Beep! 3:45 A.M. is too early. But thank goodness we were already packed and clothes picked out the day before. 7 people to get through the single bathroom. Throw the toothbrushes in the suitcase and our ride awaits us outside. Not much traffic out this early. Only when we get close to the airport does the road get busy. When you enter the terminal they group you in 7-10 people swab your hands and bags then run it through a machine before letting you further into the airport.
I don’t think they allow any liquid on their airlines(not counting drinks bought enough inside the airport). I had a 1oz in my purse and ended up thinking I’d better put it in check-in. No carry-on travel sizes here.
Once we got to our gate my mother-in-law broke out the baozas they bought the night before. We had to take a shuttle bus to the plane on the taramac. The first bus left it was dry. When we got on the bus we stood there for 20 minutes due to a storm. Then we had to run for the plane once it arrived at our plane. They were passing out tissues for people to dry off with. Since it is only supposed to be a 2 hour plane ride they don’t carry a lot of blankets. Those ran out.
Then due to the storm, it was thunder and lightening, we sat there for 3 hours before we took off. They brought breakfast on and had a movie play. Being more of a commuter plane they had a screen for every 5 rows. Breakfast was corn and rise gruel, chicken hotdog with whole pieces of corn in it(very sweet), a tea egg, melon fruit, a sweet bread and yogurt. They went through a few times with drinks. I saw olive juice, so I tried it. Ick, not good, but I’ve had worse. I mixed a bit of the kids orange juice and sprite. It didn’t mask the flavor much.
We had a car scheduled to pick us up in Shanghai. So they called and said they saw the delay and will be there to pick us up. The plane ride went without delay. A bit of sleeping. Instead of getting to Shanghai at 9 A.M., we got ther at noon! As soon as we landed the ride called. We get luggage, go the bathroom and try to find the pick-up location. That is where all heck broke lose. He said exit 7. There are only 4 exits in the terminal. We go out and see the 7-12 in the parking garage across the street, but to get there we must exit through the 2nd floor of the terminal. Back inside we must go, need to be reswiped, then put all our luggage through the security scanner to get back in and up the escalator and out to the parking lot. There must have been some type of music or production crew coming in, lots of long hair foreign roadies carting gear. There are several fancy sports cars that were used by Asians with tattoos. Wensen was happy to see a McLaren and Ferrari.
We find our driver, they always include license plate numbers. But he doesn’t want to drive us now. My father-in-law jumps in his front seat and they have a screaming match, he refuses to drive us. Now this is already pre-paid for on-line. After and hour we call another car and take the guys pics and pics of his vehicle to report to the company later. Such drama!
Finally we get to our hotel and checked in and relax it’s after 2 P.M. We have food delivered and the old people take naps, I take the kids to the pool. An indoor infinity pool on the 21st floor. It’s quite warm, but the hot tub is very hot, my legs are tingling hot. After that the pool felt a reasonable cool. I can’t believe they let kids go into the hot tubs. Under age 2!
We finally go out about 7 to get dinner, we walk around, the few places Tao wanted to try didn’t have enough seating. So we walked around down by the water. Saw the boats lit up like a light parade, the 200 plus people riding the ferry over to the other side. The Pearl and other tall buildings all lit up.
We end up going back to the hotel and get food delivered. Tao ordered from one he wanted to eat at. A wonton shop. He was happy, the bowl had several different flavor wontons, you don’t know which you’ll get. Good Happy Father’s Day. Because it was way to early this morning to remember the cards I left in Beijing. Uggh.
Sunday, June 17, 2018
Cousin Time
Tonight we got together with all of Tao’s cousins from his mom’s side. There are 5 of them including my husband. 4 boys and 1 girl. We were meeting at a meat stick restaurant. I didn’t know what to expect, just meat on a stick that’s for sure. When we arrived at the location it was in a run down “mall” where the escalator no longer moved caked with a thick layer of cigarettes, debris and dust. We walked up the broken escalator to the 2nd floor to a rinky dink looking elevator and took it to the next floor. The doors opened and it was like stepping into the twilight zone. The restaurant was full of life, clean, colorful, full of people, and good smells. The opposite of the outside.
We were directed to our room and most of the cousins were already there. The boys were bestowed gifts; mini electric fans by 2 cousins and a lego set. I was given an old fashioned hand powered fan. It immediately went into my purse for the next hot outing!
I recognized the oldest cousin as the one who first picked us up on my first trip to Japan after we were engaged. It was memorable because it was very late and he ran every red light. He could do that, because they didn’t have that many cameras and they didn’t have a way to look up out of state license plates. He said they can’t do that anymore, too many cameras. His wife and 2 daughters age 19 and 13 live in Singapore so the girls can study English. They said their school is mostly Chinese and other south Asians. The oldest is going into college and the younger is in 7th grade. They have been living in Singapore for 6 years and miss the cold. Their summer break is about a month long so they came back to China to visit. So they basically go year round to school, but their school days end at 1:30. Besides learning English mostly they also learn 4 other local dialects too.
My huband is the next in line. Tao enjoyed getting to get her with his cousins, they haven’t gotten together since my first visit to China 14-15 years ago.
3rd in oldest I didn’t get to talk to, he sat on the very far end of the table, he drove a motorcycle and wore a sleeveless shirt. When we went to leave he pulled out sleeves to cover his arms. These separate sleeves are very common, though people normally don’t wear at night. They usually were when out in the sun, cooking or gardening to protect the arms. Before they were always cotton type. Now they have a lot of athletic material type sleeves.
4th oldest is the cousin who drove us to the Great Wall, who went to Japan. His wife was here tonight. She also speaks some Japanese so I got to speak with her too. But unlike the rest of the adults she also knew some English. But we didn’t sit closer until the end of dinner.
The youngest, we had already met at the Great Wall with her daughter and her husband came too. The mom and daughter are so genki, you can’t help not smiling at them. The daughter wanted to play with the boys again.
It was so nice seeing the boys talking and playing whith their cousins. Plus if they couldn’t understand each other the older girl cousins translated for them. This was the best family time of all of our visits. The kids are old enough, not acting shy and using their Chinese.
The food! There was so much of it, you order sides separate like for hot pot. We were in a separate room and a table long enough to have 3 cooking pits. After we ordered they brought in the charcoal and put it in the bottom of each pit. Then the food started to arrive. Skewers of meat, bread, cut enoki mushrooms rolled up in bacon. It was on metal skewers with a little wheel at one end that you line up in the slots on the cooker so they rotate by themselves. Some stuff they brought already cooked liked more meat sticks, eggplant, more mushrooms, clam shells, rice pyramids(spicy and fried) and cold dishes like vegetables, edamame, boiled vinegar peanuts in the shell, cucumbers, a cold mushroom dish. The table overflowed with food and it kept coming. They had a Korean BBQ sauce(sweet and med spicy) and 3 different levels of dry dipping seasoning. I ate the whole time. Sitting between watching the kids interact, asking the girls a few questions and watching all the adults talk. So I ate. And ate. And ate. At the end I ate a piece of raw daikon it was like a carrot. But it gave me heartburn. Too much or not enough sauce on it to stop the heart burn.
It was after 9:30 when finally left all smiles and promises of seeing each other again. This is what family is supposed to be like. This felt normal to me.
Kids home and in bed by 10:30P.M. Poor us we need to get up at 3:45A.M. the next morning!
We were directed to our room and most of the cousins were already there. The boys were bestowed gifts; mini electric fans by 2 cousins and a lego set. I was given an old fashioned hand powered fan. It immediately went into my purse for the next hot outing!
I recognized the oldest cousin as the one who first picked us up on my first trip to Japan after we were engaged. It was memorable because it was very late and he ran every red light. He could do that, because they didn’t have that many cameras and they didn’t have a way to look up out of state license plates. He said they can’t do that anymore, too many cameras. His wife and 2 daughters age 19 and 13 live in Singapore so the girls can study English. They said their school is mostly Chinese and other south Asians. The oldest is going into college and the younger is in 7th grade. They have been living in Singapore for 6 years and miss the cold. Their summer break is about a month long so they came back to China to visit. So they basically go year round to school, but their school days end at 1:30. Besides learning English mostly they also learn 4 other local dialects too.
My huband is the next in line. Tao enjoyed getting to get her with his cousins, they haven’t gotten together since my first visit to China 14-15 years ago.
