Monday, February 13, 2012
WE HAVE OUR SON!
I have the post written but it's too late to type it. I will work on typing it up tomorrow and post it as soon as I can. Sorry! I know you're all waiting with baited breath!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Shaolin Temple
Today we were able to Skype with our families and see Meighan! Meighan couldn't see us on the first call and we couldn't see her on the second call but we did get her to smile for us on the first call and we got to hear her wonderful laugh on the second call.
We took the iPad back up to our room and grabbed our backpack and went back down to the lobby to meet Echo. She said it would be about a two hour drive to the Shaolin Temple. It was colder today with a forecast of rain and snow. With these temps, I don't think it's going to rain! The Shaolin Temple is southwest of Zhengzhou in some mountains. Guess what? It was REALLY COLD up there! We just can't win!
We arrived at the Shaolin Temple area in Dengfeng County at about 10:45. As we drove through the town Echo told us that this is THE place where people come to learn Kung Fu and all martial arts. There are many martial arts institutes here and as we drove she pointed out several. There's one every several blocks for a while. There's even one specifically for Muslims.
Mr. Liu dropped us off at the entrance. We walked in and Echo went to buy tickets while we took some pictures. She found out that the morning Kung Fu show was at 11:30 so we went straight there first. Sitting doing nothing for 40 or so minutes didn't help our heat deprivation. The show was good, though!
After the show we walked to the temple itself. The temple consists of 7 buildings called palaces. Some of the first palaces were destroyed by fire many years ago and have been rebuilt. There's a place at just about every palace where people can buy incense and light it and say prayers. I'm not a great fan of the scent of incense.
After the temple we came out to the Pagoda Forest. This is where all of the high ranking monks are buried. How high they ranked and what they did for the temple determined the height and design of their pagoda. I will post pictures when we get home. It's really quite interesting.
When we finished at the Pagoda Forest, Echo said that was pretty much all there was to see here so we started walking back to the van. On the way we stopped and bought some noodles (like Ramen Noodles) and some "vegetarian biscuits" which is a specialty of this area. Echo got hot water and made our noodles for us which we shared (it had a fork inside which was folded and we had to unfold and lock in place). Then she got her own. The vegetarian biscuits were quite good. We decided we wanted more. Echo said they sell them at Walmart cheaper.
We were sitting at a table with other people and Echo was visiting with them. She said they were a group that met over the internet and decided to meet in person. They shared their snacks with us. Echo told them that we were there to adopt a son and they thought that was neat. They were also talking about volunteering in an orphanage. They took our pictures with a couple of them--nothing new to us--and I took a picture of all of them. Very friendly people.
We went on our way back to the van. We stopped and bought a book of postcards with pictures of the temple area.
We drove back to Zhengzhou and we requested to be dropped off at Pizza Hut and then we'd go to Walmart and walk back. That way we didn't have to walk both directions. Our legs and bodies are tired of walking. We won't be walking so much the next couple of days.
Echo helped us order at Pizza Hut. We decided on a Hawaiian pan pizza. She asked if we wanted anything else. Bread sticks sounded good but they didn't have those. We looked at the appetizers and I saw "Western Zesty Waffle Crispers." Can you guess what those are? They are aka waffle fries. I still like the name! "Western Zesty Waffle Crispers!" LOL!
After supper we walked to Walmart and got some apple juice, some hard caramel candy that I have fallen in love with and all 4 varieties of the vegetarian biscuits. They were only a little cheaper at Walmart. The 4 varieties are sesame, almond, walnut and peanut. We've had the sesame and really like them.
We got back to the hotel and wrote this post. We meet Le An tomorrow at 10:00 am (8:00 pm Sunday Nebraska time)!
We took the iPad back up to our room and grabbed our backpack and went back down to the lobby to meet Echo. She said it would be about a two hour drive to the Shaolin Temple. It was colder today with a forecast of rain and snow. With these temps, I don't think it's going to rain! The Shaolin Temple is southwest of Zhengzhou in some mountains. Guess what? It was REALLY COLD up there! We just can't win!
We arrived at the Shaolin Temple area in Dengfeng County at about 10:45. As we drove through the town Echo told us that this is THE place where people come to learn Kung Fu and all martial arts. There are many martial arts institutes here and as we drove she pointed out several. There's one every several blocks for a while. There's even one specifically for Muslims.
