Is It May 10th or 11th?
Our first day
May 11, 2006
May 10, 2006 6:00 a.m.
This morning I woke up at 3 a.m. unable to sleep, partly because of the hotel pillows and partly because of my anxiety over the possibility that we would not get tickets for our flight to Beijing from Chicago. Last night Tricia called and the service representative with United said he could not guarantee seats for us as the flight had been severely overbooked.
After lying awake for a half hour I got up, shut off the two alarms set (couldn’t do anything about the wake up call) and jumped in the shower and prayed. We caught the first shuttle from the hotel an hour ago at 5 a.m. and arrived at our terminal.
After a short wait in line we stepped up to see if we could get tickets. Praise the Lord, not only did we get tickets, but we were able to get them together. The lady at the counter said, they were the last two tickets that were next to each other and she apologized that we didn’t have any choices. I chuckled with relief and said, “We’re on the plane. Thank you!”
After going through security, we wandered down to our gate and looked for something to eat. We just finished sharing a breakfast burrito at Maui Tacos (we were up too early to take advantage of the courtesy breakfast at the hotel).
God is good.
May 10, 2006 4:45 p.m. (EST)
We had an uneventful flight from Raleigh to Chicago. Once we got to OHare we went to our gate and on the way immediately recognized Steve and Melinda Lanham from our group. In some ways it was like seeing old friends even though we had never met them. I love how the internet links people who would not have otherwise met.
We grabbed something to drink and meandered the rest of the way to our gate. An entire section of seats had been comandeered by our group. We spent a good hour just walking around getting to know everyone that we are traveling with.
Finally at about 11:15 we began to board our plane and of course we are all anxious to get to Beijing. I’m on an aisle in the middle and then Tricia, and next to her is a dad and his three-year-old daughter. They are Chinese and she is the cutest little girl. With each passing moment this whole experience becomes more real to each of us. In a few short days we will have our own little girl to snuggle with and love. The anticipation is growing.
Tricia has been knitting a one of several red scarfs to give away to those who serve us in China.
May 11, 2006 5:15 p.m. (CHINA)
I write this entry from the comfort of our hotel room in Beijing. We’re Here!
The flight was long, but overall, not too bad. Smooth ride and smooth landing. We touched down at about 2 p.m. and proceeded to go through customs, get our bags, and meet up with the whole group and our tour guide, Mable.
The airport is pristine and very efficient. Getting through customs was a little bit of a wait, but not all that long and getting our bags went smoothly. However, when it came time to hook up with our group at the meeting place we had some problems. Our bags were some of the last ones off the conveyor belt, so Tricia and I along with another couple followed the directions to meet up with everybody outside the international terminal exit at a KFC inside the airport. Well, we must have done something wrong because we didn’t see a KFC place anywhere. Upon finding someone who spoke very broken english, they pointed us to the elevator that went downstairs to the 1st floor. Well, we must have hit the wrong button because we got to the first floor (or so we thought) and found a KFC, but nobody was there. Someone in the restaurant struggled to communicate that there was another KFC on the 1st floor. We were perplexed because we thought we were on the first floor. