We Made It to Zhengzhou!

We slept fairly well last night again. Perhaps continuing from Beijing and being so tired when we first got to go to bed helped us adjust to the time change better.


We ate the buffet breakfast again and finished packing with plenty of time to spare. We took our luggage down to the lobby and Tony checked out while I got on the Internet again. I checked email and blog comments. (We love reading your comments. If you have any questions, please ask and we'll try to answer.)


Sean and Mr. Xia got there and we left for the train station. The building is HUGE! And COLD! Our main complaint is not that it's cold. We knew it would be about the same here as it is in Nebraska. What we're complaining about is that when you walk into a building, it should be warmer than it is outside. It's just not! We had to wait about a half hour to check in. At that point is when Sean left us. We followed the crowd and got on our car (#3) and found our seats (#5 and #6) which you would think would be together but they weren't. Tony had a window on the right side and I had a window on the left side one row ahead of him. We stowed our luggage where we could and sat down and enjoyed the 2 hour 10 minute ride to Zhengzhou. Sean had told us Zhengzhou would be the third stop but it was the fourth and final stop. The third stop was Luoyang (I know there's an orphanage there.). Nice way to travel if you ask me.


We gathered our luggage and got off the train and really didn't know where to go. We followed the crowd to the "North Underpass Exit". We stopped before actually exiting and were about to ask someone where to go when someone came running up behind us out of breath. She was our guide. She had somehow found us in all of those people--we don't stick out or nothin'!--and had missed us on the platform. She called the driver to see if he could meet us at another location. He could so she helped us exit and we waited for the driver.


Our driver is Mr. Liu. Our guide is Echo. She lives here in Zhengzhou and is with Holt. She speaks really good English. We got to our hotel and she helped us check in and took the copies of things we were told to bring with us. We decided we wanted to go to Walmart ("just a couple blocks away") and pick up some things. She walked with us down there (these are REALLY LONG blocks) and asked where we would like to eat. We decided beef noodles sounded good. She helped us order and then left to go home till tomorrow.


We had to pay first. When our food came, the salad was good and we tried a couple of the cold things--some hard boiled egg pieces, some cubed beef pieces (we think)--but the third cold thing wasn't anything we recognized so we didn't try it. We have no idea what it was. The lemon tea was actually pretty good. It had a pretty strong lemon flavor. The two entrees were noodles and beef and rice and beef. This was a "combo" meal meant for two people. So we picked up our chopsticks and started in. Long noodles are hard to eat with chopsticks!


Soon two gentlemen sat down at our table and ordered their food. I noticed one of them kind of chuckling while watching me try to work the chopsticks. I looked at him and said "Are you laughing at me?" I'm sure he didn't understand my words but he knew what I was saying. He got some chopsticks out of the container on the table and showed me how to do it. Actually that was good 'cause I was doing it wrong. My little lesson in using chopsticks helped. Tony also had some trouble with the chopsticks so he also got a lesson.


Later on, after we had eaten almost all of what we were going to eat, Tony said "It's kind of nice they don't come around and bother you to ask how you're doing." I said "You paid already, so why would they care?". "Good point" he said.


After we finished eating we walked around the corner to Walmart. Walmart is on the 2nd and 3rd floors of this building. We picked up some diapers to give to the orphanage and a few other things, paid and left. We walked back to the hotel and Tony promptly fell asleep. I went down to the lobby to check email and blog comments and exchange some money. Tomorrow we are going to see the Shaolin Temple. The trip will cost 1200 Yuan plus the cost of the tickets to get in. It will be an all-day trip. We'll leave at 9 and get back around 5.


I tried to take a nap but couldn't. I eventually got Tony up and we went to find the playroom (it's just a small playroom) and went and got something to eat. Echo had told us of a restaurant next door at the Holiday Inn Express that had noodles and dumplings. We weren't really too hungry so we went there. Tony ordered pork dumplings. I ordered beef and cabbage dumplings. The pork dumplings tasted way better to both of us than the beef dumplings. When we were done eating, we were sitting there visiting and wondering if we should just get up and they would bring us the check. I started to get up and heard a song start over the background music system that caught my ear. Tony heard it too. We looked at each other and said "O Come All Ye Faithful"? We started laughing. How strange to hear Christmas music here! (Of course, at the Terracotta Factory yesterday they had banners with Santa Claus on them and Christmas trees!)


We got the check and paid and walked back to our hotel. We heard fireworks. We walked back to see that they were behind another building. Then all of a sudden they stopped. Just a very short fireworks show. Tony said "Christmas and the Fourth of July, all in one night!" and I said "Only in China!"


So tomorrow we'll go and see the Shaolin Temple where the Shaolin Warriors learn Kung Fu. Mom and I had seen the Shaolin Warriors when they were in Omaha a couple of years ago so this will be interesting.


37 hours till we meet Le An!