are up from this weekend with Megan. She is getting cuter by the day, but still sleeping in her own version of time, although it is MUCH closer to US time than she was. Teresa has found her own way of getting Megan adjusted and I think it's working well. (We heard back from a few other families that are still struggling with getting the kids adjusted and from the sounds of it, Megan is doing the best).
She was all smiles and giggles, and is getting closer to letting us actually take a picture of her smiling that she knows about. Right now it's still hit or miss with the smiling pictures. If she's smiling she has no clue that the camera was on her, but thats good because she has a smile that lights up her face!!
The weather in PA got nice for a few days. I think we have started the April showers a little early, but as long as its not white stuff falling from the sky, I'm O-K with that. Time really seems to have started flying though, because it's almost April and that means Easter is just around the corner! I will be TomTomming my way to CT since the last time I went, it got a little confusing. 2 roads of the same name in neighboring towns is just NOT COOL. C'mon people, lets get some original with the street names. Thankfully since I know just enough about the major roads in CT to get around, the TomTom will be helpful (and this will be it's first offical trip. I attempted it to Staten Island one time, but it wanted me to take roads that just suck if you know them, so i ditched it that time).
Random piece of advice: when you go to a copy center, don't ask if you can get copies made there. its kinda the POINT of a COPY and PRINT center. and when you come back to pick up your copies, please say your name or something better than "I'm here for my copies" and then get MAD at me for not knowing EXACTLY who you are! This happens all the time and I don't get it at all.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Spring has Sprung
So I'm pretty excited because today was the first day of spring and it lived up to my expectations. It was sunny and I was able to roll the car window down during my Target shopping experience. It was an experience because I had to go and fight for my DVD that does not work. Their silly little policy is in my way, and their most recent suggestion is to take it up with Sony. Oh yay. Just what I really wanted to do....call California (or India...not really sure yet). I'd personally rather go visit than call. I'm just saying.
Anywho, I am headed to the Isle of Staten tomorrow to visit with the fam and see the munchkin. After this weekend, I think the countdown to Easter will begin. I haven't seen mom since September and I'm beginning to have serious withdrawal I think...so CT will be the place and just in time for me to give her her birthday gifts before we hit mine. As long as it's before mine I think we are still doing OK on how off we truly are.
I've also decided to attempt to figure out WTF Twitter is so this is my newest project. I think that since I majored in Mass Comm, regardless of my current job, I need to keep up with these things to understand what is happening in the media world. We shall see how this goes...it's something to keep me occupied at the very least.
Here is the link to the most recent pictures from when we got back that never made it up due to jet lag. Sorry it's so late, but I will try to get this weekends pictures up muchhhh faster as a I have broken down and teethered my BB to my laptop for internet access like a normal human....
Anywho, I am headed to the Isle of Staten tomorrow to visit with the fam and see the munchkin. After this weekend, I think the countdown to Easter will begin. I haven't seen mom since September and I'm beginning to have serious withdrawal I think...so CT will be the place and just in time for me to give her her birthday gifts before we hit mine. As long as it's before mine I think we are still doing OK on how off we truly are.
I've also decided to attempt to figure out WTF Twitter is so this is my newest project. I think that since I majored in Mass Comm, regardless of my current job, I need to keep up with these things to understand what is happening in the media world. We shall see how this goes...it's something to keep me occupied at the very least.
Here is the link to the most recent pictures from when we got back that never made it up due to jet lag. Sorry it's so late, but I will try to get this weekends pictures up muchhhh faster as a I have broken down and teethered my BB to my laptop for internet access like a normal human....
Thursday, March 12, 2009
How many miles was that?
So I was thinking about all the traveling we did in such a short period of time and decided to add it all up. We took 6 flights in a 14 day period and traveling a whopping 16,118 miles roundtrip for all them. How crazy is that? The flight from JFK to Hong Kong was 8,059 each way! The amount of hours we spent flying is pretty crazy too. The flights in all took about 33 hours total, plus for the 2 long flights to and from JFK we were awake for 26 hours. No wonder I can't get over this time difference. I'm not even functioning on China time...
I have made it back to PA. I drove back yesterday afternoon. It was an expereince to say the least. I haven't felt that uncomfortable in a car since I took drivers ed, and even then I think I might have been more comforatable. My car felt so weird and it's taking some adjusting too. I feel like someone just gave it to me yesterday, instead of having driven it for the past 3 years. So weird. While I was driving, I felt lost though. Thankfully I know the drive from SI to PA by heart, but even still, I would see the sign and have to think, I go that way right? I did have to stop at one point and walk around because I was getting really tired and it was only like 5pm. I guess getting over this jet lag is going to take much longer that first expected. I fell asleep last night at 8:30pm ish and woke up at 5:30am. By 9am I was napping. I'm just a mess. I go back to work tonight...hopefully I don't fall asleep before we close.
Have to go now...and fall asleep most likely
I have made it back to PA. I drove back yesterday afternoon. It was an expereince to say the least. I haven't felt that uncomfortable in a car since I took drivers ed, and even then I think I might have been more comforatable. My car felt so weird and it's taking some adjusting too. I feel like someone just gave it to me yesterday, instead of having driven it for the past 3 years. So weird. While I was driving, I felt lost though. Thankfully I know the drive from SI to PA by heart, but even still, I would see the sign and have to think, I go that way right? I did have to stop at one point and walk around because I was getting really tired and it was only like 5pm. I guess getting over this jet lag is going to take much longer that first expected. I fell asleep last night at 8:30pm ish and woke up at 5:30am. By 9am I was napping. I'm just a mess. I go back to work tonight...hopefully I don't fall asleep before we close.