Mr. Liu dropped us off at the entrance. We walked in and Echo went to buy tickets while we took some pictures. She found out that the morning Kung Fu show was at 11:30 so we went straight there first. Sitting doing nothing for 40 or so minutes didn't help our heat deprivation. The show was good, though!
After the show we walked to the temple itself. The temple consists of 7 buildings called palaces. Some of the first palaces were destroyed by fire many years ago and have been rebuilt. There's a place at just about every palace where people can buy incense and light it and say prayers. I'm not a great fan of the scent of incense.
After the temple we came out to the Pagoda Forest. This is where all of the high ranking monks are buried. How high they ranked and what they did for the temple determined the height and design of their pagoda. I will post pictures when we get home. It's really quite interesting.
When we finished at the Pagoda Forest, Echo said that was pretty much all there was to see here so we started walking back to the van. On the way we stopped and bought some noodles (like Ramen Noodles) and some "vegetarian biscuits" which is a specialty of this area. Echo got hot water and made our noodles for us which we shared (it had a fork inside which was folded and we had to unfold and lock in place). Then she got her own. The vegetarian biscuits were quite good. We decided we wanted more. Echo said they sell them at Walmart cheaper.
We were sitting at a table with other people and Echo was visiting with them. She said they were a group that met over the internet and decided to meet in person. They shared their snacks with us. Echo told them that we were there to adopt a son and they thought that was neat. They were also talking about volunteering in an orphanage. They took our pictures with a couple of them--nothing new to us--and I took a picture of all of them. Very friendly people.
We went on our way back to the van. We stopped and bought a book of postcards with pictures of the temple area.
We drove back to Zhengzhou and we requested to be dropped off at Pizza Hut and then we'd go to Walmart and walk back. That way we didn't have to walk both directions. Our legs and bodies are tired of walking. We won't be walking so much the next couple of days.
Echo helped us order at Pizza Hut. We decided on a Hawaiian pan pizza. She asked if we wanted anything else. Bread sticks sounded good but they didn't have those. We looked at the appetizers and I saw "Western Zesty Waffle Crispers." Can you guess what those are? They are aka waffle fries. I still like the name! "Western Zesty Waffle Crispers!" LOL!
After supper we walked to Walmart and got some apple juice, some hard caramel candy that I have fallen in love with and all 4 varieties of the vegetarian biscuits. They were only a little cheaper at Walmart. The 4 varieties are sesame, almond, walnut and peanut. We've had the sesame and really like them.
We got back to the hotel and wrote this post. We meet Le An tomorrow at 10:00 am (8:00 pm Sunday Nebraska time)!
Saturday, February 11, 2012
For Those Coming to Zhengzhou Soon...
I had heard that the Crowne Plaza was really smokey.
Our room is on the 3rd floor which is a non-smoking floor and we don't smell smoke in our room. We DO smell smoke in the public areas but it is not terrible. There is free wi-fi in the lobby so we have to come down here to check email and blog.
Our room is on the 3rd floor which is a non-smoking floor and we don't smell smoke in our room. We DO smell smoke in the public areas but it is not terrible. There is free wi-fi in the lobby so we have to come down here to check email and blog.
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!
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!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Tour of Xian and Terracotta Warriors
We slept really well last night...probably because we were so tired. I woke up at 5:45 and didn't really go back to sleep but was able to kind of doze until my alarm went off at 6:45. I got up at 7:00 and took my shower. The shower felt sooo good and I feel human again!
We went down for breakfast and had a wonderful buffet. The eggs in the omelette could have been cooked more but the OJ, bacon, chocolate donut and rice were very good. The rice had eggs, ham and green peppers in it and I could make it myself--and I just might!
After breakfast we exchanged some money (FINALLY!) at the front desk and went back to the room to get ready for the day. We met Sean in the lobby at 9:00 and started our tour of Xian.
First we stopped at the Shaanxi Provincial Museum and he told us all about the Tang, Han, and Qin Dynasties and showed us relics that had been excavated from Shaanxi Province (or replicas of relics).
Our next stop was the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which is part of the Temple of Thanksgiving. We didn't go into the pagoda itself because he said there was really nothing to see in it, it has more than 280 steps AND it would cost us another ticket. We just walked around and saw the various worship places where people can worship Buddah. A side note for anyone planning a trip to China: Make sure to bring toilet paper (almost all used but leave a little on the roll) because there may or may not be toilet paper in the restrooms. AND if you don't want to use the "squatty potty" look for the handicapped toilet (singular, not plural) in the restroom.
We then got back in the van to go to the Terracotta Warriors Factory. They kind of showed how they make them and then (of course) took us through all the shops where they want you to buy stuff. We broke down and bought a set of replicas and a couple T-shirts.
We got back in the nice warm van and were told we'd have lunch in a half hour. We stopped and went into a VERY cold building, up to the second floor and were taken into a restaurant (of sorts). There was only one table of people (all men) eating. It was FREEZING in there! They had us sit down at a table next to them and they moved a tall propane heater closer to us so it was (trying to) warm both the others and us. The table of men sounded like they were speaking Russian.
They brought out some hot tea. Now, I'm NOT a tea drinker but it was freaking COLD so I drank tea today and it actually felt good! They brought out chicken, rice, vegetables, celery, noodles (big, fat and VERY LONG!) and sweet and sour pork--all hot dishes that didn't stay hot very long in that cold room. We tried it all. The vegetables were quite spicy so we didn't eat much of them, but we filled up on everything else. There was no fruit at the end of this meal.
Sean came and got us (I don't know why the guides and drivers eat separately from us. It would have helped to have them help eat the food we left.)
A ten minute drive later we were at the Terracotta Army Museum (our "holy grail" for the day). We meet the owner/discoverer of the pits, Mr. Yeng, and bought a book about the area that he signed and then were allowed to have our picture taken with him. Very special! He will turn 78 years old this year. Sean went to buy our tickets. We walked to Pit 1. This is the pit you see in the pictures. It is the pit that has the most excavating done. They still work on excavating every night after the tourists leave. Currently, after these 38 years since discovery of the site, there are about 1000 figures that have been excavated. They believe there are about 8000 total figures. They were discovered in March of 1974.
When we finished in Pit 1, Sean took us to Pit 3 and then to Pit 2 (numbered in order of discovery). Then we went to another building and saw replicas of two bronze chariots with four horses each. The real ones are out touring somewhere. We also saw up close some figures, including a "kneeling archer" which was the most complete figure found to date.
Have I mentioned it was cold EVERYWHERE? Before we finished Pit 1, I had to put my hood up because my head was so cold. It helped keep the heat in. Tony was getting pretty cold with what he had on. I'm glad I brought my scarf. We had to keep our hands in our pockets because we did not bring mittens/gloves (didn't want to mess with them). My face and legs got cold but my upper body stayed warm enough.
When we finished with the Terracotta Warriors Museum, we found the van and Mr. Xia drove us back to our hotel. They will be back at 7:30 tomorrow morning to take us to the train.
We got up to our room and climbed into bed to try to warm up. We both took naps because this was a BIG day. I think we've warmed up now, too.
We found some water and were able to get Internet access to post about our first couple of days.
We go to Zhengzhou tomorrow!
We went down for breakfast and had a wonderful buffet. The eggs in the omelette could have been cooked more but the OJ, bacon, chocolate donut and rice were very good. The rice had eggs, ham and green peppers in it and I could make it myself--and I just might!
After breakfast we exchanged some money (FINALLY!) at the front desk and went back to the room to get ready for the day. We met Sean in the lobby at 9:00 and started our tour of Xian.
First we stopped at the Shaanxi Provincial Museum and he told us all about the Tang, Han, and Qin Dynasties and showed us relics that had been excavated from Shaanxi Province (or replicas of relics).
Our next stop was the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, which is part of the Temple of Thanksgiving. We didn't go into the pagoda itself because he said there was really nothing to see in it, it has more than 280 steps AND it would cost us another ticket. We just walked around and saw the various worship places where people can worship Buddah. A side note for anyone planning a trip to China: Make sure to bring toilet paper (almost all used but leave a little on the roll) because there may or may not be toilet paper in the restrooms. AND if you don't want to use the "squatty potty" look for the handicapped toilet (singular, not plural) in the restroom.
We then got back in the van to go to the Terracotta Warriors Factory. They kind of showed how they make them and then (of course) took us through all the shops where they want you to buy stuff. We broke down and bought a set of replicas and a couple T-shirts.
We got back in the nice warm van and were told we'd have lunch in a half hour. We stopped and went into a VERY cold building, up to the second floor and were taken into a restaurant (of sorts). There was only one table of people (all men) eating. It was FREEZING in there! They had us sit down at a table next to them and they moved a tall propane heater closer to us so it was (trying to) warm both the others and us. The table of men sounded like they were speaking Russian.
They brought out some hot tea. Now, I'm NOT a tea drinker but it was freaking COLD so I drank tea today and it actually felt good! They brought out chicken, rice, vegetables, celery, noodles (big, fat and VERY LONG!) and sweet and sour pork--all hot dishes that didn't stay hot very long in that cold room. We tried it all. The vegetables were quite spicy so we didn't eat much of them, but we filled up on everything else. There was no fruit at the end of this meal.
Sean came and got us (I don't know why the guides and drivers eat separately from us. It would have helped to have them help eat the food we left.)
A ten minute drive later we were at the Terracotta Army Museum (our "holy grail" for the day). We meet the owner/discoverer of the pits, Mr. Yeng, and bought a book about the area that he signed and then were allowed to have our picture taken with him. Very special! He will turn 78 years old this year. Sean went to buy our tickets. We walked to Pit 1. This is the pit you see in the pictures. It is the pit that has the most excavating done. They still work on excavating every night after the tourists leave. Currently, after these 38 years since discovery of the site, there are about 1000 figures that have been excavated. They believe there are about 8000 total figures. They were discovered in March of 1974.
When we finished in Pit 1, Sean took us to Pit 3 and then to Pit 2 (numbered in order of discovery). Then we went to another building and saw replicas of two bronze chariots with four horses each. The real ones are out touring somewhere. We also saw up close some figures, including a "kneeling archer" which was the most complete figure found to date.
Have I mentioned it was cold EVERYWHERE? Before we finished Pit 1, I had to put my hood up because my head was so cold. It helped keep the heat in. Tony was getting pretty cold with what he had on. I'm glad I brought my scarf. We had to keep our hands in our pockets because we did not bring mittens/gloves (didn't want to mess with them). My face and legs got cold but my upper body stayed warm enough.
When we finished with the Terracotta Warriors Museum, we found the van and Mr. Xia drove us back to our hotel. They will be back at 7:30 tomorrow morning to take us to the train.
We got up to our room and climbed into bed to try to warm up. We both took naps because this was a BIG day. I think we've warmed up now, too.
We found some water and were able to get Internet access to post about our first couple of days.
We go to Zhengzhou tomorrow!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Middle Seats Suck!
Note -- We plan to blog every day but may not find internet sometimes. You won't miss anything because we're writing it all down. Just remember to scroll down in case two days get posted at a time.
Our flight from Omaha to Chicago was perfectly on time! We killed the four hours in Chicago by walking and meeting other adoptive families on our flight. There were at least five adoptive families on our flight. One family that sat in front of us is in our Holt group. Their child is in Guangdong Province, same province Meighan was in.
When we got to Chicago and looked at our boarding passes, we realized we were not seated together (like I thought we were when we checked in online). When they did the visa check, I mentioned it and they seated us together. I ended up in the middle seat for the ENTIRE flight. The good thing was that they seated us in Economy Plus area that has extra leg room. Tony slept some and I was able to relax enough to sleep some, too. The other person in our three seats (in the center so no windows) was a young gal going to study Mandarin in Beijing for 4 1/2 months. She was a very good seat mate.
They fed us well on the long flight. One of the really cool things about this particular plane was that not only did we each have our own screen to watch things on, we could each watch whatever we wanted--movies, TV shows, kids shows, listen to music or audio books, play games on the touch screen, watch the map of our location and route and check how much time we had left. I enjoy watching the map every once in a while. I think it's interesting. I checked out what movies there were (quite a few to choose from) and decided to watch "Courageous" first. I had heard many good things about it. I cried almost the entire movie--happy and sad crying! This is a movie EVERYONE should see, especially men! I'll leave it at that in case you haven't seen it. See it!
We finally arrived at Beijing at 3:55 pm local time. We went through immigration (no problem), found the train to the baggage claim (no problem), got our bags (no problem), walked through Customs (no problem), and found our guide to help us get checked in for our flight to Xian (no problem). Arthur was our best friend for the next 30 minutes or so. He got us to security and then, of course, couldn't go any further. It's really good to walk more then 15 feet at a time!
