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.
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