Well, we're home! We saved up all our glitches for the end of the trip. We had to wake up at 5am to leave for Guangzhou airport at 6:10am. Our guide, Jack, cut us 10 minutes of slack since breakfast opened at 6am. We arrived to the airport and Jack was in a hurry which I didn't understand because I thought we were in good shape but I did what he said, he's the expert. As we were checking in, they could not find the ticket purchased for Katelin ... even with the purchase receipt that I had my hand. Our flight was Guangzhou - Hong Kong - Newark, the only issue was Guangzhou to Hong Kong. So after much conversation between Jack and the girl checking us in (all in Chinese). Jack told her to checkin the 4 of us, and I ran with him to buy another ticket. As we were running, he asked if I had any Chinese money and I said yes because I had just converted some for diner the night before. Well once we were ready to buy the ticket, I was about $50 (yuan) short - thats about $7 USD. So Jack just pulled out a $100 (about $15 USD) and told me to take it.... did I mention that I liked Jack :) So then we hoof it back across the airport with our ticket to the baggage checkin where the girl had not done anything because she was waiting for the ticket. We were one of the last people to board the plane but we all made it and were off to Hong Kong.
When we landed in Hong Kong, we had about a 1 hour layover where we had to switch to a different plane. on a diiferent airline, in the international terminal (Hong Kong and China are considered seperate countries). Our travel agent poo-pooed this when I raised concern about the short turn around but Jack was concerned. He said that it was doable but that we had no extra time, When we deplaned, there was a Continental rep waiting for us and 4 other people trying to do the same thing. I found this funny, he held a sign that said "New Yark", I guess that;s a cross of New York and Newark? Without this guy, there is no way we would have made it. We went through a special line for customs and ticketing (you can not get boarding passes ahead of time). Then he had us cut to the front of the security check. Once we got to the gate, there was a huge line, we were spotted for 2 reasons (1. we had a baby and 2. I was carrying a special brown envelope which you only have if you have an adopted child and she is immigrating to the US) which got us right to the front of the check in line. The plane ended up leaving 15 minutes late but we got 3 seats in the bulkhead row (yippee) for our 16 hour flight. Katelin did OK on the flight, she was a little fussy but so was I ! The most difficult part was Katelin pooped more on this flight than she did the entire time we were in China. As you experienced parents know, this can be a messy situation (especially in turbulance). We made it though with 1 diaper left and completely out of wipes. I can now say that I'm a member of the 30,000 mile club (no not what your thinking, I changed a diaper at 30,000 feet in the air).
Once we landed, we found out that 1 of our 4 bags did not make it out of Guangzhou... but at least it has been located. We also needed car seat because since they don't use them in China, its hard to find them. So we drove illegally to Toys R Us which is a mile from airport and got one. Next came a long drive home, there was traffic everywhere and took us forever (but we did make it). Then for the last glitch, we were all exhausted from being up for more than 24 hours and Katelin decided she didn't agree with the time change. She up most of the night and we did our shifts, hopefully tonight will be better. Bottom line is ... we made it and we all had a great trip. I think that we all had a super time, had very few problems and most importantly, Katelin adapted to us right away and is a great little girl. I'm glad to be home!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Day 15 - The Last Day (almost)
Today is the last full day; we travel home tomorrow. Today we went sightseeing. We visited the Six Banyan Tree Temple. Below is a pagoda in the middle of the temple area, we climbed up to the top of it. Its pretty high up there.
Then we went to the place below (also at the same temple). This is called the Daxiong Baodian Hall. Here we took the children to the up to the the Budha's seen below. There are actually three budhas (only two in the picture) representing the past, present, and future. Our guide arranged for the children to be blessed. We kneeled down and a monk performed a short cermoney to give the children good luck in their life.
From there we walked through some more traditional markets that were selling pets and herbs. Then we were free for lunch (the last lunch in China!). We met again with the guide at 3pm to get the final paperwork to bring home. We are set for an early departure tomorrow. Maybe we'll do a littlr shopping tonight, Kevin wants to get a few charms and I was thinking about getting another traditional outfit for Katelin. .... Hope to see you all soon
Then we went to the place below (also at the same temple). This is called the Daxiong Baodian Hall. Here we took the children to the up to the the Budha's seen below. There are actually three budhas (only two in the picture) representing the past, present, and future. Our guide arranged for the children to be blessed. We kneeled down and a monk performed a short cermoney to give the children good luck in their life.
