The blog experiment

Let me put things on the table. I am not a writer, unlike others in my family. I am a wife, a mom and a healer. I have a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience a completely different culture with a unique perspective. This blog will follow my adventures into the eastern world of living, raising children and medicine. Come join me on this adventure.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Not in Longmont anymore!!


I am back!!!! I apologize in advance this is likely to be a long post. Due to the Chinese government and their internet firewall, I had to overcome some obstacles in order to access my blog. More about that later.

So the Chicago stop over for a few days was an excellent idea. With all the stress of moving and closing down a household, a few days with good friends, good food, fun museum's and even a spa day for mom with her gal pals was what the doctor ordered. Thank you to all my girlfriends for making time to spend with us on our short stay, it meant a ton to me.

Question, flying across the planet with 500 lbs of luggage and 3 small children easy or hard? Do I have to ask. It actually went as good as it could go, I guess. Steve and JP were upgraded to business class...again. While I slaved in coach with a four year old and 17 month old. Thankfully, I had an extra seat which let us stretch out. AC was awesome, Miss E...well what can you expect of a 17 month old. All I can say, is thank God we bought her a seat. She cried far less than the lap children, of which there were many. Her biggest flaw was that she liked kicking the seat in front of her. Thankfully, she had a very gracious Chinese man in front of her. In the end I was fried, but I did manage to squeeze out a couple of hours of sleep and it definitely could had been worse.
So we landed in the Pudong airport, all 5 of us, after 14 1/2 hours of flying time. We left on a Monday morning and arrived on a Tuesday afternoon. The air was humid and the kids were tired. Now it was time to gather our massive cache of luggage. A grand total of 26 pieces. Oops! only 25 pieces... oh where oh where has our green duffle gone!!! Yes we had a 5% attrition with our luggage. For the first time in my 13 year marriage, it was not my bag. Since Steve was preparing for a natural disaster and consumed about 60% of our checked luggage, it was not a fatal loss. Luckily the bag was not home alone for long and did arrive a couple of days later. We had a decent reception with 3 minivans picking us and our luggage up.

Our first meal, if you can call it that in China. We stayed at a Marriot downtown we were all exhausted. Overtired jet lagged kids are no fun. It is like they are on speed. So we sat down at a local restaurant, the kids were loud and squirmy, Miss E was cranky, mom and dad were cranky too. When we realized this was likely not going to work, we aborted immediately and headed to an iconic Chicken establishment, KFC. Not that ordering food from there was any easier, but it was faster. The boys promptly fell asleep at the table, and that was that.

3 comments:

  1. Glad to see you got there OK! KFC?!!? Any port in a storm, I guess! Hey, let me know when/where to send the holiday dresses, and tell JP I have a special surprise for him!

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  2. What a picture! I loved Emmy's long legs hanging over the stroller. I look forward to keeping up with you on this blog. When you get a chance, let me know when it will be a good time to Skype.

    Love, Mom and Les

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  3. Great to hear you all arrived safely! Its nice to “keep track” of you all on your adventure. I’m guessing you will enjoy the experiences – big and small – even if it starts out with KFC! Looking forward to the next post, Nicole

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