3rd in oldest I didn’t get to talk to, he sat on the very far end of the table, he drove a motorcycle and wore a sleeveless shirt. When we went to leave he pulled out sleeves to cover his arms. These separate sleeves are very common, though people normally don’t wear at night. They usually were when out in the sun, cooking or gardening to protect the arms. Before they were always cotton type. Now they have a lot of athletic material type sleeves.
4th oldest is the cousin who drove us to the Great Wall, who went to Japan. His wife was here tonight. She also speaks some Japanese so I got to speak with her too. But unlike the rest of the adults she also knew some English. But we didn’t sit closer until the end of dinner.
The youngest, we had already met at the Great Wall with her daughter and her husband came too. The mom and daughter are so genki, you can’t help not smiling at them. The daughter wanted to play with the boys again.
It was so nice seeing the boys talking and playing whith their cousins. Plus if they couldn’t understand each other the older girl cousins translated for them. This was the best family time of all of our visits. The kids are old enough, not acting shy and using their Chinese.
The food! There was so much of it, you order sides separate like for hot pot. We were in a separate room and a table long enough to have 3 cooking pits. After we ordered they brought in the charcoal and put it in the bottom of each pit. Then the food started to arrive. Skewers of meat, bread, cut enoki mushrooms rolled up in bacon. It was on metal skewers with a little wheel at one end that you line up in the slots on the cooker so they rotate by themselves. Some stuff they brought already cooked liked more meat sticks, eggplant, more mushrooms, clam shells, rice pyramids(spicy and fried) and cold dishes like vegetables, edamame, boiled vinegar peanuts in the shell, cucumbers, a cold mushroom dish. The table overflowed with food and it kept coming. They had a Korean BBQ sauce(sweet and med spicy) and 3 different levels of dry dipping seasoning. I ate the whole time. Sitting between watching the kids interact, asking the girls a few questions and watching all the adults talk. So I ate. And ate. And ate. At the end I ate a piece of raw daikon it was like a carrot. But it gave me heartburn. Too much or not enough sauce on it to stop the heart burn.
It was after 9:30 when finally left all smiles and promises of seeing each other again. This is what family is supposed to be like. This felt normal to me.
Kids home and in bed by 10:30P.M. Poor us we need to get up at 3:45A.M. the next morning!
Saturday, June 16, 2018
The Forbidden City
We walked down two blocks to the new subway line station and made a couple of line changes to get to Tian’anmen. Recommend not to go on a weekend. But it couldn’t be helped. We were herded about a block through to the security check. Luckily I had pictures of our passports and visas on my phone. So many people! All moving through the few front gates until you can buy tickets. Thank you cousin for the tickets!
Another security check and we are still surrounded by so many people. My husband wonders why I take so many pictures of the same thing he knows I took a picture of last time. I can’t help it, I love pictures of the tiles and doorways and rooftops! All the red paint on the buildings are actually lacquered on. Verses the red walls are painted. Lots of walking in the hot hot weather. So glad we went early in the morning. We brought us each a drink and some snacks, the water went fast. The dried fruits snacks were all salty and only 1 got a eaten by me.
The last restroom before you buy tickets you have to pay for toilet paper. And you pay with your phone app by scanning the toilet paper spindle. All the other bathrooms we used inside had the 1 economy toilet paper at the entrance you can grab as you pass by.
We went into the Hall of clocks. Which was pretty cool, clocks from the 1700’s from china up to the 20th century from England and France. Some pretty cool clocks. I can’t imagine how they must’ve sounded in use. Some had singing birds, a little person that would ding bells, a person that would write, keep track of constellations, seasons, moving clocks and moving parts. Most clocks were at least 1 foot up to 3 plus feet. Ethan told me, I didn’t think clocks would be so interesting. They had 2 movies going inside. If there weren’t so many people we may have stayed to walk. One showed the gears moving inside of a highly animated clock. I would have loved to see the clock moving on the outside. We enjoyed the clocks more than the Treasure gallery.
The Treasure gallery had some old jewelry, silver and gold ware. Way more people trying to cram in and see it so we didn’t spend that much time in there. One of the neatest things was a golden constellation globe using pearls as stars.
I did get to see a section new to me, either under construction before or we didn’t go that way. The rose garden! It smelled so good. The boys were resting in the shade and missed out in my opinion. By the time we got to my favorite spot the Imperial Garden at the very end, the boys had had enough walking. Too hot, whiny and grumpy. I just got a quick view nothing to savor as we walked to the end. I welcomed the mini van “uber” ride home. As all the kids slept back to the house to rest.
Another security check and we are still surrounded by so many people. My husband wonders why I take so many pictures of the same thing he knows I took a picture of last time. I can’t help it, I love pictures of the tiles and doorways and rooftops! All the red paint on the buildings are actually lacquered on. Verses the red walls are painted. Lots of walking in the hot hot weather. So glad we went early in the morning. We brought us each a drink and some snacks, the water went fast. The dried fruits snacks were all salty and only 1 got a eaten by me.
The last restroom before you buy tickets you have to pay for toilet paper. And you pay with your phone app by scanning the toilet paper spindle. All the other bathrooms we used inside had the 1 economy toilet paper at the entrance you can grab as you pass by.
We went into the Hall of clocks. Which was pretty cool, clocks from the 1700’s from china up to the 20th century from England and France. Some pretty cool clocks. I can’t imagine how they must’ve sounded in use. Some had singing birds, a little person that would ding bells, a person that would write, keep track of constellations, seasons, moving clocks and moving parts. Most clocks were at least 1 foot up to 3 plus feet. Ethan told me, I didn’t think clocks would be so interesting. They had 2 movies going inside. If there weren’t so many people we may have stayed to walk. One showed the gears moving inside of a highly animated clock. I would have loved to see the clock moving on the outside. We enjoyed the clocks more than the Treasure gallery.
The Treasure gallery had some old jewelry, silver and gold ware. Way more people trying to cram in and see it so we didn’t spend that much time in there. One of the neatest things was a golden constellation globe using pearls as stars.
I did get to see a section new to me, either under construction before or we didn’t go that way. The rose garden! It smelled so good. The boys were resting in the shade and missed out in my opinion. By the time we got to my favorite spot the Imperial Garden at the very end, the boys had had enough walking. Too hot, whiny and grumpy. I just got a quick view nothing to savor as we walked to the end. I welcomed the mini van “uber” ride home. As all the kids slept back to the house to rest.
Friday, June 15, 2018
The Great Wall
Today we are off to the Great Wall! This will be my 4th time and the kids 2nd time. Tao has been looking into how we should get there for the past few months. 5 years ago we took the train there and it was supper easy and convenient. This time the stop we took is under construction and he didn’t know where we could get on it. We debated a tour bus, hiring a driver for the day or borrowing a family members car. In the end the same cousin we visited with at Tiantan would drive us, but it was the day his license is not allowed with in the 4th ring or rather with in the city. So we took “uber” out to the 5th ring and then we drove packed in like sardines 4 in the back of his car for almost 2 hours.
After parking we used the public toilet before getting on to the shuttle bus. As I was standing in line, a rude person walked right in front of me. Which I know is very typical from past experiences, but I think they are trying to correct that as a whole because they put a lot of ques up for waiting all over the place.
Another cousin(girl) and her child age 6 met us there too. We have our tickets and we are climbing the north side of the wall. The weather is sunny and hot, we’ve got a larger party to occupy everyone. Some of the legs between towers are quite scary. The wall rises higher on one side than the other. Think it’s so steep you are practically doubled over so the short side at knee height doesn’t appear so bad. But stop and stand up and look out that side. Woah, instantly I feel off balance. I wouldn’t even walk next to it. Only the middle. And if I had to stop I’d sit down. The high side was about shoulder height with jutted lookout windows and was where you walk down by it since you are upright. The floor of the wall ranged from steps from a few inches to a foot in height with no consistency. Plus add to that all the wear over time and usage that the steps were worn and sloped. Other times it was a flat surface at a steep incline. Ethan and the guys decided to take the passage down at the 4th tower.
The rest of us continued on. Aidan was a mountain goat, we’d find him waiting at the next tower. We stopped at tower 7 for water and icicle pops before heading to the highest tower to the North the 8th. After that the rest of the towers slope down the mountain. We kept getting calls from below on when we were coming down. So we took the passage down. Thank God because I did not want to retrace my footsteps down the wall! The down passage is at the base of the Great Wall and was made later with tourists in mind as the steps are consistent, the slopes not as steep and several stops with information and lookouts. I’ve never went down the passage down on my previous trips to the Great Wall, but it’s a real time saver, plus you get to see some other stuff you wouldn’t see hidden under the trees. You could even cheat and go up the passage down and walk up into every tower.
The parking lot was getting sparse by the time we made it back to the car, we’d spent several hours there. Tao drove back with his cousin and her daughter and me and the boys drove back with the cousin who drove us. We were all going to meet for dinner at Big Pizza, a pizza buffet place. It was nice I got to practice my Japanese, as this cousin used to live in Japan. Yeah!
It was so nice the kids had a cousin their own age, she was so adorable and they all got along well. At dinner my in-laws also met us there. I did have a few pieces of pizza, because it’s pizza and you have to try it. But it was eh, most didn’t have sauce. So I just stuck with the rest of the choices like cumin crusted lamb on a stick(love it!), something called new product(didn’t even try it), cherry tomatoes right next to the chocolate fountain(left that for the kids). But it was the most delightful day, my best visit to the Great Wall and got some time getting to know family. Bonus we were all so tired we slept till 7A.M.
Thursday, June 14, 2018
Tiantan Solo
Today was our first day of sightseeing. Everyone was up before 6 A.M., I feel it gets light really early here. I went with the boys to get breakfast today. We tried to go to the bread store, but it opened at 7 and there was a line waiting. We ended up getting made to order soup dumplings from a restaurant, then got the soy milk and yotel. This time they got fresh tofu with some brown sauce on it. I knew I wouldn’t like it, but I was a good sport and tried it anyway. Yuck. Apparently some kind of bean sauce, but it was brown and looked like it had mushrooms in it. An acquired taste I’m later told. I prefer my fresh warm tofu with jam on it. Now that is yummy!
My husband is not a fan of public transportation. We “ubered” it to Tiantan(The Temple of Heaven) and met his cousin there. On the way there we went past several places I went 5 years ago. This was a park my husband used to play a lot in as a child. It’s a lot walking to the various relics, everything is fenced in to keep you off the grass and out of the buildings, letting you just peek inside. Since people aren’t allowed in, 1 particular building was getting a lot of attention from the sparrows flying around it like bats.
I totally forgot most public bathrooms don’t provide toilet paper! Thank God I have boys. Some places will have 1 roll at the entry to the bathroom where you can grab some to take in with you. Lots of squatter toilets. You also are not to flush the Kleenex/toilet paper you use, but put it in the garbage can inside every stall.
The echo wall I think used to be the coolest part of The Temple of Heaven. But since you can’t get close enough to actually use it, nor is it quiet enough with all the tourists. This park doesn’t have any water or a lot of flowers. Mostly long grass you cannot walk on and lots of different pine/cedar trees. We did get my favorite tonghulu(haw on a stick). This time they were packaged and frozen. Maybe we can start to find them back home now?!??
We could here some massive thunder so I opted to go shopping right after since the Pearl Market is right outside the entrance. I also remember Toy City being close by. That place has since closed in the last few years, so the cousin led us to a mall close by, we did bus it 2 stops. The toy floor of this mall we went to was more geared to figurines from Pokémon to anime to
Transformers to wildlife. A whole floor of shop windows filled with shelves of figurines. It was like walking through a museum but not what kids think of as a toy store. This mall reminded me of bein in Japan, so many floors (9) and all rather small just around the elevators.
We went to the food court on the top floor. We got several small bowls of yummy side dishes with rice. Garlic scapes and pork, Beijing style spinach and peanuts, marinated cucumbers. After I went to the bathroom there and saw a worker washing their hands. Lovely a no soap bathroom! Thank goodness I was already done eating, sometimes you just can’t think about it or you’ll be sick.
We walked to a different mall a block away to watch Star Wars: Solo! Their regular popcorn was carmel corn. The boys were so happy to finally watch it. Han Solois the best! But I was hoping it would have Harrison Ford in it. They boys were like no mom he(Han) is dead. Well it could’ve been his life flashing before his eyes as he died. As soon as the credits started they shut it off and turned on the lights....leave now.