Have to go now...and fall asleep most likely
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Joys of Jet Lag
So we have made it home. The jet lag is still getting to us, but I have been trying to stay up till 10pm each night and manage to wake up by no later than 6am. Of course by 6pm, I am fighting to make it till 10pm. Hopefully this viscous cycle will end soon. Teresa got sick on the plane ride home (which was another experience itself), so she has been trying to not get Megan sick, who is working off another time zone also. It seems she has moved on from China time, but its not New York time either. Unfortunately, I have to go back to PA on Wednesday and rejoin civilization on Thursday. Not looking forward to it. Of course with limited internet access, this blog will not be getting updated as often and it will probably begin to change from all about Megan to more about how its Easter and the weatherman is promising this is the last snow storm this season (for the 20th time). Oh well. C’est la vie.
Megan was amazing on the trip home. She cried a little on the long plane ride to JFK a few times, but was so confused, who could blame her? She kept falling asleep on my arm or leg, making it fall asleep, so when I had to move, she would wake up. She and I walked around and visited other people on the plane from time to time to see how the others were doing. Most of them seemed to be out cold for a portion of the ride, much to their parents delight.
The morning that we left, we did the usual routine of the buffet breakfast at the hotel, the last meal for hours most likely and finished packing. We all meet in the lobby to take the bus to Guangzhou airport, which was a 30min ride to Hong Kong. This first plane messed up the rest of the day though. It arrived late, got disembarked late, got our bags late, boarded us late and left the runway late. LATE. It’s a short plane ride scheduled to take off at 2:45pm. Our connecting flight leaves at 5:35. We take off closer to 3:30p,, arrive in Hong Kong at 4pm, don’t get off the plane till almost 4:20pm. Do you see how this is going? The first airline checked our bags straight through to JFK so one less thing to worry about I guess. This trip through the Hong Kong airport was a little bit less confusing than the first one, but on a time crunch, this airport is just too big. By the time we find the ticket counter, there is a line and its quickly approaching 5pm. There are a few other families that were also on our end of the line and its taking forever to get our boarding cards. By the time the tickets are finally issued, it’s like 5:10pm and they are wrong. Way wrong. Each of us had our own seat, but in different rows. The woman who said that our tickets were ready and everyone has a seat managed to screw this up badly. She never flagged the 3rd seat for a child, so the seats were broken up. Why in the world anyone would think hey this woman purchased 3 tickets for the same plane and doesn’t want to sit with her party is nuts, but that’s basically what happened.
It was not just us that it happened to from our group and the guy from the airline had to walk us to the gate to make the plane, while calling the gate to see about getting seats moved. Megan can’t sit on her own. She can’t even make use of her seat unless the seatbelt light is off because she’s too young. So this guy takes us all over the place to get to us to a security line that is not the same one everyone else went through because it was on a different floor in a different building. Megan meanwhile is getting pushed in her stroller very fast and she is loving it. She must realize something is up because we haven’t heard a peep from her the entire time, but she is wide awake. We get to the gate at 5:35pm and they are still working on this seating screw up and not exactly getting results we wanted. They come up with 2 seats together in the middle, plus another seat in the dead center of the plane, 3 rows up for me. That’s nice of them. I decide that we are going to ask each person around them, starting with the guy that is sitting on the 3rd seat in a row. An aisle seat. Next to an 1yr old. It’s risky because who will seriously give up an aisle for a middle, especially on a flight as long as this, regardless of a little kid. I got the flight attendant to do it and he agreed. Thank god, because just a few hours into this trip, Teresa started to get sick. How would this have worked originally? She needs to get up and use the bathroom or just stretch and she then carries Megan over to me, over people’s heads. Gee, people would have been loving it. I didn’t see it really lasting. The point of the 3 seats was so that we had some more room to spread out. That middle seat allowed for Ms. Wiggle Worm to have a few inches of freedom, gave us the chance to have a little bit more stretch room and more surface for everything else we needed.
Of course, the first 2 hours of our flight was non-stop turbulance so we were attached to our seats and there was no food being given out. Unfortanetly for us, we hadn't eaten since about 9am that morning and were dying by the time the flight took off at 6pm. They brought Megan 2 little dinner rolls and she had the insides and we attacked the outsides. The food was not as good as it was on the way over either so we were pretty disappointed, even though it was a shorter flight (2 hours is 2 hours). Immigration and customs were not too bad. The valuable brown envelope that Teresa had been carrying was finally handed over and Megan is now a US Citizen! Yay!
Currently we have spread out in grandma and grandpa’s house for a few days. Teresa got some medicine yesterday and is starting to shake what she came down with. We have been trying to entertain Megan and get her used to the time difference and new people. We seem to be her comfort zone after a little bit of time with someone else till she has warmed up. She is doing well, although the teething is coming fast and strong. Grandma got us the homeopathic teething tablets so she seems to be better now that we have our own supply. Somehow with all the bartering of stuff in China, we came back with enough Cheerios to build a house. Megan is still very messed up with the time difference, but is taking more naps throughout the day to catch up. It seems to be helping and is getting closer to US time. I am still off of the time by a few hours. By 8pm I am fighting to make it to 9pm. I have been trying to get to 10pm but I think I have passed out before then most nights. I am up at 5 or 6am though, so if anyone has an early morning job, I might be on that schedule. Or any job in general would be great. Keep me in mind. I’ll answer phones, or anything you need me to do.
Anyways, I hope you have all enjoyed reading the blog and seeing how the journey was. As I said before, this will not be getting updated as frequently and the contents will change over time. I will probably not be getting to see Miss Megan for a month or so, but when I see her again I will post about it with pictures. I am going to sleep now. I actually started this post on my laptop around 4:30am today, but was unable to post it from there...the internet was being funny and then I was entertaining Megan for a while until visitors came to see her. So this was started when I first woke up and is finally being posted hours and hours later on Grandma's computer. Of course since I'm about to fall asleep, I can't be bothered to reread what I wrote earlier so I really hope it was in English and not a made up language. Thanks for reading and see you all one day soon I hope....