From there we walked through some more traditional markets that were selling pets and herbs. Then we were free for lunch (the last lunch in China!). We met again with the guide at 3pm to get the final paperwork to bring home. We are set for an early departure tomorrow. Maybe we'll do a littlr shopping tonight, Kevin wants to get a few charms and I was thinking about getting another traditional outfit for Katelin. .... Hope to see you all soon
Day 14 - Surprise Day
First, a few photos.... This photo is the boys walking around in a park next to the hotel. We were coming home from lunch.... yes, it raining.
Next is a picture of the street shopping outside the Hotel. Its kind of a Southern climate (i.e. Palm trees).
So, whats the surprise. Our Consulate appointment is moved up to today, wow! So this morning, we had breakfast as usual and its was better than we were getting in Changsha. We did a little shopping, bought Katelin a Chinese outfit, a charm, and some other souvieners. For lunch we had a Cheeseburgers and Grilled Cheese (I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!). I the afternoon, we piled on a bus and rode for about 40 minutes to the US Consulate. There were about 40 families in total and the adopted children were sworn in as US citizens. It was a pretty cool moment. A room filled with people from all over the US all hoping to give these kids a better life. The guy doing the speaking came around the room and talked to us ( and several others) for a little bit before his speach. He let us know the next steps, gave us some advise wrt birth certificates,... and then we all stood up and took the oath. Then we took the 40 minute bus ride home. Oh ya, one more thing.... Katelin fell asleep as we pulled away from the hotel and never woke up until we returned. She slept through the entire thing. Guess she wasn't as interested as we were :) Tonight we went to an Italian restaurant, it was good. Tommorow is our last day here before we get on the plane for the US. We have nothing to do except shop and sightsee.
Next, it a picture is the White Swan Hotel. ....No, we still are not roughing it!
Next is a picture of the street shopping outside the Hotel. Its kind of a Southern climate (i.e. Palm trees).
So, whats the surprise. Our Consulate appointment is moved up to today, wow! So this morning, we had breakfast as usual and its was better than we were getting in Changsha. We did a little shopping, bought Katelin a Chinese outfit, a charm, and some other souvieners. For lunch we had a Cheeseburgers and Grilled Cheese (I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!). I the afternoon, we piled on a bus and rode for about 40 minutes to the US Consulate. There were about 40 families in total and the adopted children were sworn in as US citizens. It was a pretty cool moment. A room filled with people from all over the US all hoping to give these kids a better life. The guy doing the speaking came around the room and talked to us ( and several others) for a little bit before his speach. He let us know the next steps, gave us some advise wrt birth certificates,... and then we all stood up and took the oath. Then we took the 40 minute bus ride home. Oh ya, one more thing.... Katelin fell asleep as we pulled away from the hotel and never woke up until we returned. She slept through the entire thing. Guess she wasn't as interested as we were :) Tonight we went to an Italian restaurant, it was good. Tommorow is our last day here before we get on the plane for the US. We have nothing to do except shop and sightsee.
I think that we have been very fortunate to have seen there very different cities on our trip. Hong Kong was like a mini-NYC. I'm not sure how to describe Changsha. It seemed to be poorer. The driving and congestion is crazy. There are people everywhere. Guangzhou seems very nice. Nice shops, people seem very nice, food has been great. This may be because we are in an area where there are so many American adopting familes that things stores/restaurants are catering to this. But right now after 1 and half days, I feel like I'm at home. English is spoken everywhere. This has been a wonderful trip and one day we want to return and visit Bejing (for all the great sights), Hunan province (to see the actual orphanage and city that Katelin came from) and if possible, Guangzhou would be high on my list to return to.
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.
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.
Day 12 - Hanging Around ...