My husband is not a fan of public transportation. We “ubered” it to Tiantan(The Temple of Heaven) and met his cousin there. On the way there we went past several places I went 5 years ago. This was a park my husband used to play a lot in as a child. It’s a lot walking to the various relics, everything is fenced in to keep you off the grass and out of the buildings, letting you just peek inside. Since people aren’t allowed in, 1 particular building was getting a lot of attention from the sparrows flying around it like bats.
I totally forgot most public bathrooms don’t provide toilet paper! Thank God I have boys. Some places will have 1 roll at the entry to the bathroom where you can grab some to take in with you. Lots of squatter toilets. You also are not to flush the Kleenex/toilet paper you use, but put it in the garbage can inside every stall.
The echo wall I think used to be the coolest part of The Temple of Heaven. But since you can’t get close enough to actually use it, nor is it quiet enough with all the tourists. This park doesn’t have any water or a lot of flowers. Mostly long grass you cannot walk on and lots of different pine/cedar trees. We did get my favorite tonghulu(haw on a stick). This time they were packaged and frozen. Maybe we can start to find them back home now?!??
We could here some massive thunder so I opted to go shopping right after since the Pearl Market is right outside the entrance. I also remember Toy City being close by. That place has since closed in the last few years, so the cousin led us to a mall close by, we did bus it 2 stops. The toy floor of this mall we went to was more geared to figurines from Pokémon to anime to
Transformers to wildlife. A whole floor of shop windows filled with shelves of figurines. It was like walking through a museum but not what kids think of as a toy store. This mall reminded me of bein in Japan, so many floors (9) and all rather small just around the elevators.
We went to the food court on the top floor. We got several small bowls of yummy side dishes with rice. Garlic scapes and pork, Beijing style spinach and peanuts, marinated cucumbers. After I went to the bathroom there and saw a worker washing their hands. Lovely a no soap bathroom! Thank goodness I was already done eating, sometimes you just can’t think about it or you’ll be sick.
We walked to a different mall a block away to watch Star Wars: Solo! Their regular popcorn was carmel corn. The boys were so happy to finally watch it. Han Solois the best! But I was hoping it would have Harrison Ford in it. They boys were like no mom he(Han) is dead. Well it could’ve been his life flashing before his eyes as he died. As soon as the credits started they shut it off and turned on the lights....leave now.
Wednesday, June 13, 2018
We made it
The night before leaving we ate at Mandarin in Toronto. It’s been a while since I went to a restaurant with a time limit. It is a buffet, reminded me of Rainforest Cafe in their decor, each room had different animal themes, we were in the bird room with 2 huge fake birds hanging down from their ceiling, they had a bird enclosure with real birds. All good food, though I was looking forward to green tea ice cream and they didn’t have that.
We flew Hainan Airlines. What I didn’t like was on-line it allowed us to change our seat assignments that morning, but they wouldn’t acknowledge it at the airport, even though it took our old seats away, so now we weren’t all sitting by each other. Fortunately people traded with us so we could sit together. When we were boarding I got my first reminder of the screaming Chinese person. You are never too old to ack like a toddler and yell at service workers because you are upset. Definitely a more diverse movie selection. I watched an Italian movie with English subtitles called “Look Up”, a strange movie about the rooftops in Rome. And a funny Japanese movie with English subtitles about a girl who gets fired from her job and then finds a job as a promoter/office woker with a wrestling company and her out of work actor boyfriend gets jealous. The best part of dinner was the roll and chocolate cake. I always travel with sea bands, and thankful I bought them for the kids too. Still had 2 get sick on the descent, don’t think they got enough sleep. First time I actually ever say them spraying the chemicals on the floors, they had on masks and gloves. What can you do?
Once arrived, a friendly kiosk fingerprinted us, picked up luggage and stood in the short line of foreigners with only 1 customs official refingerprinted the adults and facial scans of everyone. I didn’t remind them they didn’t scan my face! Then we can exit and look for Yeye. We easily find him. There was some miscommunication on where our driver would be that caused an embarrassing distraction. And then I sleep the hour ride to their home since it was dark out. Woke up 2 blocks from their house and it has changed a lot, lots more fluorescent lights around the businesses. We arrived 10:30P.M., there are still families walking around. Had dinner, watched some TV and went to bed. They still have Boonie Bears on! This episode had a polar bear with antlers.
The kids were up around 5. I was up by 6. Yeye took the boys to get fresh soy milk, yotel and baoza. Ethan said I think I need to have soy milk everyday now. I chose boxed yogurt drink. It was plain but very sweet. The kids wanted to explore the garden area then we walked up 26 flights of stairs to look out the roof. The roof has been locked and we can not access it. The stairwells are well used, there was a desk set up out there among other storage.
Today was all about getting things done, making sure electronics, phones, bank cards got set up. My husband insisted I upgrade to his old iPad. I am not happy, it’s set up with all his apps and I can’t get the ones I used to work like they did on mine. Including how to add pictures to this blog. So that is forthcoming. Kids crashed at 4, woke for a light dinner and were back out until 4 the next morning.
We flew Hainan Airlines. What I didn’t like was on-line it allowed us to change our seat assignments that morning, but they wouldn’t acknowledge it at the airport, even though it took our old seats away, so now we weren’t all sitting by each other. Fortunately people traded with us so we could sit together. When we were boarding I got my first reminder of the screaming Chinese person. You are never too old to ack like a toddler and yell at service workers because you are upset. Definitely a more diverse movie selection. I watched an Italian movie with English subtitles called “Look Up”, a strange movie about the rooftops in Rome. And a funny Japanese movie with English subtitles about a girl who gets fired from her job and then finds a job as a promoter/office woker with a wrestling company and her out of work actor boyfriend gets jealous. The best part of dinner was the roll and chocolate cake. I always travel with sea bands, and thankful I bought them for the kids too. Still had 2 get sick on the descent, don’t think they got enough sleep. First time I actually ever say them spraying the chemicals on the floors, they had on masks and gloves. What can you do?
Once arrived, a friendly kiosk fingerprinted us, picked up luggage and stood in the short line of foreigners with only 1 customs official refingerprinted the adults and facial scans of everyone. I didn’t remind them they didn’t scan my face! Then we can exit and look for Yeye. We easily find him. There was some miscommunication on where our driver would be that caused an embarrassing distraction. And then I sleep the hour ride to their home since it was dark out. Woke up 2 blocks from their house and it has changed a lot, lots more fluorescent lights around the businesses. We arrived 10:30P.M., there are still families walking around. Had dinner, watched some TV and went to bed. They still have Boonie Bears on! This episode had a polar bear with antlers.
The kids were up around 5. I was up by 6. Yeye took the boys to get fresh soy milk, yotel and baoza. Ethan said I think I need to have soy milk everyday now. I chose boxed yogurt drink. It was plain but very sweet. The kids wanted to explore the garden area then we walked up 26 flights of stairs to look out the roof. The roof has been locked and we can not access it. The stairwells are well used, there was a desk set up out there among other storage.
Today was all about getting things done, making sure electronics, phones, bank cards got set up. My husband insisted I upgrade to his old iPad. I am not happy, it’s set up with all his apps and I can’t get the ones I used to work like they did on mine. Including how to add pictures to this blog. So that is forthcoming. Kids crashed at 4, woke for a light dinner and were back out until 4 the next morning.
Friday, June 8, 2018
5 years later
It’s the eve of our return to China, 5 years later. This time for 5 weeks. I was not keen to give up so much of my summer to this trip. And I’m not ready. Too many things on the burners, too much to do to adequately get my mind wrapped up in this trip.
The kids went to bed late. All day I’ve been gathering stuff to take. Knowing I will forget something. It’s 11 pm and I just located my camera! I’m still not fully packed. And need to do at least 2 loads of laundry. Though I’m sure it will all come together.
The kids have been looking forward to going back for several months. Mostly to eat. I think we will be on a grand dining excursion. We had planned only to be in Beijing and recently added Shanghai to our itinerary. When my mom asked what there was to do there. I said it’s the biggest city, like going to New York City or Tokyo. But we will definitely eat soup dumplings! Hopefully this trip will give good memories for my kids aged 10, 10, and 8. I don’t know how much they actually remember from when they were aged 4 and 5. So here starts another journey back to China!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)