Megan was amazing on the trip home. She cried a little on the long plane ride to JFK a few times, but was so confused, who could blame her? She kept falling asleep on my arm or leg, making it fall asleep, so when I had to move, she would wake up. She and I walked around and visited other people on the plane from time to time to see how the others were doing. Most of them seemed to be out cold for a portion of the ride, much to their parents delight.
The morning that we left, we did the usual routine of the buffet breakfast at the hotel, the last meal for hours most likely and finished packing. We all meet in the lobby to take the bus to Guangzhou airport, which was a 30min ride to Hong Kong. This first plane messed up the rest of the day though. It arrived late, got disembarked late, got our bags late, boarded us late and left the runway late. LATE. It’s a short plane ride scheduled to take off at 2:45pm. Our connecting flight leaves at 5:35. We take off closer to 3:30p,, arrive in Hong Kong at 4pm, don’t get off the plane till almost 4:20pm. Do you see how this is going? The first airline checked our bags straight through to JFK so one less thing to worry about I guess. This trip through the Hong Kong airport was a little bit less confusing than the first one, but on a time crunch, this airport is just too big. By the time we find the ticket counter, there is a line and its quickly approaching 5pm. There are a few other families that were also on our end of the line and its taking forever to get our boarding cards. By the time the tickets are finally issued, it’s like 5:10pm and they are wrong. Way wrong. Each of us had our own seat, but in different rows. The woman who said that our tickets were ready and everyone has a seat managed to screw this up badly. She never flagged the 3rd seat for a child, so the seats were broken up. Why in the world anyone would think hey this woman purchased 3 tickets for the same plane and doesn’t want to sit with her party is nuts, but that’s basically what happened.
It was not just us that it happened to from our group and the guy from the airline had to walk us to the gate to make the plane, while calling the gate to see about getting seats moved. Megan can’t sit on her own. She can’t even make use of her seat unless the seatbelt light is off because she’s too young. So this guy takes us all over the place to get to us to a security line that is not the same one everyone else went through because it was on a different floor in a different building. Megan meanwhile is getting pushed in her stroller very fast and she is loving it. She must realize something is up because we haven’t heard a peep from her the entire time, but she is wide awake. We get to the gate at 5:35pm and they are still working on this seating screw up and not exactly getting results we wanted. They come up with 2 seats together in the middle, plus another seat in the dead center of the plane, 3 rows up for me. That’s nice of them. I decide that we are going to ask each person around them, starting with the guy that is sitting on the 3rd seat in a row. An aisle seat. Next to an 1yr old. It’s risky because who will seriously give up an aisle for a middle, especially on a flight as long as this, regardless of a little kid. I got the flight attendant to do it and he agreed. Thank god, because just a few hours into this trip, Teresa started to get sick. How would this have worked originally? She needs to get up and use the bathroom or just stretch and she then carries Megan over to me, over people’s heads. Gee, people would have been loving it. I didn’t see it really lasting. The point of the 3 seats was so that we had some more room to spread out. That middle seat allowed for Ms. Wiggle Worm to have a few inches of freedom, gave us the chance to have a little bit more stretch room and more surface for everything else we needed.
Of course, the first 2 hours of our flight was non-stop turbulance so we were attached to our seats and there was no food being given out. Unfortanetly for us, we hadn't eaten since about 9am that morning and were dying by the time the flight took off at 6pm. They brought Megan 2 little dinner rolls and she had the insides and we attacked the outsides. The food was not as good as it was on the way over either so we were pretty disappointed, even though it was a shorter flight (2 hours is 2 hours). Immigration and customs were not too bad. The valuable brown envelope that Teresa had been carrying was finally handed over and Megan is now a US Citizen! Yay!
Currently we have spread out in grandma and grandpa’s house for a few days. Teresa got some medicine yesterday and is starting to shake what she came down with. We have been trying to entertain Megan and get her used to the time difference and new people. We seem to be her comfort zone after a little bit of time with someone else till she has warmed up. She is doing well, although the teething is coming fast and strong. Grandma got us the homeopathic teething tablets so she seems to be better now that we have our own supply. Somehow with all the bartering of stuff in China, we came back with enough Cheerios to build a house. Megan is still very messed up with the time difference, but is taking more naps throughout the day to catch up. It seems to be helping and is getting closer to US time. I am still off of the time by a few hours. By 8pm I am fighting to make it to 9pm. I have been trying to get to 10pm but I think I have passed out before then most nights. I am up at 5 or 6am though, so if anyone has an early morning job, I might be on that schedule. Or any job in general would be great. Keep me in mind. I’ll answer phones, or anything you need me to do.
Anyways, I hope you have all enjoyed reading the blog and seeing how the journey was. As I said before, this will not be getting updated as frequently and the contents will change over time. I will probably not be getting to see Miss Megan for a month or so, but when I see her again I will post about it with pictures. I am going to sleep now. I actually started this post on my laptop around 4:30am today, but was unable to post it from there...the internet was being funny and then I was entertaining Megan for a while until visitors came to see her. So this was started when I first woke up and is finally being posted hours and hours later on Grandma's computer. Of course since I'm about to fall asleep, I can't be bothered to reread what I wrote earlier so I really hope it was in English and not a made up language. Thanks for reading and see you all one day soon I hope....
Friday, March 6, 2009
Last Hurrah from China...
Well our trip has come to an end. Almost. We are finishing up packing and getting ready for the super long day. Bus trip to the airport, flight to Hong Kong, navigate that airport and get the flight back to JFK. Going to be a busy day, but most of us are on the same flight home so the adventure has one last chapter to go.
Although the weather was different than expected, it was still a good trip. We went back to Shamian Island yesterday and the pearl shops again. It was nice to get out one last time and try to spend the rest of our yuan on some more souvenirs. Megan is hyper and smiling right now, so hopefully it will continue for a while.
There is one last album of pictures here. Although the trip was long, there is a smiling little girl getting ready to meet the rest of her family very soon who is so lovable and happy, everyone is going to just eat her up.Its just too bad she doesn't stay smiling when the flash goes off on the camera! We have some proof though! See you all soon!!
Although the weather was different than expected, it was still a good trip. We went back to Shamian Island yesterday and the pearl shops again. It was nice to get out one last time and try to spend the rest of our yuan on some more souvenirs. Megan is hyper and smiling right now, so hopefully it will continue for a while.
There is one last album of pictures here. Although the trip was long, there is a smiling little girl getting ready to meet the rest of her family very soon who is so lovable and happy, everyone is going to just eat her up.Its just too bad she doesn't stay smiling when the flash goes off on the camera! We have some proof though! See you all soon!!
Our last days in Guanzhou
To avoid cabin fever again, we decided to go to the high-end mall yesterday. Even with an umbrella and rain jacket, we were all soaking wet from the pouring rain just crossing 2 streets as the mall is diagonally across from our hotel. We were able to dry off Megan's clothes under the hand dryer in the ladies' room but Arlie and I were soaked to the skin. We spent several hours there and then rushed back to change our clothes and leave for the American Consulate to take the oath. This was our last official act as part of the adoption. All the parents and babies kissed and celebrated the essential completion of our journey. We received the additional paperwork we will have to provide when we go through the non-US citizen line. After we get through all of that, Megan will become a US citizen with final paperwork to follow within 45 days after we are home.
Last night we enjoyed a scenic evening cruise on the Pearl River. We tried to get some video. We had not taken much on this trip because we did not want to lug it everywhere. Today we did more shopping and enjoyed dinner alone in the dining room. We decided against going out which was fortunate because thunder, lightning, and heavy rain soon followed.
We are essentially packed. We had difficulty trying to get a vacuum to suck the air out of Grace's packing bag but were finally able to accomplish without use of a translator. We took turns with Megan in the playroom so that Arlie and I could each pack without Megan getting into everything. Even so, she was around for the final packing and seemed to think we were having fun. In the morning, we will have our big breakfast. Keep a good thought that Megan will not suffer too much on the long flight and day we will have tomorrow. Arlie and I did not get much sleep on the flight over to China and don't expect much sleep on the return flights. We'll be in touch with the extended family and friends after we get some rest. Thanks for following our stories and for the good wishes!
Note to Megan: When you are older and able to read the pages we will print for you from this blog, just know that any concerns or complaints we mentioned were all worth it to be able to bring you home after such a long wait. We love you very much! Love, Mommy and cousin Arlie.
Last night we enjoyed a scenic evening cruise on the Pearl River. We tried to get some video. We had not taken much on this trip because we did not want to lug it everywhere. Today we did more shopping and enjoyed dinner alone in the dining room. We decided against going out which was fortunate because thunder, lightning, and heavy rain soon followed.
We are essentially packed. We had difficulty trying to get a vacuum to suck the air out of Grace's packing bag but were finally able to accomplish without use of a translator. We took turns with Megan in the playroom so that Arlie and I could each pack without Megan getting into everything. Even so, she was around for the final packing and seemed to think we were having fun. In the morning, we will have our big breakfast. Keep a good thought that Megan will not suffer too much on the long flight and day we will have tomorrow. Arlie and I did not get much sleep on the flight over to China and don't expect much sleep on the return flights. We'll be in touch with the extended family and friends after we get some rest. Thanks for following our stories and for the good wishes!
Note to Megan: When you are older and able to read the pages we will print for you from this blog, just know that any concerns or complaints we mentioned were all worth it to be able to bring you home after such a long wait. We love you very much! Love, Mommy and cousin Arlie.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Whatever happened to the sun and warm weather?
So the entire time we have been in Guangzhou, it has been much cooler than it was supposed to be, while Chongqing was much warmer than usual. I guess they flip-flopped the weather forecasts. Yesterday began the really hazy days and it was kinda misting out so they changed our dinner to last night and our Pearl River cruise to tonight. At like 11am today, it was so black outside it looked like it was 3am. Then the sky opened up and let us have it. Yesterday we were inside all day and pretty much were beginning to lose it, so no amount of rain was keeping us inside....but we almost wished it had.
We decided to go across the street to the mall. In the process, we got soaked. To the point where we were walking around we were looking at clothes for me. Of course it was a ritzy mall and even in yuan I would not buy a thing because the prices were insane. So I stayed in my soaking wet clothes. By the way, Megan is currently screaming her little lungs out right now because she is in what she views as her jail cell aka her crib. She screamed last night and its becoming a normal occurrence, but I'm sure at some point she will get it. Shes stuck there for the night. Regardless of the screaming. I personally can tune it out somehow, but I know its getting to Teresa. I feel bad but she needs to learn. She is truly not afraid of anything so she might try to climb out one of these nights. Thankfully only tonight and then Friday night area left in this crib.
The dinner last night was on the 4th floor of our hotel caled Hong Main, which was a Cantonese restaurant. The food is supposed to be more like what we have an Chinese food in the states, but they love spicy. It was pretty good, but the cakes were the best. Cheesecake and chocolate mousse. One cake was for Jillian and Megan's birthdays and the other was for Greta and Billy's anniversary. It seems we have eaten in almost every restaurant this hotel has. We hit up the 40th floor for Prego, the Italian place a few nights ago and the 2nd floor is a daily routine for breakfast at a place called Taste. We also tried their dinner one night. I'm not sure if there are any eateries left in here but the tea room downstairs. Something I might have to look into.
We finally got to go on the Pearl River cruise tonight. The official oath was taken today at the US Consulate just a 5 min walk from our hotel this afternoon and as we were leaving we pretty much begged them to say the cruise was still on since it had been raining on and off all night. Thankfully they said yes. The cruise was on the Pearl River for about an hour and half and they served a very spicy dinner. I think I ate the noodles and fried rice only in the end. They took pasta and seemed to dump a bucket of pepper on it and probably something else too. The fried rice had ham pieces in it. New one for me. The noodles were once again AMAZING. I think if I were to live here, I'd probably become a noodle because it's what I've liked best. Opps. The view from the boat was so pretty, but my camera really does suck. I was kinda beginning to realize it the other day, but the pictures are night just came out ehh. It actually stopped in the middle of one picture and I almost cried because the screen went black and all I could think of was the windows blue screen of death. Black on a camera is like it's equal I assume. All the pictures are posted anyways though. It gives a good idea of what it was like. The moment the boat took off it began to pour again and when we docked it had stopped. And I never did mention the squatty potties, but they are common in China. On this cruise this was like the 3rd I have used. It is truly an art form to use I must say.
Tomorrow is our last full day in China. We are going back to Shamian Island and to the pearl and jade place one last time. Then is lots and lots of packing. Saturday we leave for the first flight to Hong Kong which leaves at 2:35pm, then our flight to JFK leaves at 5:30om or so. But we arrive in NY at 8:30pm local time. Quite the time makeup there. More pictures are posted so go and check them out!! Some are new ones from the past week and some area totally new. Trying to catch up before we head home. There are none from the oath taking because it is not allowed. Oh and we hit up yet another American eatery today for breadsticks...Papa Johns.
We decided to go across the street to the mall. In the process, we got soaked. To the point where we were walking around we were looking at clothes for me. Of course it was a ritzy mall and even in yuan I would not buy a thing because the prices were insane. So I stayed in my soaking wet clothes. By the way, Megan is currently screaming her little lungs out right now because she is in what she views as her jail cell aka her crib. She screamed last night and its becoming a normal occurrence, but I'm sure at some point she will get it. Shes stuck there for the night. Regardless of the screaming. I personally can tune it out somehow, but I know its getting to Teresa. I feel bad but she needs to learn. She is truly not afraid of anything so she might try to climb out one of these nights. Thankfully only tonight and then Friday night area left in this crib.
The dinner last night was on the 4th floor of our hotel caled Hong Main, which was a Cantonese restaurant. The food is supposed to be more like what we have an Chinese food in the states, but they love spicy. It was pretty good, but the cakes were the best. Cheesecake and chocolate mousse. One cake was for Jillian and Megan's birthdays and the other was for Greta and Billy's anniversary. It seems we have eaten in almost every restaurant this hotel has. We hit up the 40th floor for Prego, the Italian place a few nights ago and the 2nd floor is a daily routine for breakfast at a place called Taste. We also tried their dinner one night. I'm not sure if there are any eateries left in here but the tea room downstairs. Something I might have to look into.
We finally got to go on the Pearl River cruise tonight. The official oath was taken today at the US Consulate just a 5 min walk from our hotel this afternoon and as we were leaving we pretty much begged them to say the cruise was still on since it had been raining on and off all night. Thankfully they said yes. The cruise was on the Pearl River for about an hour and half and they served a very spicy dinner. I think I ate the noodles and fried rice only in the end. They took pasta and seemed to dump a bucket of pepper on it and probably something else too. The fried rice had ham pieces in it. New one for me. The noodles were once again AMAZING. I think if I were to live here, I'd probably become a noodle because it's what I've liked best. Opps. The view from the boat was so pretty, but my camera really does suck. I was kinda beginning to realize it the other day, but the pictures are night just came out ehh. It actually stopped in the middle of one picture and I almost cried because the screen went black and all I could think of was the windows blue screen of death. Black on a camera is like it's equal I assume. All the pictures are posted anyways though. It gives a good idea of what it was like. The moment the boat took off it began to pour again and when we docked it had stopped. And I never did mention the squatty potties, but they are common in China. On this cruise this was like the 3rd I have used. It is truly an art form to use I must say.
Tomorrow is our last full day in China. We are going back to Shamian Island and to the pearl and jade place one last time. Then is lots and lots of packing. Saturday we leave for the first flight to Hong Kong which leaves at 2:35pm, then our flight to JFK leaves at 5:30om or so. But we arrive in NY at 8:30pm local time. Quite the time makeup there. More pictures are posted so go and check them out!! Some are new ones from the past week and some area totally new. Trying to catch up before we head home. There are none from the oath taking because it is not allowed. Oh and we hit up yet another American eatery today for breadsticks...Papa Johns.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Cabin Fever in China
We had documents notarized at the US Consulate early in the day and had a late breakfast. After 12 noon we all had cabin fever. We had planned on going on the cruise tonight but it is "raining" (misting) and it is postponed until tomorrow night. Every night is misting practically so we were planning to go anyway. We are going to the 4th floor Cantonese restaurant for our group dinner which was supposed to be tomorrow night. We are bored out of our minds at this point. Even Megan has had it with the hotel. I got out once to Papa John's restaurant and ended up buying summer shoes and made a nail appointment. Help! Bonding in boredom is no fun. Please respond with news from home, work gossip, anything!
the randomness of china and our current lives
So there are some various differences and random things throughout our days that never seem to make it into our regular blogs, so here is a blog that is filled with our random thoughts about this stuff.
