Day 13 - Bye Bye Changsha, Hello Guangzhou

We today went pretty smooth, one last breakfast in Changsha. We checked out. We were worried that there might be some extra charges on our bill like internet or pool but those were all free to the guests. We rode to the airport and the flight went pretty well. The kids (babies that is, not Kevin and Aaron) did well on the flight. It was only about a 1 hour flight.

Before moving on the Guangzhou, I have to mention this. Before we left the US, I searched for other blogs where people had traveled to Changsha to see what there trip was like and look for ideas in preparing. There was one blog that I really enjoyed (http://www.countdowntoaubriana.blogspot.com/). The entry called "Good Grief and Gotcha Day" mentions a person called Mr. Happy. The blogs refers to him as "some Hotel Good Will Host we all call Mr. Happy who is on some sort of mood altering drug, cuz there just ain't nobody that freaking happy all the time". After being at the Dolton, there is no confusion who this person is. We even got our guide calling him Mr. Happy. Everytime he sees you, he wants to shake your hand and give the boys hugs. My one regret is that I never got a picture of him.

On the plane to Guangzhou, the babies got lots of attention. Pretty much everywhere we've gone, people often stare at the babies, they come talk to the babies, and ask you questions. In the Changsha airport, two young girls (about Kevins age), talked to babies for a little bit then left. They returned about 2 minutes later and gave both Kevin and Aaron a Chinese candy. That reminds me of another unusual situation at the bowling lane a few days earlier. A boy, a little older than Kevin, sat next to him and started talking to him. He asked him who his family was and Kevin pointed us out. The boy told Kevin he was lucky to have such a big family. You can sense that people think that the babies are very lucky to be joining our families by their comments and the way they act.

Well, back to the flight. We landed in Guangzhou. Its in the southern part of China and since the Tropical Storm/Typhoon is here, were in for a lot of rain. We met the famous guide, Jack. We have heard about him for years. He is a regular guide for our agency and very popular. He lives in Guangzhou. Another family has now joined us, so now we are three families. We arrived at the famous White Swan Hotel. We are on a tight schedule today. Unpack, eat lunch, get some pitcures taken of the babies for paperwork and go to medical office to get a quick checkup for the babies. There is a deli just outside the hotel and it was awesome. I feel like I'm back home. After going through this afternoon, I know why people like Jack. He seems to know everyone and gets us in and out of each place quickly and its almost fun. We came back and finished of some paperwork that we'll need for the Consulate appointment in a couple of days. To top off the day we ordered Papa John's pizza delivered to the hotel and ran across the street to 7-11 for sodas.