening today here, because there were a large number of people (all dressed in white shirts and black pants or skirts) milling around and talking. The obnoxious part was the SMOKING. Ugh. It was so thick in the lobby and lower floors you could see it. Michele had a sore throat before she was done. Unfortunately this was the day Jonathan wanted to be inside instead of out... She “forced” him to go out though, when she just couldn't stand the smoke anymore. Boy, the Chinese people are going to have a serious lung cancer problem in a decade or so...
When we first got Jonathan, he had a mild cold, and that seems to be mostly clearing up. But he still has a racking cough – that happens if he cries hard, or when he first gets up. Charles made the observation this morning that it really sounds like an asthmatic cough (Charles has asthma, as does Alexander, so we are familiar with that sound). We wouldn't be surprised a bit if he did, considering the smoke he's spent the first 2 ½ years of his life inhaling!!!
Nap time came early today – 11:00, which is good since we need to checkout today and catch a plane this evening to our next city.
Here are some more “cultural differences” to share:
It's suberbly hot and sticky over here, but the Chinese people enjoy the “fresh air”. They all have A/C but don't use it except at night or when a child is taking a nap. Otherwise they leave the windows open.
Yogurt for babies and toddlers is a big thing here. As soon as they can drink from a straw as an infant they are given little cups of yogurt with a straw pushed through the lid to drink, like an American child would drink a bottle. Even at Jonathan's age, he is still used to 2 “bottles” a day. The kind we get at the breakfast buffet are a similar size and style to the pudding cups you can buy for kid's lunches in the US. They have a foil lid that you push a straw through (like a “Capri-Sun”). The more common kind is one that doesn't need to be kept cold. It's about the same volume, but a hard plastic bottle with a small, hard, foil lid that the straw gets punched through. It reduces spilling and you see little kids frequently, sucking on these as they are walking along the street or park. I'm sure this is very good for their little digestive systems. Yogurt has all sorts of good things in it.
We've talked about the transportation differences a little here. In Hong Kong, things were set up very smoothly. Many buses, taxis and trains served most people's needs very well. There were few cars and even fewer bicycles and motorcycles. In mainland, things are quite different. American cities think that encouraging people to use bikes and motorcycles, to reduce traffic and emissions is the answer to all their traffic woes. Anyone who truly believes that, needs to come to a Chinese city. Even the Chinese cities, with many fewer cars, can't cope with all the bikes and scooters! When you do get more than half your population on bikes and scooters, with out planning for them properly (like designated lanes and rules) it turns into an absolute zoo. It's really scary walking on the side walk or crossing the street. America has huge traffic congestion problems, but if all of those people tried to switch to bikes, it wouldn't help. It's hard to say what the best choice is, but blindly saying that all people should take bikes isn't it!
It's interesting looking at the transportation vehicles themselves. The cars are ALL new. It's hard to find anything over five years old. It would be interesting to know what these cars cost over here. It's hard to say that anything over here is a true “motorcycle”. You really don't find anything that big. Most things would be classified as “scooters”. Some are two seaters, some are really old and rusty, some are brand new and shiny. Some even double as bicycles – they can be pedaled or motor-driven. None are very loud. The bikes are reminiscent of America's bikes in the 50's for the most part. A few newer (like 20 year old) bikes are around, but they are hard to find. “Mountain bikes” are very rare – most are wide-seated, “touring” style. Most appear to have been around for quite some time.
Another little note – this may have been mentioned earlier, but in Hong Kong it was interesting that they started numbering all of their building's floors at the “ground” floor. The floor above the ground floor was the first floor. Above that was the second floor. It was really confusing when we asked where something was and they said “it's on the first floor” and we'd say “but we're on the first floor!”. Luckily, on the mainland, things are numbered similarly to America.
Another interesting difference: The Chinese people enjoy swinging their arms and slapping themselves on their back as they walk (in time as they walk) – we assume to improve circulation and just get everything flowing well. It looks quite strange to a Westerner to see people just walking casually, anywhere, and swinging their arms wildly. But if you've never tried it, you should – it really does feel good (but it you are in America, don't do it in public... :-) ).
The afternoon was really boring as we alternated waiting in our room with taking Jonathan out in a smoky hotel with going outside in the heat briefly (we didn't want to spend too much time and get really sweaty outside because we wouldn't be able shower when we got back since we were leaving.) Finally 3:00 came and we went down to a meeting room in the hotel to wait for Jonathan's passport. The other family I mentioned before also came for the same thing. Eventually a police officer arrived (a very young, slightly “I'm not totally sure what I'm doing”, man). The fellow from the Civil Affairs office was there as well and gave us each a gift – a decorative plate with Pandas on it (neat since we got to see the Pandas the day before). The police officer signed the paperwork and gave us Jonathan's passport. I asked for a photo of the Civil affairs person and the officer. They seemed surprised at first, but then realized they liked the idea and soon everyone was exchanging cameras and taking pictures :-).
Then we headed to the airport with Helen and the same driver that brought us to the hotel from the airport. We got there about 3 ½ hours before our flight. Ugh. We really wished it hadn't been so long. The Fuzhou airport is the smallest we've been in yet, and it doesn't take much effort to walk through the ENTIRE thing. It would have been boring by ourselves – but with an active 2 year old!!! Wow. Then or flight was delayed an hour and a half. So make that 5 hours in the airport with an active 2 year old. We were exhausted before even boarding. We ate a light dinner at the airport and were grateful when we finally boarded.
Jonathan did really well on the
flight, considering it was SOOOO late. We didn't get off the plane
until after midnight and Jonathan didn't sleep a bit on the plane.
He got up from his nap this afternoon around 12:30 and didn't sleep
again until we were in the car coming to the hotel around 12:30
midnight. Anyway, the airplane dropped us off really close (for a
huge airport) to the baggage claim area and we actually got out
rather quickly. We met our new guide, whose American name was also
Helen (this could get confusing!!!) and she led us to the van we
would be riding in. A bit older van than the last one – and to
Michele's worry, had NO seatbelts in the back seats at all. The
driver was fairly similar to the other driver – just a bit older.
Our new guide looks to be just a bit older than our last one.
It
took us over 45 minutes to get to the hotel – and Jonathan (big
surprise) slept the entire way. On the plane he was cute – he had
to figure out everything – the buttons, the seatbelt, the lap tray
etc... He spent time playing peek a boo with a teenage girl behind
us. He munched a lot on snacks – both the peanuts and the things
we packed. He drove his car some – he only fussed when he had to
be strapped back in his seat at descent. Then the stewardess brought
him a little sack of breath mints. That kept him busy until we
disembarked the plane.
The drive took us on very similar territory to the drive from the Fuzhou airport. Lots of freeways that look just like US freeways. Our hotel is in a REALLY old building – not nearly as nice as the last one. But what was funny was how similar the hotel room is to the last one. It is laid out EXACTLY the same way – just a little smaller. Similar furnishings (though Michele really likes this mattress better than the last one) though a darker tone because the trim is dark here. The carpet, towels etc... are downgrade – but the air-conditioning works better! It actually got cool enough to keep Charles comfortable!
The smoking was terrible in the hallways outside our room though. Gag. I will be so glad to get back to a country that doesn't allow smoking in buildings... Ooof – and the Greek art on the walls we find quite offensive. Naked bodies plastered around (like what you look at when the elevator doors open, an entire wall on one side of the lobby). It's just not what we consider art.
The location of the hotel is much more convenient to things than our last one was though. The last one was surrounded by park and other hotels. This one, while we do miss the park, is really close to restaurants, shopping places etc...