a) we are currently watching cinemax, which is one of the 4 english channels we can find. there has been exactly 2 movies on during our entire trip that we actually have heard of. one of which we missed 90% due to having to leave and because Megan woke up from a nap. needless to say, we truly have no clue what was happening or how it ended. hbo, cinemax, pearl (which had exactly one rerun of project runway) and star movies. every movie that comes on, we have never heard of (they are american movies but we have no clue) and they are these crazy plots of seeing death, bleeding from a stomach and lying to people. we cannot follow them at all, yet we keep them on to feel like a part of the world, as opposed to being in a hotel room.
b) milk in this country is bad. i don't mean it tastes bad, i mean every single carton is expired by a various amount of days. the freshest i could find in 3 7/11's around the hotel expired 2 days ago. some were from a week ago, and one even had a 2008 date. do they seriously drink expired milk...especially by a week. no wonder why a carton of milk goes bad in a few days in the hotel. they are all expired already.
c) they have no type of oragel or anything of the sort for babies gums when they are teething. do they just jack them up on liquer or something? i found someone in watsons, which is similar to a cvs of sorts, and she translated to the store clerk what i was looking for and she gave me baby toothpaste. not quite what i was looking for. i really do wonder about this though...
d) showering is a family/friend/room activity. im serious. the first hotel had a glass window seperating the bedroom from the bathroom, but you could look right in. they had blinds, so we closed them. but don't think about showering and using the toilet at the same time, because your in their together. the toilet had no door and the shower was clear glass. but the shower itself was even crazier. they had a hose that could be held by hand and then you turn the middle knob (like for a bath) and it gives you an overhead shower. teresa flooded the bathroom attempting to learn it. i gave the shower at the westin the first go around and i to almost flooded the bathroom. this hose had a head that was more like a lawn sprinkler, but it was in the air. if you pull the round lever you get the overhead shower that remsembles a sprinkler, not a shower. washing hair is an event. the shower and the toliet share a door. im serious. its sliding and goes from side to side, so only one person gets a door. everything is of the frosted glass variety, including the sliding doors to the actual bathroom enterence. but please don't feel you need to walk into the bathroom traditionally. you can just hope in from the bath tub. which is located next to my bed. there is a sliding glass door to seperate it all.
e) we have possibly eaten more american food since being here than we do in american. kfc- check. mc donalds- check. papa johns- check. pizza hut- check. while teresa was waiting for the pizza at papa johns today, she bought nine west shoes and made a nail appointment for tomorrow. how nuts are we really?
i think i have some pictures fron the first hotel posted already and later i will take pictures of this crazy hotel. we are getting ready to go on the pearl river cruise in a little bitand blog about that later.
closing thoughts: megan loves pasta, elbows are best. sauce is a yes. we think some mashed potatoes sound amazing and she loves chicken. not that we are trying to send some hints or anything.
megan has been dying to type something to you all so here goes:
cv =er=[=az-asz['?z[-w=['?c
"
}
so long for now....
a) we are currently watching cinemax, which is one of the 4 english channels we can find. there has been exactly 2 movies on during our entire trip that we actually have heard of. one of which we missed 90% due to having to leave and because Megan woke up from a nap. needless to say, we truly have no clue what was happening or how it ended. hbo, cinemax, pearl (which had exactly one rerun of project runway) and star movies. every movie that comes on, we have never heard of (they are american movies but we have no clue) and they are these crazy plots of seeing death, bleeding from a stomach and lying to people. we cannot follow them at all, yet we keep them on to feel like a part of the world, as opposed to being in a hotel room.
b) milk in this country is bad. i don't mean it tastes bad, i mean every single carton is expired by a various amount of days. the freshest i could find in 3 7/11's around the hotel expired 2 days ago. some were from a week ago, and one even had a 2008 date. do they seriously drink expired milk...especially by a week. no wonder why a carton of milk goes bad in a few days in the hotel. they are all expired already.
c) they have no type of oragel or anything of the sort for babies gums when they are teething. do they just jack them up on liquer or something? i found someone in watsons, which is similar to a cvs of sorts, and she translated to the store clerk what i was looking for and she gave me baby toothpaste. not quite what i was looking for. i really do wonder about this though...
d) showering is a family/friend/room activity. im serious. the first hotel had a glass window seperating the bedroom from the bathroom, but you could look right in. they had blinds, so we closed them. but don't think about showering and using the toilet at the same time, because your in their together. the toilet had no door and the shower was clear glass. but the shower itself was even crazier. they had a hose that could be held by hand and then you turn the middle knob (like for a bath) and it gives you an overhead shower. teresa flooded the bathroom attempting to learn it. i gave the shower at the westin the first go around and i to almost flooded the bathroom. this hose had a head that was more like a lawn sprinkler, but it was in the air. if you pull the round lever you get the overhead shower that remsembles a sprinkler, not a shower. washing hair is an event. the shower and the toliet share a door. im serious. its sliding and goes from side to side, so only one person gets a door. everything is of the frosted glass variety, including the sliding doors to the actual bathroom enterence. but please don't feel you need to walk into the bathroom traditionally. you can just hope in from the bath tub. which is located next to my bed. there is a sliding glass door to seperate it all.
e) we have possibly eaten more american food since being here than we do in american. kfc- check. mc donalds- check. papa johns- check. pizza hut- check. while teresa was waiting for the pizza at papa johns today, she bought nine west shoes and made a nail appointment for tomorrow. how nuts are we really?
i think i have some pictures fron the first hotel posted already and later i will take pictures of this crazy hotel. we are getting ready to go on the pearl river cruise in a little bitand blog about that later.
closing thoughts: megan loves pasta, elbows are best. sauce is a yes. we think some mashed potatoes sound amazing and she loves chicken. not that we are trying to send some hints or anything.
megan has been dying to type something to you all so here goes:
cv =er=[=az-asz['?z[-w=['?c
"
}
so long for now....
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The purple moon shines at night...
...yet another line from that fantastic eeyore in the play room. The daisies line is still my favorite though and probably never will change (I wonder if we can find one in the US...my bday is coming up...). The play room is so awesome. Megan and I spent some time playing with the little kitchen set and of course eeyore and the gang tihs morning, till she walked me to the door to leave. She was getting tired and needed a nap. The one nap a day she actually will bother to take.
So today we went to a Buddhist temple and to be honest I pretty much forgot everything that David (our tour guide) said about the place. It was very pretty and had a relaxing feel to it, like a park does at home. Many people go and visit it, regardless of their religion and I do recall him saying that one the first day of their new year, everyone visits.
Megan for the past for nights has been her usual wiggle worm self and last night I think she thought bed was optional as she refused to lay still and silent till 11pm. Oh boy. She definitely has like a permanent caffeine fix going on as she never ever stops going. She is getting very brave with the standing and will pull herself up on anything and everything. Legs, blankets, doors, walls, whatever is nearby seems to work well for her.
Yesterday we went to Shamian Island for their medical exams and visa pictures. They attempted to translate their measurements into inches and pounds but it didn't go so well, as they tried to say 3 of the girls where the same weight and height (and just by looking you can see they are not), but she weighed in at 20.2lbs and 71cm (about 28 inches). After the exam, we got the chance to take a little walk around to our meeting spot, then were given time to go shopping. Megan of course decided this would be a better time to eat, so we were feeding her nuggets as we are making a pile of things to buy. It was entertaining to say the least. We only made it to 2 places and then Teresa hit up another place and got the cutest red shoes for Megan that squeak as she walks (when her heel hits the ground) so now we semi know when shes on the move again. I hear we are going back one more time so maybe we can make it to another block this time.
Also last night we went out for our first real Chinese food. I know this sounds like it's taken forever, but Chongqing is a spicy place and neither of us really like spicy food. Thankfully, Nicola and Scott had eaten at this place the night before so they knew which dishes to order (based on pictures). Everything they ordered was really good, but I loved this one noodle dish. Halfway through, Effie and Jamie joined us and that was very helpful. Jamie learned Chinese in college and married someone who is from China so they speak and read fluently, and were able to get us a good dessert and communicate with the waitress as opposed to us using our own way of attempting to communicate. Unfortunately they came after we ordered sodas, so we did have a bit of a comedy routine going on. Scott said they have sodas like 7up (which is HUGELY popular over here...do they even sell it in the US anymore? I never see it) and pepsi, so we all said 7up. First the guy came out with beer after about a 5 minute absence. Then after another 2min routine at the table trying to explain not that, he said coffee. Not that either. He eventually returns with 4 cans of pepsi after digging them up from a nearby country since he was gone forever. Scott and I took the pepsi ( I personally did not like the tea they served and was dying for something to drink), but Teresa and Nicola wanted the 7up. After another few minutes we came up with a can similar but green. He returned successfully with 2 more cans. God only knows what it was Teresa asked for, but we joked he would return with a chair (I think it was a knife to cut up stuff for Megan) and sure enough he returned a few minutes later with a wicker high chair. Thanksfully Jamie and Effie arrived just a few minutes later to save us from possibly buying the place or something insane. It was interesting, but a fun evening out of the hotel.
There are bunch more pictures here and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!! I have no clue what day it truly is with the time difference and sometimes its just not worth figuring it out. I know I just experienced my March 3 so it's good enough for me :)
So today we went to a Buddhist temple and to be honest I pretty much forgot everything that David (our tour guide) said about the place. It was very pretty and had a relaxing feel to it, like a park does at home. Many people go and visit it, regardless of their religion and I do recall him saying that one the first day of their new year, everyone visits.
Megan for the past for nights has been her usual wiggle worm self and last night I think she thought bed was optional as she refused to lay still and silent till 11pm. Oh boy. She definitely has like a permanent caffeine fix going on as she never ever stops going. She is getting very brave with the standing and will pull herself up on anything and everything. Legs, blankets, doors, walls, whatever is nearby seems to work well for her.
Yesterday we went to Shamian Island for their medical exams and visa pictures. They attempted to translate their measurements into inches and pounds but it didn't go so well, as they tried to say 3 of the girls where the same weight and height (and just by looking you can see they are not), but she weighed in at 20.2lbs and 71cm (about 28 inches). After the exam, we got the chance to take a little walk around to our meeting spot, then were given time to go shopping. Megan of course decided this would be a better time to eat, so we were feeding her nuggets as we are making a pile of things to buy. It was entertaining to say the least. We only made it to 2 places and then Teresa hit up another place and got the cutest red shoes for Megan that squeak as she walks (when her heel hits the ground) so now we semi know when shes on the move again. I hear we are going back one more time so maybe we can make it to another block this time.
Also last night we went out for our first real Chinese food. I know this sounds like it's taken forever, but Chongqing is a spicy place and neither of us really like spicy food. Thankfully, Nicola and Scott had eaten at this place the night before so they knew which dishes to order (based on pictures). Everything they ordered was really good, but I loved this one noodle dish. Halfway through, Effie and Jamie joined us and that was very helpful. Jamie learned Chinese in college and married someone who is from China so they speak and read fluently, and were able to get us a good dessert and communicate with the waitress as opposed to us using our own way of attempting to communicate. Unfortunately they came after we ordered sodas, so we did have a bit of a comedy routine going on. Scott said they have sodas like 7up (which is HUGELY popular over here...do they even sell it in the US anymore? I never see it) and pepsi, so we all said 7up. First the guy came out with beer after about a 5 minute absence. Then after another 2min routine at the table trying to explain not that, he said coffee. Not that either. He eventually returns with 4 cans of pepsi after digging them up from a nearby country since he was gone forever. Scott and I took the pepsi ( I personally did not like the tea they served and was dying for something to drink), but Teresa and Nicola wanted the 7up. After another few minutes we came up with a can similar but green. He returned successfully with 2 more cans. God only knows what it was Teresa asked for, but we joked he would return with a chair (I think it was a knife to cut up stuff for Megan) and sure enough he returned a few minutes later with a wicker high chair. Thanksfully Jamie and Effie arrived just a few minutes later to save us from possibly buying the place or something insane. It was interesting, but a fun evening out of the hotel.
