Friday,
May 21, 2010
GUANGZHOU, HERE WE COME . . . AND
VIP SECURITY
Our last day in Nanning and everyone that is here for an
adoption is eager to get to Guangzhou. Nanning is a beautiful
city, but between the heat and the fact that Emma is struggling
to feel at ease we have mostly just stayed in our hotel room and
played and tried to encourage the bonding process. After we went
the zoo on Wednesday it seemed the trip set Emma back a bit…I am
sure to most it may sound ridiculous to sit in your hotel room
and play with toys most of the day, but that is what she
needed…fun and a routine so that is what we have done and the
outcome has been our reward…today she woke up very happy and
even interacted with me a bit while getting ready. She ate well
at breakfast and even wanted me to feed her a few noodles. After
breakfast I had to exchange money for traveling and I will just
take a moment to go over that process. You show your passport,
the dissect it…even though you have at this point been there a
week and exchanged money multiple times with the same
person..it’s as if you have a whole new identity each
time….”what is your room number, can I have your passport, how
much money, what are you exchanging to?” My thoughts are I am in
the same room I was yesterday and the day prior to that, same
name, same, travelers checks, still want RMB …no let’s make that
Mexican pesos…I just collect foreign currency. So you hand over
all the stuff fill out 2 forms, then they copy your passport
like 3 times, bend down behind the desk and do something…not
sure and then they tell you must go to bank come back after 3:30
pm today. Last time we were here they actually gave you the
money right then, but this time they scrutinize everything even
more. So you come back at 3:30 pm and then check it all they put
the money thru a machine that counts it like 4 times, then you
sign a log and then you get the money…all this to convert
$250.00 USD into RMB. One form you sign asks if you are going to
spend the money in the hotel or outside. The whole process would
make a great Saturday Night live scene.
We arrive back in the room and I begin the “Great Houdini
packing challenge”, how do I make what we don’t need anymore
disappear and how on earth do I fit all the stuff we purchased
in already packed “elephant” suitcases? I literally unpack
everything and go thru item by item and this is where Emma
became so cute and helpful…she would actually follow my
instruction and take whatever I said and put it where I wanted
based on what I said and pointing…one smart cookie she is. She
would even go over to one suitcase and sit on it forcing it
shut…this went on from about 8:30 am until after noon…she
cracked us up with helping she even got this basket in the room
that we used to put her toys in and brought it to me as if to
say pack this too! She and Mel packed up her backpack with a few
toys and I put the rest in our suitcases. Finally it was time
for our guide to arrive and take me to buy more books and
videos…some for our sweet travel mates from our first adoption
trip “the D family” and a few more for us. Our guide Glenn drove
me in his personal car and that was interesting…on the way there
we saw a pony pulling a cart in the middle of the city…anything
goes here…
After the bookstore he dropped me at McDonald’s and I was able
to order our lunch and even was offered an ice cream cone…just
like home. The only thing that wasn’t right was they gave us a
meal with the chicken nuggets and we only wanted nuggets..more
on that later. Glenn was an excellent driver and it was a
different experience riding in a private car. Once back at the
hotel we enjoyed our McDonald’s…Emma was still napping. When she
woke up she did not want the nuggets, but ate every single
French fry…so it was a good thing we had them..she was even
territorial about them…she got several laughs out of us with
them. We finalized our packing and changed into our traveling
clothes and then went to the lobby until time to leave for the
airport. All the other families from the different groups were
there too…it was amazing to see how well all the children were
doing in just 4 short days since the adoption day…
Emma by far is the most connected with just one parent…the
others are pretty much 50/50 or 60/40 with parental preference.
She is well behaved and sits on Mel’s lap quietly, she doesn’t
request to get down or even act fidgety. We believe this will be
quite helpful on our international flight home. Finally we go
back to the restaurant one last time to get her some
noodles…well she won’t eat a thing…but we tried. Time to leave
and I have to say…it is always bittersweet to leave the
province...leaving all your child as ever known.