Jonathan slept fitfully – probably from being somewhere new. The cost of a crib ($15 USD a night) was more than what we wanted to pay, so we just put a soft blanket on the floor between the bed and wall for him. It actually worked pretty well. Michele was within arm's reach, so when he fussed she could just put her hand on his back to quiet him. We got up around 8:00 (very groggily) and took turns going down to the 7-11 across the street to grab something for breakfast (we really didn't imagine we'd be grabbing breakfast at a 7-11 on this trip!) Jonathan got up – fairly cranky (not enough sleep!) around 9:00.
We hurried to get ready (tried to feed him breakfast but he wasn't that interested) and went down to the lobby. There we met Helen and the other two families from our adoption agency. We all walked down the street and had each child's photo's taken for the medical paperwork. Then we walked further down the street and went to a “clinic” that is mostly open just for adoption things. We filled out a bit of paperwork, then went to four different doctors. One measured him and took his temperature. One checked his ears, nose and throat. One checked his heart, lungs and other body areas. The last was the only truly hard one – that was the TB test. It was just a simple prick, but Jonathan was already screaming before we even got in the office (being tired, then being somewhere weird and then being handled by strangers was too much for him to handle). But he got a little candy from the nurse and that quieted him right up :-).
We headed back to the hotel, fed Jonathan a little more and tried to get him to take a nap. He refused (he laid there, but wouldn't go to sleep). So we went out to explore the city. The store next to the hotel was a children's clothing store with other child-accessories. The clothing prices were higher than what we wanted to pay, but what they did have an “umbrella-type” stroller. It was nicer than anything we had at home (and at $20 USD it was 10 times the price we've ever paid for our garage-sale strollers). We debated back and forth, but Jonathan really liked it, so we splurged and got it.
We had considered renting one from the hotel in Fuzhou, but Michele really wanted to carry Jonathan to help with the bonding. That was a wise choice there because he bonded very strongly to her. Since that wasn't an issue any more, the flexibility a stroller gave outweighed the price. Jonathan is a big boy (30 lbs) and so carrying him for more an a couple of miles or for more than two hours was difficult. And when he decided he wanted to struggle it was exhausting. So in Fuzhou, our strolls were really limited. We could have rented one, but it would have cost as much to rent one for 8 days as to buy one and they allow this kind of stroller as a carry-on on the airplane.
The stroller proved to be one of the best purchases we've ever made. He LOVED it.
Where are our hotel is located is on what they called “the island”. It's an area roughly ¼ mile wide and 1 mile long, formed by a very major river (between the size of the Willamete that flows through Portland and the Columbia rivers) and a channel of water about 30 feet wide. This island is adoption-central here. Guanzhou is one of a couple of cities in China with an American embassy (and other countries as well) and so a huge number of people have to spend their second week here to finish up the appropriate paperwork. Most stay in the two large hotels here on the island. The shops and restaurants around here are geared to that fact. There is a nice park here as well and most people hang around the island – it's more of an upper-class area, more westernized.
It was neat seeing other “white” families with little oriental children. In the clinic it was amazing. We were sitting in the waiting area with about 30 other parents with their newly adopted Chinese children. With how difficult it is to adopt “normal” children (and not special needs) from China now, it was interesting looking around the room at the children. Most were between one and three years. There were cleft palates, missing ears, retardation, deafness, and a host of other things that China considered “problems that made them unwantable”. And here were all these LOVING parents doting on these special children. It brought tears to your eyes watching the love that these parents were giving to these children that had previously not known such things.
We had one woman stop us last week and thank us for doing what we were doing. She said in her broken English that “Americans have big hearts. Great mercy. China people don't have such mercy hearts as Americans do”.
It was also neat, after being in a place where NO ONE spoke English as their first language, to have people to talk to again! It felt funny not having to measure each word and phrase to put it as simply and slowly as possible, but to actually speak in a normal manner at a normal speed!
So when we set out on our walk at noon we decided to be different and cross over to the “normal” part of the city. We explored many different places. We went up and down main streets, alleys, lower-class areas. We passed hundreds of vendors selling everything imaginable. It was quite amazing. Jonathan was happy in the stroller the entire three hours we were gone. He took a nap through part of it and we ate lunch for part of it. We came home, cooled off (it's cloudy, so while the humidity is super high, the temperatures are only in the upper 80's) and figured out what we wanted to do next.
We decided to go back out again (mostly because Jonathan was trying to dismantle everything in the hotel) about 4:00. We wandered around the island some what and explored the little park there. It's very interesting – they have bronze-type statues all over the park, of people doing things in the park (like kids running, or playing hopscotch). Then we headed back over to the main part of the city and found that it was now “rush hour”. At rush hour they have crossing guards to keep the pedestrians from taking over the major roads. Charles said “if they let the pedestrians have their way then traffic would come to a complete stand still!”
We were amazed at the difference in the area from just a couple of hours before. Car traffic had probably doubled, but pedestrian traffic was 10 times what it had been before. We came to a very large walking area that was just packed with people. It was a major walking thoroughfare. Our main goal was to find a grocery store of some sort, but the entire evening we saw nothing. We bought some apples, dates (fresh!) and tangerines at a little stand, and then in a convenience store found some more of Jonathan's yogurt drinks. We ended up finally coming all the way back, after four hours of walking, to the 7-11 next door to the hotel and bought dinner (little Chinese TV dinners – they even microwave them for you) and food for tomorrow. They had these large rice rolls (made from rice flour) that were only 15 cents each (the size of huge dinner rolls) and were really yummy (they were topped with onions). They were a sixth of the price of the wheat dinner rolls they had there (and larger too).
Jonathan was happy in the stroller the entire time! He fell asleep just before we got back and so Michele changed his diaper and clothes without bothering him too much. Charles went downstairs to figure out how to get to church tomorrow...
Interesting cultural note – chicken is the MAIN meat over here. It's not unusual to see entire birds, heads and all, for sale. One restaurant even had a picture of a dish it served – it was a roasted chicken, head and all! They don't care a bit about bones in their meat dishes. If you have a stir-fried meal with a mix of chicken and veggies on rice, the chicken will be full of bones. If it's a mix of pork and veggies the pork will also be full of bones! It's like they don't debone anything – they just drop it in, turn on the grinder and use what comes out.
This city is such an interesting mix of the old and the new. You have your hip teenagers with their dyed hair, their huge earrings, their heavy make up and skirts shorter than most bathing suits, talking on their fancy phones. Then you have the old women in their classic Chinese round straw hats selling fruit or hauling heavy pipes or doing a variety of other jobs, very quietly and discretely. You have the huge fancy touring buses and SUV's in the SAME lane of traffic on the highway as the thin man with the round straw hat slowly pulling a 3-wheeled handcart literally full of 600 or more pounds of rice or other goods. These handcarts are fairly common, as are the carts attached to the back of rickety old bikes. Again, these carts are often FULL of hundreds of pounds of weight and the rider is pulling it on the highway. Truly a juxtaposition.
Another interesting day! Jonathan let us sleep in until 7:00 this morning. Then we lazily got up, got dressed had breakfast and got ready for church. We had a taxi waiting for us just outside the hotel. It was a 6 mile drive that took 20 minutes and cost us about $4.50 US dollars. Our driver was going for speed (taking the freeway) instead of the shortest distance (city streets). He dropped us off a couple of blocks away from where we wanted, but because of directions the branch president gave us and Charles' GPS, we were able to figure out where we wanted to be. The church building is in an upper scale area, on the 7th floor of an apartment building. The chapel is one apartment and includes a couple of class rooms and a bathroom. The apartment next to it is the primary and nursery rooms, plus a couple of classrooms. Our speakers today were the temple president and his wife (Hong Kong temple). There were probably between 50 and 70 people there. It's an international branch with people from all over the world. The rule here in China, is that you can be a member of a branch and attend meetings there as long as you weren't baptized in China. If you are a Chinese citizen and are interested in the church, you must be baptized in a different country and then come back (like Hong Kong).
Jonathan actually did fairly well in his first Sacrament Meeting. Michele didn't end up having to take him out at all (which she was really hoping not to have to do, because the hallways weren't air-conditioned like the apartments were).
The meeting block was only 2 hours because during the summer months the branch is so small that there aren't enough people to staff everything. This was the first “big” week back and probably the last abbreviated meeting schedule. In nursery Jonathan was one of four little ones and he played really well with the other kids. We were quite pleased. He also LOVED coloring (something he hasn't done with us yet).
Michele struck up a conversation with the nursery leader while she was in there with Jonathan. Her family is from Utah and they have two kids, ages 4 and 6. She said that they had lived there a year and just loved it. She said they might not go back to the states. She and her husband both teach at an international school (he teaches English and she teaches Kindergarten). She said their quality of life is much higher here than in Utah. The school pays their board, their children's school tuition, a $4000 a year bonus (to use for flying back to the states if they wish), and a 5 day-a-week maid (who cleans and cooks). She said they lived in a really nice gated community that had everything, including skyscrapers, grocery stores, pools and parks. She never left it except to go to church. She said she really liked not having to cook, clean or do laundry– it gave her much more free time for her kids and for socializing. Michele really pondered that, because something didn't settle right with her as she was listening to her. She came to realize that what she didn't like about it was the lack of work – both for for the mom and for the kids. Charles said it reminiscent of the old plantation owners and the slaves. Why go back to Utah where you have to work more? Why not have it as easy as you can? Because we aren't put on this Earth to have it easy. We are here to learn and to grow and to teach our children to do the same. Work is a good thing. It builds your mind, body and spirit. Of course leisure time is important, for everyone, but avoiding work doesn't improve you or anyone around you. Guess that's why we have eight kids :-)....
The taxi ride after church (yes, we actually know how to hail a taxi here now :-) - you put out your hand about waist height when you see one coming, spread your fingers out, and wave it at your wrist) was a more direct route. It only cost us $3.50. Unfortunately, the timing was such that Jonathan fell asleep about 10 minutes before we got home. By the time Michele got him upstairs, shoes off and diaper changed he was quite awake again. We tried lying him down and lying down ourselves to encourage him, but he wasn't interested in sleeping any more. Charles on the other hand, feel asleep quickly. So Michele eventually got Jonathan up and they went exploring the building. They found a “kids play area” that the hotel had on the third floor. It was a motel room-sized room with lots of toys and decorations (all purchased at IKEA). Jonathan played there for more than an hour.
After Jonathan and Michele got back, Charles was up and slowly we got ready for our next “keep Jonathan busy” activity. We decided to take a walk outside (not the huge walks like yesterday, but just a casual stroll since it was Sunday). We got out about a block and a half when a Chinese lady called to us from across the street. We've gotten used to this. We tend to attract a lot of attention. This lady started talking to us in fairly good English. She was young – in her 20's and owned a shop across the street. She encouraged us to come in and look around. It was a “souvenir” shop. We ended up staying and talking to her for about 3 hours. Wow! There is a whole story behind that, that Michele will type up and send via email to a few people.
During our time in there we had a HUGE thunderstorm hit (part of the reason we stayed so long). By the time we left it wasn't raining at all. We walked another block to an American restaurant called “Lucy's” . It was a little spendy compared to other places around, but we both liked the food. We hadn't wanted to buy dinner on Sunday, but we had looked around for 4 hours yesterday for a grocery store and couldn't find anything. We had leftover 7-11 fare for the other two meals and decided we really wanted something different.
We got back to the hotel around 9:15 and had Jonathan in bed by 9:45. But it took another half an hour of Michele rubbing his back and just having her arm for him to snuggle before he went to sleep.
Jonathan didn't wake us up until 8:00 – which was really nice since we didn't get to bed until 12:30 last night. We had a leisurely morning, then headed downstairs with the intent of getting him a roll to munch on at 7-11 before his doctor's appointment at 11:00. But, we saw some other families in the lobby from our group and from another group. We ended up staying and chatting with them for a long time. It was almost 11 when we hurried out, grabbed the roll and came back to the lobby to meet our guide. She took all three families (ours, the other from Brush Prairie and the one from D.C.) over to the clinic (just a short walk). We just had to go to officially check the TB test on Jonathan's arm. It was beautiful – no problems with that at all. It took a while to wait in line, but all they had to do was glance at this arm and said “looks great!” and we were on our way. The other two families in our group were the same way.
We then wandered down to Lucy's for brunch. We sat down there and then realized we needed more money. So we walked over to the other hotel on the island here, the White Swan, and used the cash machine. By far the easiest way to do money here is to just bring a credit card. We didn't bring any cash at all with us. You just use the credit card in the lobby of most hotels and it just spits out whatever you ask for. Then went back to the restaurant.
After breakfast we wandered around the island more (ran into Judy and said hi! again – she's the Chinese shop owner we spent 3 hours talking to last night). We were pushing Jonathan in the stroller trying to get him sleepy enough for a nap. It worked great. We walked for about 15 or 20 minutes and he was out. So we came back to the room and let him sleep. Charles worked on the computer while Michele read. Once he got up and he couldn't stand being cooped up any more, we packed up for the afternoon walk. We left about 4:00 and didn't get home until after 7:30. We wandered around a different part of town. We found a park and an amusement park (didn't go in – just looked) and a HUGE mostly toy – vendor mall. Picture a 4 story building. In it, on the first two floors, are a hundred or so vendors on each floor, each with their little space, crammed together with walk ways just wide enough for two people to pass. The third and fourth floors were the larger toys and nicer, pricier items in stores more similar to an American mall. Wow. That was pretty incredible. We were in there for an hour and a half (a little later on we found another one down the street a little ways, but we had had enough of that and didn't go in). Most of the items were toys. Second most common was jewelry. We bought some little, light weight toys to entertain Jonathan on the trip home. Without knowing his personality, it was difficult to know what to pack from home. But now we know he likes things that he can make do things. Not things that do things by themselves just for him to watch, and not just plain things like blocks. But things that he can turn or twist and they move or light up; or things that he can put together to make things. He also likes coloring, but in that entire mall – and anywhere else we've been for that matter – I haven't seen any crayons or colored pencils!
We wandered around after that and meandered our way home, grabbing food as we went. We've really gotten lucky when it comes to the weather here – we've never been caught in a huge rain storm. Today there was a bit of thunder and wind, but no rain. The forecast all week is a 60% chance of thundershowers with highs in the 90's and lows in the 80's. The temperature is right, but it hasn't rained that much (except for the time in Judy's shop). Our sense of what is hot and not so hot has changed a bit since being here. Now we walk outside and it's in the upper 80's we say “oh, it's not too bad out here!”.
After getting Jonathan finished eating and ready for bed, Michele set out his toys, and much to his disgust, started working on the computer. He complained bitterly for a few minutes, and finally consoled himself by laying his head on her lap. He was actually happy like that for about 15 or 20 minutes as long as every minute or so Michele would reach one hand down and rub his back or head briefly. Then he laid down on the floor and she rubbed his back with her foot. Then he made a noise, she looked over and he patted his bed. So she went over, helped him lay down and get comfortable and covered him up. He was asleep in less than 10 minutes – with no fuss at all! That was sure easy. Michele thinks the transitional part of this is easing up a bit. He might not be quite such a handful in a month or so. We'll see... :-) That allowed us to actually get to bed around 10:00. Unfortunately, he still wakes up (or actually doesn't really wake up) yelling several times a night. He didn't actually wake totally up at all this time – he just yelled at the top of his lungs and then was quiet (twice it startled Michele so much that she sat straight up in bed – once around 11:30 and once around 12:30).
Some interesting things of note. First off, is that the humidity is making Michele's hair curly and frizzy and it's driving her nuts :-/. Not the long part – but any where that is short, just won't behave!
Second, is that we really wish we had brought just half a dozen plastic forks with us! It was one thing in Hong Kong to play around with chopsticks and have it take three times as long to eat. It's another when all you have to pick up slimy spaghetti noodles to feed a starving cranky toddler is two sticks that are slimy themselves and keep slipping out of your hands, it's not “fun” anymore. At one meal Michele resorted to just picking up the noodles with her hands and putting them in Jonathan's mouth. Not exactly considered “proper” etiquette, but while trying to do it “properly” she ended up splashing sauce in his eye :-(. We've since bought a couple of pre-packaged dinners, and they actually came with forks. We've latched on to those and wash and save them like silverware. Just one of those things we never thought of!
I'm am just continually amazed at how hard the Chinese people work here. Their work-ethic is so high. Street peddlers are the norm here and it makes us feel good to buy some bananas from the old man selling them, rather than from a supermarket (not that those even exist here) because you know that the money is going directly to help him and not into some rich manager's pocket.
Jonathan slept in until 8:00. He was getting restless (big surprise) and Charles was still sleeping (he had a hard evening the night before, between canker sores and the smells of the city and the thought of eating local food he felt quite ill). So Michele took Jonathan on a walk to get breakfast.
Never in her life did she ever think she'd come to rely on 7-11 for food :-) and consider it a “grocery store”. But the convenience, the mild selection and the reasonable prices made it an attractive option frequently. So, breakfast was 7-11 rice muffins and a yogurt drink for Jonathan.
Then they went on a walk to the park on the island. It was really interesting going there in the morning. The military was doing a drill – Michele snuck a picture of them :-). There were many people out doing exercises similar to what we saw in Fuzhou, but in addition to that there were at least half a dozen large groups of women gathered together, dancing (like line dancing) to music. It was all very slow and rhythmic – it gave a very peaceful feeling. Then, around the park there were also about 20 groups or so of 4 to 7 adults (men and women, 40 to 60 years old) playing the Chinese version of a hacky-sack game. The game – kicking it back and forth – was the same as in America, but the sack was similar to a badminton birdie with a flat rubber bottom. It was fun to watch. Then, the most amazing one, was a group of 30 or so women dancing like the line dancers, except these women each had a paddle and a ball. They balanced the ball on the paddle – even when they flipped it upside down and had it behind themselves. They even, in sync, tossed the ball to someone beside them – sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, all the while their bodies “flowing” in sync, with the music.
Michele and Jonathan wandered into a store and the owner, in typical pushy-salesman style encouraged them to stay while he wrote out (for free) Jonathan's name in English and Chinese in calligraphy. Michele actually found a set of crayons there too (quite the rarity here). It is so hard to find crayons, colored pencils and coloring books here!
After that they wandered back to the hotel room, Charles joined them, and we all set off for a day of adventures. We took the bridge (walking) over the big river that goes around the island and explored a new section of town (opposite direction to all the other ways we've gone). We actually found 3 mini-grocery stores. We bought some snacks for Jonathan for the trip home there, as well as some breakfast for Charles. We grabbed lunch at both 7-11 and McDonald's (one for Michele and Jonathan and one for Charles) and just walked and walked. It was interesting see the city that way. We ended up covering about 9 to 10 miles total in the loop we took (in 4 hours – including stopping quite awhile for lunch).
When we got back we rested for just a moment (Jonathan wouldn't allow much more than that) and we went upstairs to explore the pool (it's on the roof). It wasn't very kid friendly – the fence around it had gaps big enough for Jonathan to slip through if he wanted to – so we likely won't be using it. Then we headed down and spent time in the kid's play room. We were there for maybe half an hour and we decided it was time to head out again and find dinner. So we went out the direction we were most familiar with and stopped and had some frozen yogurt. Then we wandered to the main plaza area and got some “meat on a stick” that is popular here. It's skewered meat of various kinds – great for eating and walking (unless you are pushing a stroller!). Michele had octopus (pretty good actually) while Charles went for the chicken breast and Jonathan had some undetermined kind of meat. Then we wandered home. That trip was short – only 3 miles (and the excursion yesterday was 7). We are putting some real miles on that stroller!
On the way home we stopped at 7-11 (third meal today!) and bought a little more food to supplement what we had already had. We came back to the room, ate, and got Jonathan ready and to bed.
Some interesting things of note. Like the plastic forks we had mentioned earlier, one of the things we actually did bring, that no one told us to, was a bunch of plastic grocery sacks. The stores here charge you for plastic sacks. So if you bring your own (which are quite free at home and light weight) then you save money!
A funny two line conversation about driving this morning that we thought was worth sharing (because it so aptly describes the driving “style” here). We were walking on a narrow one lane road, and in fact one car had just passed us going the correct way. We looked up and saw another car going the wrong way on the road. Michele said “I thought this was a one way street”. Charles, after watching what the car ended up doing said “Yes. But he's driving up along the sidewalk now, so that's OK.”.
Boy there are security guards, soldiers and police officers everywhere you go here. It's just amazing. The police wear blue with a hat that says, in English, “Police”. They are on almost every street and in every park and in most shopping centers. The security guards are in almost every large store and restaurant (even McDonalds) and they really like patrolling around. The military isn't as common – but you still see them frequently, both singly and in groups. they wear green – but their presence gives Michele the creeps because most wear a red arm band very similar to the red arm band worn by the Nazis.
Another thing – there are three American foods you just can't find over here that you could in Hong Kong: Cold cereal, peanut butter and jelly or jam (all the things needed for a nice quick meal in the hotel room!). Too bad!
The last entry said that we had really lucked-out when it came to the weather. Well, apparently we didn't knock on wood hard enough – because today was really wet! However, as opposed to at home, even in the pounding rain here it's hard to get cold. In fact, it was warm when we started out, but once we were quite a ways away it started to pour and it actually felt good (the rain combined with the wind made the heat almost bearable). But, Jonathan didn't like it much, so we spent much of the largest rainstorm in a grocery store. It rained lightly to heavily for all of our second walk. We were quite wet when we got home (it's hard to hold an umbrella and push a stroller at the same time). But again, the heat made it so we weren't cold in the slightest.
It was interesting watching the bike riders in the rain. Since such a large portion of the population rides bikes and it's the rainy season, they have adaptations. A few had a mount on the middle bar of their bicycle that had a pole that went up that they could attach their umbrella to. That worked sort-of, as long as they were going pretty slowly. The vast majority of people however, had a poncho that they wore over their head, bodies, arms and most of their legs that also was shaped so it would cover their handle bars, hands, and front basket almost to their front wheel.
Today turned out a bit differently than we had originally planned. Jonathan slept in until 8:30 (nice, since we didn't get to bed until late last night). We had a leisurely morning and wandered out to take a walk before our scheduled phone call with our interpreter (she was going to call us to go over paper work) at 11:00. We got outside and ran into Judy (the bubbly shop owner) again. Her mother and niece were there and so we ended up standing and talking for over half an hour. Her niece is 16 months old and she and Jonathan played a bit (with tennis balls and Chinese hacky-sacks). Michele even tried kicking a hacky-sack and was thankful that unlike the chopsticks on the airplane,, Charles didn't try to take a picture of it :-/. So, after only walking half a block it was time to turn around and head back to the hotel.
Instead of going up to the room where Jonathan could tear stuff apart while we talked on the phone, we went to the playroom in the hotel. Helen had our phone number so she could call us there. When we got there we found another family, similar to us, there already. They had a little girl – taller than, but about the same age as Jonathan. In talking with the family, we found we had a lot more in common than just adopting from China. They were from St. George UT, and were LDS too. They had four children at home, and like us, this was their first adoption. We talked for quite awhile and let the kids played. While we were there we got a phone call from Helen – but not the one we expected. She was letting us know that our consulate appointment for late tomorrow had been moved to 2:15 today! Another family came in about the same time the first one left – this was a Chinese family with two boys (quite a rarity actually), about six years old and 18 months or so. Jonathan got tired of the play area shortly after that, so we left and went down to 7-11 to grab some food (breakfast had been snacks in the hotel room).
After that we came back to the room to eat and get Jonathan settled down for a nap. While we were there Charles looked into seeing about coming home early (since we don't think we have any purpose in being here after our consulate appointment this afternoon). But there weren't any flights home open until Saturday. Oh well – nice thought!
The LDS family in the play area agreed with us – they were ready to be DONE with this and just get home! We just want to get a normal routine established again.
Michele has been reading on this trip, what she considers to be the best parenting book she's ever read (and she's read many, many, many parenting books). A good friend loaned it to her and she's spent every free minute reading it. If anyone ever wants a book that answers how to get kids to listen, be nice to each other, obey their parents etc... this is the book: “Hold On to Your Kids” by Gordon Neufled, PhD. It's just an amazing book – it doesn't give any great parenting “technique” to put a band-aid over behaviors like most other books do. It gives the way to hit at the root of virtually ALL misbehaviors. Some books and parenting styles dance around the concepts presented here, but none articulates them so well. It validates some things we've personally done as parents that have always been considered “weird” and chastises us in others (which chastisement has been taken to heart and we'll be seeing some changes when we get home). Michele has been using it with Jonathan and can see the difference. If anyone out there wants more info, just email Michele – she'll be happy to share.
Once Jonathan was asleep and we were satisfied that there was nothing we could do towards a speedier homecoming, Michele worked on the computer and Charles went out to grab what he considered a “real” lunch at “Lucy's Restaurant” a few blocks away.
Michele had to wake Jonathan up when it was time to go. Charles got back just at the right time and we all headed over to the other adoption-family hotel: the White Swan. It was quite the elegant hotel, but with rooms twice the price, we went with the Victory hotel. Anyway, we got there and found the family from D.C. That's in our “group” there, plus lots of other similar families. We met with our guide, she briefed us on what we were about to do (much bigger trip than we had thought before) and then the entire group of adopting families went outside. Down a ramp we found a parking lot of buses and smaller shuttles. We loaded up and filled almost two large touring buses. These were just the families from our little island. There were more to come...
We rode on this bus (very nice one actually) for over half an hour. It took us to the US consulate office where we met the rest of the adopting families for that week (this is what happens every week there). We were herded up to the fifth floor via escalators, much to Jonathan's sheer delight. He LOVES escalators – we've encountered them several times in malls this trip, but never this many at once.
On the fourth floor they stopped us and had us show them our passports. At the fifth floor we had to go through security – very similar to that of the airport. Except they let us take fluids, but confiscated ALL electronics (phone, extra battery, camera). We were bummed because later there were many things we would have liked to have taken pictures of up there. We went through a hallway and into a room FILLED with adopting parents from the US with their Chinese children. Ranging in age from 6 months old to almost 14 years. One couple even had twin girls! One family was there for the FOURTH time adopting. There were probably 70 families at least there. Luckily, they had a little corner set aside with toys for the kids to play with. The rest of the room was just chairs. The called each child's name and each set of parents came up, were given copies of their passports with official stamps on them and more paperwork, then asked to go sit back down. It would have been boring – we were in there almost an hour – but between Jonathan's antics and the chance to talk to lots of other families from all over the US it went by pretty quickly. Then a lady (Chinese, with only a faint accent) told us about our group, about how the process worked and then did the swearing in (we had to hold our right hand up, and in some detail, swear that everything we had told was the truth to the best of our knowledge).
She then said, if any of you are making connecting flights home, you might need a visa. If you didn't have one, come up and ask to be sure. At this point, Charles was sitting with the bags in the middle of the room. Michele was in the back by the toys with Jonathan. Charles got up and left with the group, assuming Michele would too. Charles assumed that Taiwan was close enough to China, relations-wise (like Hong Kong) that the visa thing wouldn't be a problem. He assured Michele of that fact several times. But she wasn't too sure, and thought it wise to ask just in case. So after the group left, she went up and found another father asking the exact same question. To their surprise and frustration, this lady couldn't answer, neither could the people behind the counter. They had to go and make a phone call (which took a long time). Then they said that they didn't believe that the Taiwanese government would honor a Chinese passport (Jonathan's) without a visa – even if all he was doing was sitting on a plane in the airport!
About that time Charles wandered back in looking for Michele and too was dismayed to find out this large glitch in our plans. All they could tell us was to talk to our travel agent... But we don't have a travel agent! So they suggested the one there in the consulate office. So both of us went there. But we were afraid of missing our bus, so Michele and Jonathan ran down to the buses to tell Helen what was going on. She was surprised – she had never run into this problem before. Apparently, you can fly through Korea and Japan just fine without a special VISA as long as you don't leave the airport. Hong Kong too – just not Taiwan.
We waited a little while and finally Charles made it out and we got on the bus to go. He said that they said flying from Hong Kong to Taiwan was fine. As was taking a train from China to Hong Kong. So, that is an option we are looking into if we can possibly change our flight.
The other possibility is to try to get the necessary Visa (and actually it's not called a visa over here, but technically that's what it is). But it's really hard to do because there is no Chinese consulate in Taiwan. No Taiwanese consulate in China and no American consulate in Taiwan. So, Charles emailed a few of our American contacts through the adoption agency to see what they knew or could possibly do. We have two days left – Thursday and Friday before our trans-pacific flight. Cross your fingers!
Our ride home was slower than coming because traffic was awful. We sat with out moving at all on the freeway for 20 minutes. When we finally got back we walked back to our hotel, dropped off some stuff and went down to Subway a couple of blocks away (we just saw it for the first time this afternoon).
Then Charles came back to the room to do some research on our problem while Michele walked around the island (about 5 ½ km) to try and entertain Jonathan until bedtime (and give Charles some quiet time to think). When they came back Michele got Jonathan ready for bed and had him in bed a little before 8:00. It took him about 20 minutes to finally fall asleep (and stop complaining about being put to bed :-)). Hopefully while we are sleeping over here, people will be doing some research state-side and we can figure this problem out tomorrow.
While we were sleeping on this side of the world, one of our adoption people on the other side of the world was researching our Taiwan problem. She said that she got two different stories. The Taiwanese government said it was fine to bring Jonathan through the airport as long as we didn't try to leave. The travel agency said that it was problem and that we needed both a document from the China side and from the Taiwan side.
Charles decided to go the more “risky” route and trust the Taiwanese government. Everyone out there reading this, – keep your fingers crossed and keep us in your prayers!
Jonathan was up before 7:30 this morning and we were out the door by 9:00 or so. We headed over to our favorite :-/ food stop – 7-11 and grabbed some things for an outdoor breakfast. It was already hot and sticky outside, but we really didn't want to try to eat in the hotel room – it just isn't kid-food-friendly. So we wandered over to Judy's shop and ate outside there. We visited with her again for quite awhile. She is just such a happy person. Once Jonathan was getting too antsy to stay, we headed back to the hotel room to grab a water refill and then headed out for our morning's exploration. We wandered over the large bridge over the river and down along the other side of the river where it parallels the island. (If any of you are curious as to our walking routes, you can zoom in on the “china map” on the main page to see them).
We ended up exploring in a slightly new area, actually looking for a China Mobile (cell phone) store. That is who Charles' bought his sim card from here in China. Yesterday it gave him a message that Helen translated, saying he needed to recharge it. (But it still worked fine all day today...). We use it for the maps and tracking our routes we walk – so we actually use it quite a bit.
We passed two China mobile stores on our route the day before yesterday, but couldn't remember at all where they were. So today we decided to just wander and see if we could stumble across one. What we did end up stumbling across was a “Carrefour” store. It's actually, a huge world-wide chain and is like a super-center. It was a huge mall-like building on the first two floors with lots of small shops, like you'd find in a typical American mall. The third floor was the department store part of “Carrefour”. And the fourth floor (which we almost didn't find – we thought the 3rd floor was all there was, until we discovered that the 4th floor where you checked out) was the grocery section. It was as large as a large Safeway. It was the biggest thing we've seen here for food. Great find. It had everything (except peanut butter and jelly!) that a normal store would have. It also had a great deli section and after doing some grocery shopping, we bought lunch and went out and ate it in the mall. In the department section we also found a leather belt that actually fit Charles (for work) for less than $3.
Lunch was really yummy and then we topped it off with Slushies from the 7-11 there in the mall. Michele normally doesn't do things like that, but it was SO hot and were SO thirsty for something cold (literally, that is the only way to get ice or any sort of cold drink here) that it tasted good to her too!
Then we headed on – in the direction, more or less, of our hotel, to put the fruit and veggies in the fridge. It was about a 45 minute walk away. When we got back we checked, and that entire walk was about 6 ½ miles.
On the way home clouds came over and it sprinkled just a bit – enough to actually cool things down a bit. Jonathan slept in the stroller and woke up just after we got back to the hotel. So that insured we weren't in the hotel for very long. We tried to stretch it out as much as possible, but it just wasn't working (we were really enjoying the air-conditioning).
When we headed out this time we explored a different bridge off of the island. This one took us through some interesting places. It took us by the waterfront area – just a little scary. One of the things that frustrates us the most, is that it seems that over half of the sidewalks are blocked or torn up here. The Asian games are happening in a couple of months and they are giving the entire city a facelift. But that means getting anywhere with a stroller is a challenge. The waterfront area was really bad. It's quite something to have to play chicken with a city bus (because there is NO other way to go) – especially when there are 10 of them in a row....
One of the first stores we passed, after we got off the island on this new route was a China Mobile store! The sim card was charged enough to last all through today. We're going to stop by tomorrow to recharge it.
We walked to a really pretty park – one that resembled the one in Fuzhou. Lots of water, trails and Banyan trees. Banyans are the neatest things – they send down roots all along their branches. Anything the roots can wrap around they do (or just keep growing long until they reach the ground) and they root in and form a new tree – still fully connected to the mother tree!
We walked through a park and descended into what was one of the lowest class neighborhoods we had wandered through yet. It was a narrow alley with tenements on either side. Occasional vendors selling interesting things – but very narrow. Michele was quite nervous here. Though, Charles is tall enough that she feels fairly safe with him – most of the Asians wouldn't mess with him :-).
Actually it's quite interesting – the older generation is what you think of as the typical size of Asians. But the younger generation (probably due to better nutrition) is actually quite tall. Michele fits in height-wise – most women are 5'2 to 5'6 and the men are 5'8 to 6'. The older generation is often 6 or more inches shorter than these numbers. We even saw an Asian young man that had to have been 6'5” or 6'6”.
The narrow alley way led to another entrance to the park (what we went out of) right past a temple of some sort (first one we've stumbled across). It even had a place out front where people were burning incense.
We took major streets on our way home, finally coming to the large square we have now visited many times and find very familiar. We even took a video of it this time.
We went up one of the malls there and on the 3rd floor Charles ordered a Papa John's pizza to go. The first floor was open-air and had lots of little shops, geared mostly to teens (clothes, handbags, jewelry). The second floor was ALL cell phone vendors. The third, along with Papa John's, was a video game arena with dozens and dozens of games of all sorts (and music so loud you couldn't think straight). After getting out of there we wandered down the vendor street towards home.
Michele really likes the vendor store that is the Chinese version of the Dollar store back home – the difference is here, it's the 30-cent store! Michele found some English/Chinese books and a few other things she's going to haul home :-). Our walk this time was 7 ½ miles and we got home in time for Jonathan's bedtime. Yea! We've gone through another day and we are another day closer to getting back to “normal”!
Some interesting things of note here: All of the sidewalks are made of cobblestone or bricks. It really is hard on the feet and the stroller. NO sidewalk is just cement. The cobblestones aren't laid with mortar – they are “anchored” by laying them, pouring sand all over the sidewalk, letting the pedestrians pound it in for awhile and then sweeping it off!
There are about 10 stores here on the island, like Judy's, that cater to the adoption crowd. They sell trinkets, souvenirs and things for babies and children (like the store we bought the stroller at). That's all fine and dandy, but what's funny is they have NO originality in their names. They all pick an American name for themselves and call their store by that name, then add the word “place”. So it's “Judy's Place” and “Jordan's Place” and “Mary's Place” and “Sam's Place” on and on. It's like the idea of coming up with something unique never really occurred to anyone. I wonder if it's a cultural thing – it's “normal” to not try to step out of the norm. That could be why we get such weird looks here. On the island we are “normal”. Staying on the island is “normal” for adoptive families. What's not normal is actually exploring outside the island and venturing deep into the city. So we get MANY weird looks on the street when we are out on our walks. I'm just waiting to be the cause of a bike wreck. People will pass us riding their bikes on a busy sidewalk, and turn and look at us. Then they turn again and look at Jonathan. Then they turn and look at us. And sometimes this goes on several times. :-)
I must say though, these people are EXPERT bike riders. The loads they can balance (and even push their bikes up hill) are just amazing. I can't imagine how they do it... Along with that is the odd combination of old and new we've mentioned before. But today we saw one person who typified that: A 20 something young man working. He had an old-fashioned straw hat on and was pulling a handcart (very common over here for cleaning up crews and construction crews). What made Charles chuckle though, was the MP3 player he was listening to...
One thing that really strikes us here is the NOISE. There really don't seem to be any “noise ordinances” here. The stores, especially in the square, trying to attract teens, blare music out at deafening volumes – next door to each other. The construction equipment seems to never have had mufflers installed and it all blends, with the people trying to talk over it, into a cacophony that makes your head spin. Along with that seems to also be a total lack of ear or eye protection of the construction workers. They are there welding metal with no protection on their bodies except a pair of gloves (no glasses etc...). They are using HUGE jack-hammers with not even ear plugs on. It's just incredible.
“Will we ever get home???” should be the title of the day. Today has been a nightmare as far as trying to navigate through the red tape between China and Taiwan. Those two countries (and the US embassy) can't agree on what things are required and what aren't.
So, today started out really early at 5:30 when Jonathan woke up with a coughing attack. Michele is convinced it's asthma and is really looking forward to getting him home to some clean air. Charles isn't totally convinced – he still thinks it might be a bronchial problem (but neither of us have gotten sick here at all).
We lounged around the hotel room, and called all three families that have our kids. They were all happy to hear from us. When we were on the phone with Michele's parents, Charles, kind of off-hand (because he really didn't think it was necessary) asked Michele's dad to call Eva airlines and just double check that it was OK for us to take Jonathan through Taiwan without any special, extra, paperwork. While he was working on that, we went out to the China Mobile store close to the hotel (less than half a mile away) to recharge Charles' sim card. But we got there and found that they didn't open for another 10 minutes. So, rather than stand in the heat, we walked back to the island, and over to the White Swan hotel to take pictures inside. It was really neat – it had a 2 ½ story waterfall and a huge pond with probably 50 or more koi in it, in the lobby. There were beautiful carvings and paintings all around too. The whole lobby was like stepping into another ecosystem.
Charles got a call from Michele's dad that told him something he didn't expect to hear. Apparently, it wasn't Taiwan's problem – it was China's (even though the American consulate assured us it was Taiwan's problem). China wouldn't let Jonathan leave the country, if he was going to Taiwan (any other country would be fine...). Eva airlines said that we should go to the airport to talk to them in person. Well, since the taxi ride to and from the airport would cost us almost $40 USD we really didn't like that option. So Charles called Helen to see what she could find out. She called back, (while we were on the way back to China Mobile) and confirmed the problem. Ugh.
So, after spending a long time at China Mobile to add more minutes to his phone, Charles went back up to the room to do some Internet (and phone) research while Michele took Jonathan down to the playroom. Jonathan got tired of the playroom after awhile so they wandered back up. Charles had Michele's dad researching changing plane tickets (to instead of flying out of Guangzhou to flying out of Hong Kong). If we just dropped the current tickets and bought new ones (though even that wasn't possible because it was a multi-legged journey and electronically connected) it would cost us dearly to change – between lost money from the first flight and having to buy new tickets and having to buy train tickets to Hong Kong and then riding from Hong Kong to the airport. Ugh.
But, as was mentioned before, Charles couldn't even do that over the phone or online – he had to do it in PERSON at the airport. So, he finally bit the bullet and paid the taxi fare to the airport to get it all straightened out. When he got there he found that China air (the airline going from Guangzhou to Taipei didn't open for another hour. So he had to bum around the airport for an hour...
In short, here is the jist of the redtape we've battled:
China says it's Taiwan's restrictions – the American Consulate agrees. Taiwan says it's China's restrictions – Eva airlines agrees.
China air, called from the US, says “can't do anything about it” and says to call Eva.
Eva (Taiwan to San Francisco) says “can't do anything about it” and says to call China.
China air's local number has been disconnected...
Eva says to change tickets requires them (China air) to physically SEE the tickets.
China air isn't there (airport) yet.
Eva doesn't have a counter at the airport.
Besides the money, the effort to get to the Hong Kong airport, with all our luggage and Jonathan is about 10 times greater (or more).
The train from Guangzhou doesn't drop you off anywhere near the airport. It drops you off in the middle of the city. After the 2 hour train ride from Guangzhou, then we have to ride the MTR (Hong Kong's rail lines) for another 45 minutes – including three interchanges where we change trains – one of which is really ugly. We also have to get some Hong Kong currency to buy tickets for the MTR. And all of that needs to drop us off at the airport at least 2, if not 3 hours before our flight (which is tomorrow and we haven't even booked it yet...)
This is ugly.
While Jonathan and Michele were waiting for Charles, Jonathan took a nap and Michele worked on the computer. Then after Jonathan woke up she tried to entertain him in the hotel room – boy is that hard! She finally resorted to watching Chinese cartoons :-/. After a mind-numbing hour of that she drifted off for a little while, got up and did some exercises and finally the phone rang! Charles was calling to let her know he wasn't going to be done at the airport any time soon.
So she packed Jonathan up and headed down to visit Judy some more. They spent the better part of an hour there – Michele even bought a few more things. Then they went back to the room to see if Charles had either come home or left a message on the computer. Neither were the case, so she walked to the White Swan to use a cash machine- Charles had taken all of it) and then headed back to Judy's to pay her for the toys. On the way she was stopped and then accompanied by a young Chinese man, who was a student at the university. He asked her lots of questions – she really got the impression he was practicing his English. After Judy's she went back to the hotel, checked again to see if there was any word from Charles. When there wasn't, she left him a note on the computer and headed into town.
She and Jonathan went toward the plaza that has become a familiar place here. It's a nice 3-mile round trip with lots to look at on the way, so she figured they would get home about bed time – perfect. She actually found quite a bit to buy there. She spent a lot of time at another 30 cent store and a women's pajama store. They made it to the plaza and were back to the room by 8:30. Evening is just the best time to be out here. There was a thunderstorm with impressive lightening bolts earlier, and when they were out at Judy's shop is was quite hot and sticky. But by evening it was still really warm, but much more bearable.
When they got home they discovered Charles had finally made it home from the airport. His tale would take many pages to tell, so we'll cover some of the “high” points. He had to order a taxi and he tried to get the driver to tell him how much it was beforehand, but he wouldn't. So when he finally got to the airport and the driver told him 117 yuan, all he had was 101 and one US dollar. So the cab driver finally accepted that combination (the exchange rate is 6.7 yuan to the dollar). Then Charles found that the ticket counter wasn't even open for that airline for another hour! Then he couldn't find the counter – five different people told him five different places – all far apart. China air ended up being, once he got to talk to them, very nice to work with. The first problem was to determine if taking Jonathan out of the country to Taiwan was really a problem or not. They kept saying “I'm sure they'd let you”. But we didn't want opinions – we wanted to know for SURE. They made lots of calls to Eva (who never returned their calls either). They were appalled at Eva's poor customer service. They eventually had to call government officials who said “yes” Jonathan would need a proper exit visa to leave for Taiwan. Ugh.
So, then Charles spent quite a lot of time and effort trying to find a way of switching our tickets so that we could depart from Guangzhou. He even tracked down, in a hotel outside of the airport, Eva airline's corporate office. They were rather surprised to see him – it is quite a “secret” location apparently. But they still wouldn't work with him. He finally gave up, utterly frustrated and annoyed at the whole situation. Adding to his frustration was that his cell phone ran out of minutes – and he was “stranded” trying to do all this with no phone.
He came back to the motel around 7:00 and had to end up booking, fresh, the tickets to Hong Kong and hopes that once we get home we can argue to get at least some of our original money back from the first set of tickets. The set of three tickets from Hong Kong to Taiwan cost over $700! If he hadn't gone to the airport and just booked them this morning, they would have been $500. Ugh.
Then he had to book the train tickets to get us to Hong Kong. He had all sorts of problems there as well. Finally he talked to Helen who told him you don't book them ahead of time – you just show up. So, cross your fingers that we actually get on the train we need! Then, with all our heavy luggage we get to transfer the MTR all over Hong Kong, then to the airport. Then we get to transfer it ourselves from the Hong Kong flight to the Taiwan flight (since they aren't connected flights any more).
So, we leave here at 9:00 a.m. Tomorrow morning for about 32 hours of travel (and thats only if everything is on time) and an extra $1000 to get home. Fun fun. Oh are we so looking forward to getting home!
Today's post is going to be broken up in two sections. This is the Guangzhou to Taipei section.
Well, today started out as a normal day. We were up at 7:00 and finished our packing. We grabbed some breakfast at 7-11 (including the famous Chinese moon cakes – very rich!). Then we headed down to the lobby with all of our luggage and Jonathan in the stroller. It's a good thing he's so used to being in it. We were getting a little concerned because our guide was about 15 minutes late. It wasn't Helen because she was busy, but she sent a fellow that turned out to be very nice. We rode in a mini-van to the train station (very near the consulate). Boy the streets are a maze in Guangzhou. And after being in several taxis it's pretty clear that they must go through a lot of transmissions with the way the start and stop so quickly!
The train station reminded us a lot of an airport about the same size as the Fuzhou airport and almost as tight security. They didn't confiscate our water, but we did have to lay everything on the conveyor belt and walk through the metal detector.
