Thursday,
May 26
Only five days until we get Isabelle. We are so excited;
so excited in fact that Stefanie bounded out of bed at 4:35 a.m.
determined to get ready and get us on our way to Beijing.
We have all decided that until we get to Beijing we would still
be in travel mode but once we reached the capitol we would then
be in full adoption mode. Determined to not have to check
our luggage, we got to the airport early, checked in, got to our
gate, had breakfast, and
then got in line early enough to be third or fourth on the bus
out to the plane. Breakfast was interesting as we
inadvertently violated several of the principles of
international travel. We ordered a sandwich that had
cucumber and tomatoes and failed to remember that you should
only eat fruits and vegetables that have been peeled. The
cucumbers and tomatoes were not peeled so, following breakfast,
we took some more Pepto Bismol tablets and joked about
Monteczuma's revenge (traveler's diarrhea). So far no
problems.
We arrived in Beijing after some laughs about the food that was
served on the plane. I liked the noodles that they served
but we also got the other meal and it had a couple of surprises in store for we
non-adventurous eaters. The
cheese roll was good, so my two favorite ladies told me.
The shock was when Stefanie picked up a congealed bit of goo
(tofu) that smelled just like my dad's socks after he had worked
a 14 hour Christmas sales day. Not good to say the least.
I picked up a piece and accidentally dropped it in Stefanie's
lap and that was not a bright move but she did laugh a bit.
The other surprise was a sesame seed roll that has some
warm sugared peanut butter (at least that is the best guess we
could come up with) inside. Tori has kept a sense of humor and
has helped keep everyone's spirits high as we realize that we
are not the most adventurous travelers that the world has ever
seen.
One example of that may have been our choice to venture far
outside our comfort zone when we went for lunch. What you
ask would they eat that would stretch their palates? Why
pizza of course. What is edgy about pizza you ask?
Well, hold your breath, it was stuffed crust at Pizza Hut.
That's right the full monty. We have been in China not
even a full 24 hours and have
partaken of pizza already. Tomorrow we may try to get
McDonalds or maybe even KFC. Don't know where we'll go
after that.
We did make it to the Peace Hotel and it has a lot of room and
the amenities in the hotel are nice. The only downfall is
that the White Swan had DSL and the internet connection here is
dial up. Oh well, another burden that we will have to
overcome.
Seems that jetlag is beginning to take out some of the hardier
members as Stefanie and Tori have hit the sack at 5:00 p.m.
Stefanie awoke after a short 1.5 nap but Tori continues her
quest to break the Guinness record for most
sleep during an adoption trip and the least amount of vertical
time in the same period (see pic). Should be an early
morning but that is OK as we will be touring the Great Wall with
our driver Mr. Wang starting at 8:30 a.m. and seeing a Chinese
acrobat show tomorrow night. It's gonna get busy here real
soon and then
we'll get even busier once we depart here and head to Nanjing to
get our beautiful daughter Isabelle. |
Looking out over Guangzhou
from our room
in the White Swan hotel.
Tori keeps watch over us by
laying on the bed and keeping it from attacking us.
|
