Wednesday shopping and pool.
Wednesday we went out to do some shopping at a walking-street area north of Shamian Island. Ying, MeiLi and I found limited interest in shopping so we came back to hang out by the pool. Another breakthrough: Ying with me and MeiLi.
Carolyn, Jenna and Emmi had great fun shopping. Emmi and Jenna have become quite adept at dickering for price. Emmi got a t-shirt down from 90 yuan to 35 (about $15 to under $6).
In the later afternoon Holt delivered our US Visa - last goal for China down. We scheduled our flight home on Friday in case there was a delay in getting this.
Thursday - happy birthday to me.
Four years ago I celebrated a birthday in China as well. Thank you for all the kind birthday wishes on FB. We were in China, so the question Carolyn and the girls put to me was how would I like to celebrate? What to do, what to do... I suggested we would go to the top of the Canton Tower.
Off we went on the subway, we found our way to the tower and went up to the indoor and outdoor observation decks - the highest point we were at was 1476 ft - which is outside. It was a little freaky as a storm was rolling in while we were up there - we were right at the base of the clouds and could hear the thunder close by.
Friday and Saturday - travel days.
Friday we got up at 5am (4pm Thursday in KC) and headed for the airport. Our flight was delayed 2 hours in Guangzhou, and we only had a planned 2.5 hour layover in Beijing. Since we were transferring from domestic to an international flight, we had 30 minutes to:
* Park on the tarmac
* Get bussed to the terminal
* Get the luggage
* Change terminals - about a 10 minute walk
* Go through a departing customs inspection
* Check in, check bags, get boarding passes
* Go through a departing immigration check
* Go through security
* Exit at the gate
* Additional security check
* Get bussed back to the plane
Emmi starts quoting the Lion King 1.5: "Shall we run for our lives? Oh yes, let's!" We ran.
With all that running we made the plane. They held the flight for us. Well, not just us. The plane was the same Hainan 787 Dreamliner on which we arrived from Guangzhou. We had run a big triangle. It doesn't matter, we made the flight to Chicago.
We landed in Chicago one hour earlier than we departed Beijing (tail wind - 12 hour flight less 13 time zones). It didn't seem quite as brutal coming back. We had decided to rent a van in Chicago and drive back to KC. Spent the night in Iowa, now home. Nate graciously picked us up at Avis in Independence. We arrived home 48 hours out of the hotel room in Guangzhou.
Sunday - recovery
It is really nice to be back. Going slow. Jet lag has been hitting us all hard. How do people work nights?
Ying herself seems to be doing pretty well. Next step is the language barrier. The knowledge of Mandarin that Allie, Jenna and Emmi have helps a lot. We bought a copy of Rio in Kunming that is voiced in Mandarin, and watched that last night. It helped to understand what she experiences all the time. She's also very calm and low key.
It turns out she can ride a bike and enjoys the pool. She and MeiLi are playing together a lot.
Canton tower
Back home...
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