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Well, we're finally here! The long 15 hour trip was actually not as
bad as we thought. Probably because we pretty much konked
out as soon as we got on the plane. Tyler was hyped up the
entire drive down to LAX and I thought maybe he was going to
have a hard time falling asleep on the plane, but he was out
before we were. He did wake up every once in a while during the
night to shift in his sleep, but he pretty much slept through the
night. Of course, just like clockwork he woke up at 6 am
California time. It doesn't matter how late he goes to sleep that
boy will wake up at the same time every morning. As I type this
he's sawing logs, poor guy is all thrown off. It's only 3:45
Saturday afternoon here, but his internal clock is telling him it's
11:45 Friday night.
I on the other hand, am wide awake for some reason and am in
love with my travel pillow. I don't know why I didn't invest in one of
those things earlier. You know what I'm talking about? Those
little half donut-shaped pillows that you can blow up or are
stuffed with styrofoam beads. It made all the difference in the
world while snoozing on the plane. I did wake up every couple of
hours, but I think that was nerves more than anything. Anyway,
love my new pillow and will now never go on another plane ride
without it.
So as I said the long plane ride wasn't as bad as we thought. I
think taking the red eye really helped as we slept through a little
bad as we thought. Probably because we pretty much konked
out as soon as we got on the plane. Tyler was hyped up the
entire drive down to LAX and I thought maybe he was going to
have a hard time falling asleep on the plane, but he was out
before we were. He did wake up every once in a while during the
night to shift in his sleep, but he pretty much slept through the
night. Of course, just like clockwork he woke up at 6 am
California time. It doesn't matter how late he goes to sleep that
boy will wake up at the same time every morning. As I type this
he's sawing logs, poor guy is all thrown off. It's only 3:45
Saturday afternoon here, but his internal clock is telling him it's
11:45 Friday night.
I on the other hand, am wide awake for some reason and am in
love with my travel pillow. I don't know why I didn't invest in one of
those things earlier. You know what I'm talking about? Those
little half donut-shaped pillows that you can blow up or are
stuffed with styrofoam beads. It made all the difference in the
world while snoozing on the plane. I did wake up every couple of
hours, but I think that was nerves more than anything. Anyway,
love my new pillow and will now never go on another plane ride
without it.
So as I said the long plane ride wasn't as bad as we thought. I
think taking the red eye really helped as we slept through a little
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less than half of it. Yes, the seats were squished together and near the end my rear was sore from
sitting so long, but it was bearable. The only problem I had was that since we were flying a Chinese
airline everyone would look past Bill and automatically start speaking to me in Chinese. The very
first time it happened on the plane the flight attendant started asking me a question and I had to
look up at her and tell her I don't speak Chinese. The sound of what I can only describe as
disappointment in her voice when she switched to English was just the beginning. I had a
salesman trying to sell some sort of vacation come up to me as we waited in Guangzhou to board
our connecting flight. When he realized I couldn't understand him he tried to sell it to me in English,
but I couldn't understand him with his heavy accent. We went to a coffee shop in the Guangzhou
airport and when we had a difficult time communicating what we wanted to the waitress she looked
at me trying to explain what the problem was when she already knew I couldn't understand her. Ah,
the trouble with being an ABC (American Born Chinese). Not to mention, any Chinese I know is
Cantonese and the common dialect around here is Mandarin. Not that my VERY limited Cantonese
would do us any good since about all I can do is order food and water at a restaurant, but I digress...
We made it through customs in Guangzhou without a problem and got to our connecting domestic
flight to Nanjing without a hitch. Our flight was delayed leaving the gate for something like an hour
due to some delay with air traffic control, but we made it to Nanjing and met our guide Jane at the
baggage claim exit. She promptly brought us to the bank to exchange the U.S. dollars we brought
for the adoption into Chinese yuan. This was some stress off of me since I had been worried about
the declining exchange rate not working in our favor. We did bring an excess of money so now we
have plenty to spend on souvenirs to bring back home!
Jane has been a wealth of information. She ran through the whole week's schedule with us during
the car ride to the hotel and we even got a short history lesson about the city to boot! Once we got to
the hotel she checked us in and showed us how everything worked in the room. The TV even has a
computer hooked up to it which Bill was stoked about. By the way, he is sawing some HUGE logs
as I type away now. Guess I'm the only one left standing. Anyway, she also brought us to the local
supermarket at the nearby mall where we picked up our first "meal" here in China (not including
airport food). It was DELICIOUS. Jane kept pointing out the different recognizable chain stores
around, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonalds, etc. I guess she's used to Americans coming out and wanting
to know where the fast food was. I think she was a bit surprised when we told her we wanted rice,
noodles and dumplings. We were like kids in a candy store looking at all the dim sum type foods at
the super market and having her translate to the servers what we wanted. They even had Tyler's
dim sum favorite, siu mai, pork dumplings and my favorite steamed egg cake. Throw in some sticky
rice wrapped in tea leaves and we were happy campers! After having suffered through airplane food
we bought and inhaled a ton of food at the market.
Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of photos to share with you. We're hoping to get out a
little tomorrow. Jane pretty much warned us that we might not want to go out tonight or tomorrow
night due to the Lantern Festival. She said that usually during festivals you only get tourists coming
into town to celebrate, but during the Lantern Festival both tourists and locals converge on
Confucious' Temple which is directly behind our hotel. It could be very easy for Tyler to get lost or for
us to be pickpocketed. Yeah, think we'll be staying in tonight. I'm a little disappointed as I was
looking forward to seeing what it was all about, but better safe than sorry. Guess we'll just have to
check it all out during the day. Not as impressive as having them all lit up during the night, but
hopefully as interesting.
We're staying at the 5-star Mandarin Garden Hotel in Nanjing. The room's nice, a bit dingy, but nice.
Definitely not a 5-star hotel by American standards. I'd hate to see what something like a 3-star
hotel was like. It does seem to have 5-star service though. They already have a crib in the room
ready for Vivian and we made a special request from housecleaning and they were up here in less
than 5 minutes. The most important thing is it's comfortable and we have more than enough room
for all FOUR of us. :-)
Well, I'm going to finish unpacking our stuff and getting things in order. I can hear the firecrackers
and other festival noises on the street below the hotel. Hopefully we'll be able to tune it all out and
catch some good Z's tonight. This week is going to be an eventful one!!!
sitting so long, but it was bearable. The only problem I had was that since we were flying a Chinese
airline everyone would look past Bill and automatically start speaking to me in Chinese. The very
first time it happened on the plane the flight attendant started asking me a question and I had to
look up at her and tell her I don't speak Chinese. The sound of what I can only describe as
disappointment in her voice when she switched to English was just the beginning. I had a
salesman trying to sell some sort of vacation come up to me as we waited in Guangzhou to board
our connecting flight. When he realized I couldn't understand him he tried to sell it to me in English,
but I couldn't understand him with his heavy accent. We went to a coffee shop in the Guangzhou
airport and when we had a difficult time communicating what we wanted to the waitress she looked
at me trying to explain what the problem was when she already knew I couldn't understand her. Ah,
the trouble with being an ABC (American Born Chinese). Not to mention, any Chinese I know is
Cantonese and the common dialect around here is Mandarin. Not that my VERY limited Cantonese
would do us any good since about all I can do is order food and water at a restaurant, but I digress...
We made it through customs in Guangzhou without a problem and got to our connecting domestic
flight to Nanjing without a hitch. Our flight was delayed leaving the gate for something like an hour
due to some delay with air traffic control, but we made it to Nanjing and met our guide Jane at the
baggage claim exit. She promptly brought us to the bank to exchange the U.S. dollars we brought
for the adoption into Chinese yuan. This was some stress off of me since I had been worried about
the declining exchange rate not working in our favor. We did bring an excess of money so now we
have plenty to spend on souvenirs to bring back home!
Jane has been a wealth of information. She ran through the whole week's schedule with us during
the car ride to the hotel and we even got a short history lesson about the city to boot! Once we got to
the hotel she checked us in and showed us how everything worked in the room. The TV even has a
computer hooked up to it which Bill was stoked about. By the way, he is sawing some HUGE logs
as I type away now. Guess I'm the only one left standing. Anyway, she also brought us to the local
supermarket at the nearby mall where we picked up our first "meal" here in China (not including
airport food). It was DELICIOUS. Jane kept pointing out the different recognizable chain stores
around, Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonalds, etc. I guess she's used to Americans coming out and wanting
to know where the fast food was. I think she was a bit surprised when we told her we wanted rice,
noodles and dumplings. We were like kids in a candy store looking at all the dim sum type foods at
the super market and having her translate to the servers what we wanted. They even had Tyler's
dim sum favorite, siu mai, pork dumplings and my favorite steamed egg cake. Throw in some sticky
rice wrapped in tea leaves and we were happy campers! After having suffered through airplane food
we bought and inhaled a ton of food at the market.
Unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of photos to share with you. We're hoping to get out a
little tomorrow. Jane pretty much warned us that we might not want to go out tonight or tomorrow
night due to the Lantern Festival. She said that usually during festivals you only get tourists coming
into town to celebrate, but during the Lantern Festival both tourists and locals converge on
Confucious' Temple which is directly behind our hotel. It could be very easy for Tyler to get lost or for
us to be pickpocketed. Yeah, think we'll be staying in tonight. I'm a little disappointed as I was
looking forward to seeing what it was all about, but better safe than sorry. Guess we'll just have to
check it all out during the day. Not as impressive as having them all lit up during the night, but
hopefully as interesting.
We're staying at the 5-star Mandarin Garden Hotel in Nanjing. The room's nice, a bit dingy, but nice.
Definitely not a 5-star hotel by American standards. I'd hate to see what something like a 3-star
hotel was like. It does seem to have 5-star service though. They already have a crib in the room
ready for Vivian and we made a special request from housecleaning and they were up here in less
than 5 minutes. The most important thing is it's comfortable and we have more than enough room
for all FOUR of us. :-)
Well, I'm going to finish unpacking our stuff and getting things in order. I can hear the firecrackers
and other festival noises on the street below the hotel. Hopefully we'll be able to tune it all out and
catch some good Z's tonight. This week is going to be an eventful one!!!