The ride to the airport was long…little did we know it was the
calm before the storm….we arrive at the airport still not really
knowing what flight or when it departed, but apparently our
guide knew. We line up to check in and when it was our turn the
agent looks at Emma’s passport and begins to jabber back and
forth with our guide and I can tell there is an issue, but
neither of them volunteer any info other than to tell us we are
again overweight…surprise surprise and to please hand over 300
RMB…no problem. We step aside with only 2 boarding passes and
wait…it is like 7:10 and we can see from our boarding passes we
will board at 7:25…so we wait and some gal rushes over and
chatters goes back, out guide makes several phone calls, then he
says you may have to buy another ticket for your daughter….what
we already bought one…long story short something about even
though we bought child tickets…airline only allowed for lap
ticket, but Emma is over 2 so requires her own ticket. My take
on the situation…the airline said…ummm we could sell this child
seat for a full fair and parents could keep child in lap…because
several other families had same issue.
During this wait the Emma did the cutest thing, she grabbled the
bill of Mel’s baseball cap and pulled his face to her and sorta
kissed him several times. We just praised her so and the more we
made of the more she did it…we can see more and more what a
sweet charming and spicy little girl she is.
So finally they give us our money back, give us a lap pass and
then rush us thru vip security in order to make our flight. What
is VIP security you ask…well in China it appears to be where the
businessman goes to clear security…the gal rushes us to
“chock-o-block” line of people excuse me pardon me…keeping in
mind all Chinese men and Mel is carrying Emma, I am schlepping a
green stroller filled to gills and pulling a over capacity
roller board. We get to security after nearly clearing the line
and I have a baby bottle with water, the agent motioned that I
drink it…like 10 ounces…so I gurgle down the water, take out the
laptop, put all our crap in the bins and then….I don’t know how
to fold the stroller down. Some man in a suit tries to help
me…no go, I am sweating so much my eyes sting…so finally Mel
asks if he can come help me, he had already cleared…they allow
it but only if they hold Emma on the other side….a scene out of
a movie Emma whaling…me and Mel doing surgery on a Chinese baby
stroller and the clock ticking. He finally gets it we both zoom
thru the medal detectors, then we are off walking quickly again,
down an elevator and then literally pushed into a bus in order
to close the doors…and at this point I am literally wet all over
…as in wet t-shirt contest wet…not pretty at all. Somehow though
we have the child that is relatively happy and Mel and I are
almost hysterical to keep from crying…the bus moved less than
100 feet and stopped and we all piled out. Once again it took a
posse to fold the stroller down…the stroller up until this point
that has been a baggage carrier. We then climb about 50 2 inches
stairs…do you know how hard it is to climb short stairs carrying
the elephant carryon and the bulging diaper back that now weighs
50 pounds…the plane is full and they allow me to take all our
crap to our seat to find no room, then they take the elephant in
search of a spot…finally they pass our seat on the way to the
back of the plane and store it. Mel takes the window seat, I get
the middle and a most attractive Chinese lady is sitting on the
isle next to me and is so nice…the travel God’s were with us,
because she was tiny too which allowed us to all sit
comfortably….short flight…Emma mostly slept and we then arrive
in Guangzhou…halleluiah praise the Lord…
We get our luggage and because Mel has Emma and she won’t let me
touch her I schlep the 67pounder, the 59 pounder and the 41
pounder and you should see the looks from mostly the Chinese
men. We find our guide Winnie and wait for the other
family…other family nobody said we would have another
family…yeah another family. We then walk awhile and our driver
pulls up and loads us all in…everyone comments on our huge
luggage…my comment “we brought it all”. After a 45 minute drive
we arrive at the White Swan and check in….pinch pinch we are
here. Emma request noodles after getting her jammies on and
quickly she was out for the count. It was 12 midnight…we order
room service…club sandwich and we were not disappointed…it was
an honest to goodness American club sandwich no egg and no
cucumber…and NY cheese cake…we split it off and soon were off
into a deep slumber as well…early schedule and busy schedule for
Saturday. Thanks for all your love and support…all in all this
was our best day yet as a threesome…we think she is coming
around….
Love,
Mel, Em and Emma |
In my Daddy's arms
Early morning beauty...
Helping Mommy pack
In China...anything goes transportation wise
Don't even think about taking my fries away
Feeding Mommy
Helping Momma close the suitcase
Gotcha . . . before she could run
Last meal in the restaurant..
Hotel lobby
Daddy Kisses
First flight |