We arrived in Xian at 10:30 pm. We had trouble staying awake the several hours and actually didn't even try some of the time. We found our guide, Sean (as in Sean Connery) and he took us to our van. Our driver is Mr. Xia (means "summer" in Chinese). He took us to our very nice hotel (1 hr drive) and Sean helped us check in. Our room is on the 7th floor and it was SOOOOO good to see a BED! In recent memory I've never been so glad to see a bed as I was tonight! We got ready for bed as quickly as we could and laid down just after midnight on the 10th. We were soooo tired so it didn't take long to fall asleep. (We'd been up for over 30 hours.)
Our flight from Omaha to Chicago was perfectly on time! We killed the four hours in Chicago by walking and meeting other adoptive families on our flight. There were at least five adoptive families on our flight. One family that sat in front of us is in our Holt group. Their child is in Guangdong Province, same province Meighan was in.
When we got to Chicago and looked at our boarding passes, we realized we were not seated together (like I thought we were when we checked in online). When they did the visa check, I mentioned it and they seated us together. I ended up in the middle seat for the ENTIRE flight. The good thing was that they seated us in Economy Plus area that has extra leg room. Tony slept some and I was able to relax enough to sleep some, too. The other person in our three seats (in the center so no windows) was a young gal going to study Mandarin in Beijing for 4 1/2 months. She was a very good seat mate.
They fed us well on the long flight. One of the really cool things about this particular plane was that not only did we each have our own screen to watch things on, we could each watch whatever we wanted--movies, TV shows, kids shows, listen to music or audio books, play games on the touch screen, watch the map of our location and route and check how much time we had left. I enjoy watching the map every once in a while. I think it's interesting. I checked out what movies there were (quite a few to choose from) and decided to watch "Courageous" first. I had heard many good things about it. I cried almost the entire movie--happy and sad crying! This is a movie EVERYONE should see, especially men! I'll leave it at that in case you haven't seen it. See it!
We finally arrived at Beijing at 3:55 pm local time. We went through immigration (no problem), found the train to the baggage claim (no problem), got our bags (no problem), walked through Customs (no problem), and found our guide to help us get checked in for our flight to Xian (no problem). Arthur was our best friend for the next 30 minutes or so. He got us to security and then, of course, couldn't go any further. It's really good to walk more then 15 feet at a time!
We arrived in Xian at 10:30 pm. We had trouble staying awake the several hours and actually didn't even try some of the time. We found our guide, Sean (as in Sean Connery) and he took us to our van. Our driver is Mr. Xia (means "summer" in Chinese). He took us to our very nice hotel (1 hr drive) and Sean helped us check in. Our room is on the 7th floor and it was SOOOOO good to see a BED! In recent memory I've never been so glad to see a bed as I was tonight! We got ready for bed as quickly as we could and laid down just after midnight on the 10th. We were soooo tired so it didn't take long to fall asleep. (We'd been up for over 30 hours.)
Monday, February 6, 2012
One Week to Go!
I can't believe that we are in the FINAL COUNTDOWN to meeting our son! We meet him just one week from today! Wow! What a long road this has been. It took longer than the process with Meighan took.
The house and cats will be taken care of while we are gone. Meighan will be well taken care of at grandparents' houses. We plan to try to Skype with her a few times. We have things to do to keep us busy on the plane rides (and try to sleep too!).
We will appreciate any prayers for a safe trip and smooth process as we travel. Also prayers for Le An in his transition into our family.
Walking into church yesterday it hit me that this was the last time we'd be walking into church as a family of three! Next time we'll have our completed family of four!
Feel free to comment on the blog! We love to read your comments.
The house and cats will be taken care of while we are gone. Meighan will be well taken care of at grandparents' houses. We plan to try to Skype with her a few times. We have things to do to keep us busy on the plane rides (and try to sleep too!).
We will appreciate any prayers for a safe trip and smooth process as we travel. Also prayers for Le An in his transition into our family.
Walking into church yesterday it hit me that this was the last time we'd be walking into church as a family of three! Next time we'll have our completed family of four!
Feel free to comment on the blog! We love to read your comments.
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