First the entertainment, then finally Doc gets serious.
Soulmate and I went to bed early last night (well, comparatively early—see the recent comment from the Duchess who is altogether too observant of our habits), and my eyes snapped open at 3am, not to close again for the night. I tossed and turned for an hour or more, and finally we both just got up.
Needless to say, we had plenty of time to get ready and head down to breakfast at 7:30. While eating, we met our travel companions: the Ottenbreits from Michigan and the Peters from Portland. The Wrights from Salt Lake City will be meeting us in Nanning.
After breakfast we met Judy Wu, our in-country adoption coordinator, who loaded us onto a bus for the short trip to the airport.
Once we got to Nanning and went through security, we were met by David, our Nanning guide and coordinator, who loaded us onto yet another bus and we drove to the Ming Yuan Xindu (Majestic) Hotel. On the way he briefed us on several aspects of our trip, including when the babies were coming, what we should expect when we first meet, when to make our first trip to the swimming pool (“not for the first 2 days”), and how to get over homesickness (pizza hut will do it every time, apparently).
I’ve cobbled together several clips to give you a flavor for the day:
We got a chance to try some more new things today, on the flight and in the hotel gift shop. I do love these Asian airlines: even if the flight is 45 minutes long, they rush the food and drink carts out while the plane is climbing out from the runway, serve everyone a snack and beverage, and then clean everything up just in time for touchdown. The pizza crackers were so-so, but the Quench (jasmine tea) really lived up to its billing.
We toured the hotel and checked out the gift shop, which is full of baby stuff and little girl clothes. Ya think they might be catering to the needs of adoptive families from the west? After a so-so meal in the hotel--the Cantonese restaurant was closed for the mid-afternoon, so we were stuck eating in the American style restaurant—we headed back to the room for an early turn-in.
But not before buying some ginkgo dessert bars in the gift shop. On the package they looked like the sweet rice bread we ate with Kelly yesterday, but once we opened the box we knew it wasn’t the same. They taste nice, but they’re drier than my mother-in-law’s dust cookies (aka melting moments).
Soulmate and I went to bed early last night (well, comparatively early—see the recent comment from the Duchess who is altogether too observant of our habits), and my eyes snapped open at 3am, not to close again for the night. I tossed and turned for an hour or more, and finally we both just got up.
Needless to say, we had plenty of time to get ready and head down to breakfast at 7:30. While eating, we met our travel companions: the Ottenbreits from Michigan and the Peters from Portland. The Wrights from Salt Lake City will be meeting us in Nanning.
After breakfast we met Judy Wu, our in-country adoption coordinator, who loaded us onto a bus for the short trip to the airport.
Once we got to Nanning and went through security, we were met by David, our Nanning guide and coordinator, who loaded us onto yet another bus and we drove to the Ming Yuan Xindu (Majestic) Hotel. On the way he briefed us on several aspects of our trip, including when the babies were coming, what we should expect when we first meet, when to make our first trip to the swimming pool (“not for the first 2 days”), and how to get over homesickness (pizza hut will do it every time, apparently).
I’ve cobbled together several clips to give you a flavor for the day:
We got a chance to try some more new things today, on the flight and in the hotel gift shop. I do love these Asian airlines: even if the flight is 45 minutes long, they rush the food and drink carts out while the plane is climbing out from the runway, serve everyone a snack and beverage, and then clean everything up just in time for touchdown. The pizza crackers were so-so, but the Quench (jasmine tea) really lived up to its billing.We toured the hotel and checked out the gift shop, which is full of baby stuff and little girl clothes. Ya think they might be catering to the needs of adoptive families from the west? After a so-so meal in the hotel--the Cantonese restaurant was closed for the mid-afternoon, so we were stuck eating in the American style restaurant—we headed back to the room for an early turn-in.
But not before buying some ginkgo dessert bars in the gift shop. On the package they looked like the sweet rice bread we ate with Kelly yesterday, but once we opened the box we knew it wasn’t the same. They taste nice, but they’re drier than my mother-in-law’s dust cookies (aka melting moments). I can't keep my eyes open at this point (at least it's 7:30pm tonight), so I'm going to bed. I suspect I'll have plenty of time for writing early tomorrow morning...
2 comments:
'drier than my mother in law's dust cookies'...reminds me of some bars my mother made that my step father used to call 'chainsaw cookies'.
I think I know the kind: thick, chewy, oatmeal-base with chocolate on top. Almost impossible to cut through, but well worth the trouble. Or maybe she made them with wood chips, thus the moniker.
My brother gloated in an earlier comment that he and his son had just made a pan. We call them O'Henry bars, though the origins of the term are obscure to me.
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