China Trip Day 5 – 3/8/15 - Happy International Women’s Day
Today was another travel day. Laura and I woke up around 6:30am
to say good bye and “see you in Guangzhou with your baby!” to some of the other
families taking flights to various Provinces. We had some good breakfast and
hit up the local Starbucks down the street from the hotel. Yes, we realize this
is so stereotypical of western culture, but it sure is nice to have a little
taste of home while across the globe. This of course is less the southern
hospitality and creamer… yup no creamer in China.
Our guide met us and the 3 remaining families at 9:00am for a
van ride to the Beijing train station. It was huge! We all stayed together and
made sure everyone boarded the train on time. I’ve been getting a little camera
happy, and Laura was not pleased with me being the only one running to the
front of the bullet train for a picture.
The four families adopting from Jinan
Bullet Train
The ride from Beijing to Jinan was about an hour and a half on
the bullet train, covering about 300 miles and crossing one of China’s major
rivers, the Yellow River. A few times we glanced up at the train’s progress and
we were traveling 288 km/hr which is about 179 mi/hr.
Views from the train- fog
We didn’t get many great shots from the bullet train, because
of the fog today, but there were endless farmlands, little towns, and every
once in a while an apartment complex that seemed to rise in the middle of
nowhere. The terrain we traveled through was pretty much flat and grey.
When we got to Jinan, we were informed by our guide that we had
just 2 minutes to get all of our luggage and get off the train before it
departed again. We were all up and scrambling around 5 minutes before the train
stopped, and I’m sure the locals through we were just some crazy Americans.
We met our new guide, John (this will get confusing), and he
brought us to a local bank in Jinan to exchange our orphanage donation. It was
a little sketchy, but thanks to a sweet family and a kind hearted security
guard, we felt extremely safe… or at least the attention was no longer on us
Baby
girl at the bank
Fearless
security guard protecting us
Isn’t there a private room for this?
After the whole group exchanged their USD to RMB, the bank was
literally out of money and there were several displeased local patrons of the
bank. We left quickly.
We checked into our hotel, which is very nice, and met up with
the other families for some pizza at a mall down the street. Pappa John’s,
another western favorite! All of the others ordered a classic pepperoni, or
supreme. But not us… we ordered a Thai pizza, which was not the best choice
we’ve made all week.
Laura getting ready for tomorrow.
Finally, we all visited a local supermarket and picked up some
diapers, wipes, formula, and water before heading back to the hotel to prepare
for tomorrow.
Theo’s snack bar
Laura and I can’t believe that tomorrow morning we will meet
Theo for the first time! Our minds are racing with thoughts about what he will
look like in person, if he will cry, is he walking now? How many teeth does he
have? Will he let us hold him? Will he recognize us from the photos we sent?
Room set-up for Theo
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