Our guide helped us buy tickets (which took awhile because we didn't have enough cash and had to run back downstairs to an ATM). We got to the train terminal (again, set up very much like an airline, except they charge you by pounded to check baggage – luckily they don't make you check it). We stood in line about 20 minutes before boarding the train. It was pretty nice, though our seats were facing backwards :-/. The seats were kind of like “first class” on an airplane (in fact, they were the first class seats on the train for only a little more per ticket). We got Jonathan his own seat – he sure was happy about that! The seats were big enough for Charles and had lots of leg room. Jonathan was a little difficult to manage during the 2 hour train ride – but it could have been worse! The train was REALLY smooth – it was quite relaxing to ride. What came after wasn't relaxing though! We ended up, trying to wait for elevators, at the end of the line of people (hundreds) that were on our train. We didn't think this was a problem until we found that we ALL were going through customs at the same time!!! Ugh. That took a LONG time to get through. Jonathan fell asleep half way through and didn't wake up until about 20 minutes after we were through.
When we finally got through customs it was a bit of a maze trying to figure out how to first exchange our currency for Hong Kong dollars, then find the ticketing machine and then finally find the right train to head us in the direction of the airport. We are SOOOOO thankful we spent a couple of days in Hong Kong before coming – otherwise we never would have been able to figure out the MTR in time to make our flight. Our previous experience with it was invaluable. We changed trains three times after the main train from Guanghzhou. The last was confusing (it's tripped us up every time we've gone through that interchange station – though we finally figured it out this time!).
We got the airport just over an hour before our flight was to leave! We hurried to the counter, but it took us over 40 minutes to check in/check baggage because we were trying to combine this flight we were about to get on, with the trans-pacific flight (so our luggage would go the right direction). Since we had to change just the first leg of the trip it was confusing. Then we ran into delays because Jonathan's ticket was issued in his American name, not his Chinese name, but his passport only had his Chinese name. So they had to go through a lot effort to “fix” that. Then, just having a Chinese passport took extra time too.
We finally got through security (10 minutes) and then immigration (5 minutes) we were dashing! We litterally RAN through the rest of the airport. They were boarding when we got there. Since we had Jonathan and the stroller they had us go through the “special” line where we got ahead of everyone else. They let us use the stroller all the way to the airplane. Then they bagged it.
The air flight itself was uneventful. Jonathan had a few times of screaming with frustration over something (like not getting to keep the tray down during take-off and not getting to have the window closed during landing – not sure why the last one was a rule, but they made us keep it open).
They even served a real rice and chicken meal, even though the flight was only an hour and 20 minutes. Chinese airlines offer much better service when it comes to food on board than American airline companies do.
We ended up with a three hour layover in the Taipei airport. That actually worked well because (even though we had to go through security yet *again*) Jonathan was able to get down and run around. The end of our concourse was deserted and had moving sidewalks. What a great toddler exercise tool! He liked using them the “normal” way of course. But he also got quite a kick out of going backwards down them! He could run just a little faster than they were moving in the opposite direction, so he didn't go very far but expended a lot of energy :-).
That section had also been converted into kind of a visitor information area all about Taiwan. Room after room (the size of the waiting areas for airlines) had theme and had beautiful displays all about different aspects of Taiwan (history, ecology etc...).
They had a great baby changing room too – decorated very prettily (obviously by a woman – it was all pink) where they not only provided a place to change diapers but provided diaper wipes, hot water for bottles etc...
Stay tuned for our next installment of “Will We Make It Home???”
Our stay at the Taipei airport was actually rather pleasant and Jonathan burned up a lot of energy there. It was 8:00 p.m. The only concern was that we didn't have seats together. But the flight wasn't full, so it was easy for Charles to switch his seat with the single man that had the seat next to Michele. So all was good there. When we boarded the plane and he was definitely tired and cranky. We sat for about 20 minutes before actually taking off and he fell asleep in his chair just before take-off. Once we weren't arching so steeply, Michele made a bed on the floor in front of her seat and his, with his blanket, the airline's pillow and the airline's blanket. He slept there for about an hour while Michele grabbed just a bit of a nap too.
But then he was up with vengeance and not happy at all about the entire situation. He cried and fussed and yelled off and on. Eventually he and Michele settled into a pattern of her pulling out a new and interesting toy and him playing with it for awhile, getting bored, watching part of a cartoon and then doing it all over again. He did this for about 3 to 3 ½ hours. Finally Michele was nodding off (it was now midnight) and she knew he must be tired too since his “normal” nap that afternoon was only half an hour or so. So she “forced” him to lay down again. He complained about it, but eventually settled down. Once he relaxed he was asleep instantly.
Michele slept rather well considering she was in an airplane seat. Freeing up Jonathan's seat allowed for more options - she'd sleep in one position for about 45 minutes then have to totally readjust to another position. Charles, who says “I can't sleep on airplanes” actually slept for an hour or two by stretching out and using the table trays on the back of the seats as leg rests.
This airplane wasn't nearly as nice as the last trans-pacific flight's. It didn't have the recharging station that the other's did and the seats weren't as nice. But it did have a movie menu with games you could play and other things to watch and do. The interactive flight data was actually better because it gave all the information you always want to know: what time is it where we left, what time is it where we are going, how much longer until we land, altitude, ground speed etc... as well as a visual map showing the route flown.
The stewardess made us wake Jonathan up to put him in his seat when we hit a little bit of turbulence. That was annoying. It was still an hour and a half before we landed and the seatbelt light went off just a few minutes after Michele was forced to wake him up and strap him in his seat. Of course he threw a fit about that. It was not pleasant for about another half hour until he woke up enough to be able to start playing with things again.
The landing was uneventful, but we were very surprised at the amount of time it took to get through the San Fransisco airport. First we had to go through immigration – which, with Jonathan being an immigrant meant we had to wait through two lines instead of one. Actually the wait through one of the lines wasn't too bad because we met a single mom of Chinese-descent with her two little boys on the plane and they were waiting in line with us. These boys were five and seven and just adored Jonathan.
The immigration officer that processed Jonathan's paperwork (that is where we ended up handing over all the VISA documentation) seemed relieved to finally get someone (meaning us) who's first language was English. He was quite curt with the other immigrants it seemed because of the language barrier.
Then we had to go through customs – which was another line. Then we had to claim all of our baggage we had checked. We took all of our luggage to a different side of the airport (following confusing signs) in order to check to have it go through security then check it in again (which were two more lines). Then we went through “normal” security – which again, was another line! It was amazing the difference in airport security in China and America. China is much like America was 30 years ago – they don't automatically assume you are the enemy until proven innocent (like America does)!
We wandered from there (once we got our shoes back on, Jonathan back in the stroller and his shoes back on) down to our gate. We got there about 45 minutes or so before boarding. Right at our gate was a kid's play area that Jonathan really enjoyed. There were some things to climb on, a tornado machine and a few little science displays. He alternated between that and playing on the moving sidewalks :-). Charles called Michele's dad via the Wi-Fi connection at the airport and let him know our status.
By the time we finally got on the plane to head home (it was only slightly late) Jonathan was SO tired. He only slept 5 ½ hours on the plane over the Pacific and the day before he only had 2 short naps. So he was CRANKY once we started pulling out onto the runway. He screamed himself to sleep finally – he curled up on the chair next to Michele.
Michele used Jonathan's sleep time to work on the computer. Jonathan slept the rest of the way into Portland – he didn't get up again until we were disembarking. Getting off the plane and getting our luggage was very smooth and easy. Michele's dad came to the curb and picked us up. We had an enjoyable ride home chatting about the trip and the kids.
We're sure glad to be home!!!!!!!