Coming Home Part 1

The day began with a 3:30 am wake up call. I showered and got dressed and then my husband did as well. We had to put our luggage outside our door by 5 am and had to be in the lobby by 5:30 am. A bus was going to take us to the airport.

I woke Katrina up at 4 am and she was not happy even though she saw a bottle in my hand. She drank the bottle and then she pooped. I hope that will be the first and last poop of the day because changing a diaper on a plane does not interest me in the least.

We checked out of the hotel at 5:20 and waited for the bus. It was going to be an hour bus ride to the airport. Because we would not have time to eat at the hotel, our coordinator made arrangements to have the hotel pack us all breakfast to go. I really didn't want to eat, but I tried to gag down some bagel with butter and orange juice. Too excited to eat really, because we were going home!

We arrived at the airport at 6:30. We had to drag our four pieces of luggage, the diaper bag and Katrina around the airport. We waited in line to check our luggage and get our seat assignments. That is when we found out that we did not have a seat for you! We thought you had your own seat, but it turns out that you only have your own seat for the Beijing to New York flight, not for the Guangzhou to Beijing flight. I would have to hold her for a four hour flight.

We sat in our seats and the flight attendant brought over a lap belt for Katrina. It hooked into my seat belt and went around her waist. She was on my lap and was playing with her stacking cups. One of the cups fell into the aisle. Without thinking, I leaned over to get the cup. As I leaned to eth side, Katrina flipped sideways too and grabbed at me to hang on. When I realized what I was doing, I freaked out! Not only that, but the guy sitting in the aisle seat across from me looked on in horror. I could just read his mind. "They gave these people a child??? Clearly there has been a mistake and someone should take the baby away from them!" My face was beet red.

Other than the spinning baby trick, this flight was uneventful. When we landed in Beijing we found out that our luggage had to be collected by us, and then checked in for our next flight to New York City. We only had 40 minutes to get our luggage, check in our luggage and clear customs. We were not going to make it.

We waited at the luggage carousel with Pam & Steve. Their luggage came out first and so they raced to the check in counter for our next flight. Our luggage took forever to come out. We got to the counter next, but the line was really long. Our flight was already boarding. Sound familiar???

The airport personnel went through the line and pushed those of us trying to make the flight to NYC ahead of the other passengers. They told us to run to the gate, but of course, we still had to clear customs. I had to fill out a custom form for Katrina. Hers was in Chinese! A nice man helped me fill it out though. Then we were on line for security screening. I didn't beep this time, but the security person had a problem with the fact that I had a Thermos filled with liquid. I had one on the flight from Nanchang to Beijing too and no one cared. She asked me to open the thermos. She sniffed it and then let me put in back in my bag.

After clearing security, we raced to the gate. We actually boarded the plane from the tarmac! They did hold the plane for us, Pam & Steve and a few other travelers.
I was exhausted and we still hadn't even left China yet.

Last Night in Guangzhou

We met Kim & daughter Peyton, her mom Marie, Pam & Steve and their daughter Gracie in the restaurant lounge to get our free drinks. When we arrived at the White Swan, we were given coupon for a complementary free drink and we all decided to save it for the last night. It was relaxing and we all chatted and watched the sunset over the Pearl River.

We decided to take our own red couch photos of our three girls. They didn't know what the heck was going on, but we had fun doing it. It certainly was less confusing than the day we tried to get the red couch photo with all the kids from our travel group!



Katrina is on the right, Gracie is in the middle and Peyton is on the left. Katrina took the cup of Cheerios that Gracie was holding and then Gracie began to wail, which pretty much ended our evening. We all needed to get to be early anyway because of the long excursion home.

We went back to the room and started packing We both had brought along clothing that we planned on leaving behind at the end of the trip. Things like socks and underwear that had seen better days were thrown out so we were able to fit all of the new stuff we bought in China in our bags. Other people we traveled with had to purchase another suitcase to bring home all of their stuff!

We gave Katrina a bath and we all went to bed. We have to get up pretty early tomorrow!

Last DAY in Guangzhou

Today is our last day in Guangzhou. Tomorrow is going to be a very loooong day, so we took it easy today. We slept late and didn't go down for breakfast until 9 am. We came back to the room at napped until noon!

We put Katrina in a stroller and walked around the aprk. We were videotaping the area when we spied a tea house and decided to go there for lunch. They took us to our own private room. It was beautiful and there were water features throughout the teahouse. We had noodle soup (surprise!) and fried rice with lotus tea. Our server showed us the proper way to drink tea and we had fun following and imitating her moves. Katrina even drank some tea, but the server scolded me about not letting her drink too much. She thought Katrina was beautiful and picked her up to show her the koi in the pond. Katrina tried to touch the fish

I bought loose jamine tea to take home with me. Jasmine tea is my favorite tea in the world. It smelled fabulous and came in these wonderfully colored tins taht I know I will treasure for years to come.

Changing Money

Oh, boy. Does this take time to do in China! I found out that the White Swan Hotel will not change money for people if it is bank hours. You have to walk around the corner to the Bank of China and exchange your money there. This is quite a hassle.

When you walk in, you take a number. You then have to fill out paperwork for the reason of your visit to China. Sit and wait and wait and wait until your number is called. Not everyone is there to exchange money, so it can take a while depending upon why each person who is ahead of you in line is there at the bank that day.

After having had to do this twice already, I decided that I was going to exchange enough money so that I hopefully would not need to do it again. You definitely have to allow for at least an hour to exchange money at the bank. ARGH!!!