Today we have no sightseeing, just around and wait for our guide, Susan, to arrive with our Chinese Passports for the kids. We went to breakfast in the morning and observed two unusual things. The other family in our group could not turn on their TV and we had a note on our desk that wished us well in our travels. So as we talked at breakfast, wondering if the motel didn't know we were staying an extra day. When we got back to our rooms, we made some phone calls to the agency to make sure that all our plans were straight (air tickets were on the correct day and both our hotel reservations were on the correct days). It ends up that everything was correct and that we just needed to extend our stay at the Dolton for one more night. So we got that squared away in the morning. We decided that later in the morning, we would take another adventure. We got directions to the Whacko store (a local convenient store) where we could load up on cookies, sodas, and snack for the afternoon. We took the short walk and were successful, another small step for the Americans! In the afternoon, Halli and Katelin napped, while me and the boys had a mini-olympics in the game room. First we played two games of bowling then we played ping-pong for an hour. We had fun with the ping pong but the Chinese take the game a little more seriously than we were playing it. Finally, Susan arrived with the paperwork that we needed for Guangzhou and let us know that we needed to be Packed, Checked out, breakfasted, and ready to go at 7:30am the next morning. Looks like we'll be using the alarm!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Day 11 - More Sightseeing
Today was another typical day. Breakfast, followed by a visit to the Hunan Embroidary Factory. We got a couple of souvieners. Some of the artwork was very impressive (and expensive). In the afternoon, we did a little swimming (Kevin, Aaron, and me). We were the only ones in the pool so we set up an obstacle course race. The pool is huge. After that we watched a couple of movies during a Katelin nap. In the evening, we headed over the JoNos for dinner. The ranks are not happy with JoNos and we may not be going there again. We were supposed to be traveling to Guangzhou tomorrow but due to some minor delays in paperwork, we won't be traveling until the day after tomorrow. We'll be arriving at the same time as Tropical Storm Fengshen arrives in Guangzhou, ...great! The weather looks like rain and thunderstorms everyday while were in Guangzhou and lets not forget the 95 degrees F temperatures (with Humidity it feels like 103 degrees F according to the internet). Sounds like a paradise.
Katelin continues to do well. She spent some time in the playroom yesterday and met some new kids. Some new families came in yesterday and there were 2 familes that had older children that were returning to visit the orphanages that they had come from. Yesterday, Katelin tried the kiddie pool, she wasn't too interested but went along with it anyway. We keep experimenting with different foods; she's liking bananas, watermellon and congee the most. She is very friendly to everyone but she's going to have to get into the baby gym; she doesn't have much strength. She needs help to sit up. But I think that I see her getting stronger each day.
Katelin continues to do well. She spent some time in the playroom yesterday and met some new kids. Some new families came in yesterday and there were 2 familes that had older children that were returning to visit the orphanages that they had come from. Yesterday, Katelin tried the kiddie pool, she wasn't too interested but went along with it anyway. We keep experimenting with different foods; she's liking bananas, watermellon and congee the most. She is very friendly to everyone but she's going to have to get into the baby gym; she doesn't have much strength. She needs help to sit up. But I think that I see her getting stronger each day.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Day 10 - More Sightseeing plus an adventure....
The usual ... breakfast, sightseeing, free afternoon. Breakfast was the usual, I tried Congee today. No biggee. All the other babies are gone (those familes traveled to Guangzhou), there are just a few left now. Today we went to the Kaifu Temple. We saw tons of budha's. Aaron got fortune told by a monk at the 500 Budha exhibit. He should have good luck and be successful if he worked hard. Also he would have temper tantrums sometimes. After the temple visit, we were determined to get to a McDonalds (Kevin's request)..... this is the adventure part. So our guide wrote the address of the McDonalds on a piece of paper and the Hotel address on another piece of paper. The only way to get to the Micky D's was by taxi and since we don't know Chinese, we needed to show the paper to the taxi driver and hope for the best. One more problem, we needed 2 taxis since they only seat 3 per taxi and we were going with our neighbor (Dad and son). So we made it there. Luckily, the girl at the counter spoke some English and it was a piece of cake at Micky Ds. The Quarter pounder came with Cucumbers instead of Pickles and some kind of spicy sauce which was pretty good. Now the tough part! When we were at the hotel, the hotel staff got us setup in the cab but we were "out in the wild" so we had to get a cab. It took awhile since we were competing with locals but we managed eventually. All in all, another small step in conquering Changsha. Another 5 years and we'll be there. To bad we only have a couple more days. This afternoon we bowled 3 games in the hotel. The score isn't important because it wasn't to hot, just good enough to beat Kevin. Tonight, its back to JoNos for dinner! Were regulars now.
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