(Taken directly from my journal.)
So I'm sitting in the hotel room at about 6am Saturday, December 11th (that's 4pm December 10th for Sophie) and decided I'd better get the flight here down in ink before I forgot it all. Honestly, a day of airplane travel wasn't too bad. We got on a plane about 7am and off the final one 24 hours later. Of course we had about 3 hours in Detroit so the actual flight time was about 18 hours.
I slept through most of the flight to Detroit (thanks to my friend Valium) and made sure we had a good lunch before we boarded for China. I was able to take another pill on the China flight and slept a little, but we were on the last row...you know the seats that don't recline. They fed us a couple of meals and a couple of snacks. Each seat had a screen where you could play online games, listen to music (including Holiday Hits), and watch movies or television shows. I watched a couple of movies but then the earbuds started getting annoying. Paul and I both did lots of puzzles from the books I brought and lots of "trying to sleep". Not sleeping was probably a good thing because now we've had a normal "night's" sleep on local time.
I thought it was interesting that when we de-boarded in China there were officials checking ID and asking about your occupation, but they skipped right over us. Were we that obvious? The process at the airport wasn't as smooth as I would have expected. Our travel notes said our guide would meet us at the exit. Of course, it didn't specify which exit. First, we went through a checkpoint where they check you passport and fill out a form stating where you will be while visiting. Then you go to baggage claim (this is where we thought we'd see the guide, but no). Finally, we went through something like customs, I guess, although I have no idea what was happening. We tried to ask an employee but she just pointed for us to our suitcases through x-ray, but not our carry-ons. Most people seemed to know what was going on and just walked on through. Once we got through this area, we saw the exit signs and our guide, Sylvia, holding a sign with our names.
She led us down to the parking garage where the driver was. I did notice our van was a small VW-type and that you didn't see many large SUV-types (if any). Paul kept asking for the camera. Even being the scrapbooker that I am who cares about an airport that looks like most others or the highway in a big city with lots of buildings and green street signs. The only difference I could tell was the Chinese on the signs (in addition to English) and lots of 2-wheeled vehicles (i.e. mopeds, bicycles, motorcycles).
Our hotel is very nice, we have a suite with a sitting room separate from the bedroom. We ordered room service since Paul's always hungry. What's the deal with putting fried eggs on sandwiches? Whatever noodle-y thing Paul order must have been good because his plate is empty. Paul is so excited to be in China, and I, of course, couldn't care less. I just want to meet my son! I'd like to be able to relax a little more and enjoy it, but let's face it that isn't going to happen. We got to skype with Sophie before she went to preschool and we went to bed. Paul slept fine (as indicated by the snoring). I was a couple of times, but did get in 8 hours of sleep.
The hotel had a continental breakfast so I made sure I filled up before we went sightseeing. Sylvia returned with Dawn who took us to the Shanghai Gardens. Dawn was the official guide for the day. We had lunch by the river at a "fancy" dim sum place. Paul was in heaven and I ate french fries and fried rice (both seem to be staples of these type of places). I also had some sort of bean sprout salad that basically tasted like the dressing.
A cat in the gardens...
and her kittens!
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