There are bunch more pictures here and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!! I have no clue what day it truly is with the time difference and sometimes its just not worth figuring it out. I know I just experienced my March 3 so it's good enough for me :)
US paperwork completed, temple trip, birthday dinner
It took all morning today to complete the US paperwork but it is done. Afterwards, we went to a Chinese temple, hundreds of years old. Striking difference from the high rise buildings everywhere. Gretta and her family, and Robin and her family joined us tonight at the Italian restaurant in the hotel to celebrate Gillian's first birthday today and Megan's belated 1st birthday. Dinners out with the other families help to pass the time. Tomorrow I have to leave early to go to the American Consulate to sign an affidavit and have notarized. We had all taken care of the document and notarization before we left but of course US changed the form. We then stay in the hotel all AM while our US paperwork is reviewed. Tomorrow night we will be on a cruise on the Pearl River. We are going to bring the video camera for that. Megan no longer sleeps on the buses. She is constantly in motion--certainly the most active of all the children. She laughs frequently and loves for us to walk her. She can pull herself up using anything including shoes and bedspreads but has not been able to walk on her own yet. We hope this continues for the rest of the week because we do not want to chase her through the airport! It has not been as warm in Guanzhou as we were advised but should get warmer. So far have not used the shorts, etc we bought in Walmart for Megan. We sent out our laundry once last week and once this week.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Photos and Medical exam in Guanzhou
Today we went to have the girls' visa photos and medical exams taken care of. Megan was fine for the photos, weight, height, temperature, ear, eye, and throat checks. She cried when she got stripped and examined by the doctor who wore a mask. I could not blame her. We then went shopping and finally found shoes that she could not pull off. She had been wearing the same shoes she had from the orphanage but they were too big. The new shoes are red and squeak when she walks which she found out after staring at her shoes for a while. She also likes to eat them as well as everything else in her sight. After we got back we went to the children's play room which Megan likes. Tonight we went to a local Chinese restaurant for the first time. Fortunately, Chinese-speaking Effie and Jamie joined me, Arlie, Nicola, and Scott and babies later into the meal because we were struggling to communicate. Yesterday, we went to Sacred Heart Church, a historic church. We got there after Mass ended but I received ashes for the second time in a week. Megan received her first ashes without objection. Sacred Heart Church provides ashes on Wednesday and Sunday for those who missed Wednesday because of work. We then went and did some shopping. Megan does not like shopping. At first, she rejected jewelry but seems to be coming around! Tomorrow, I have to attend what we hope is the last session to do paperwork (US) and Arlie will have to babysit the wiggle worm. We are then off to do some touring. This hotel is overall less child-friendly and all the kids have struggled to make the adjustment. The parents are tired and can't understand why our tasks can't be accomplished in 10 days so we can all go home. It is a struggle to get Megan to bed now. We had an easier time of it last week. She is a night owl like mommy and grandma.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
I always wanted to try pointe...
So we decided to give the new pool at shot. Not so excited. We loved the other pool because it was 4 ft and we could easily bring Megan in and she could travel freely around with us. This one, well 5ft is the shallowest, so Teresa had to be on tippy toes, and I was on full pointe. When I stood flat footed, maybe the very top of my head was not submerged in water. It was a pretty pool, but aren't most Chinese people short? Why such a deep pool? We also were not sure if we would need our fabulous bathing caps that were required at the last hotel, so we brought them anyway. We decided that we did not want any crazy chinese person coming up to us and yelling about something we can't understand, so we donned them. The whirlpool was not hot at all and was only 2.8 feet, so Megan was in there. After a little while she finally warmed up to it, but she decided that the bathing cap was not necessary and pulled it off. She really is a special little one. She decided that she needs to check out our teeth and attempt to poke at our eyes. In the middle of eating her marconi, she tried to flip out of Teresa's grip, so then she had both of us, guarding her every move. All this craziness, we are beginning to think we might be her slaves. my new nickname is her supplier.....cheerios of course.
She was also a tad bit congested this morning, so she got to sleep in to make up her for her lost sleep. Other families said that running a steam shower helped there little ones, so after the pool we gave it a shot. Teresa was getting more tired and my nose was clearing up, but Megan was totally unaffected and probably thought we were nuts. The Westin hotel key cards are super sensitive and get deactivated all the time. We should probably start a count. 2 times already. 1 for each of our keys. Mine of course deactivated sometime between leaving the room and getting back from the pool, so I had to run down to the lobby, wet, in a towel and slippers, while they stood in towels in the hallway.
We went to a church and got there just in time for communion of a Cantonese mass. The English one was of course at 3:30pm. It was a pretty church, but it was like chaos in a church. So strange. Plus, when we went for communion, he put ashes on our heads. We have no clue if it's in honor of Ash Wednesday, for Lent or just they way they do it. It was all just so strange.
I have uploaded the pictures from the last few days. there are two new albums, so enjoy them! There are probably lots of similar shots out of order. It's because they are coming from my camera and Teresa's camera. I have just enough time to upload and semi caption them, so I don't forget in the future.
And Grace, you asked if she has any teeth. She has one bottom and her first top one has just fully cut the gum line so now you can see that one also.
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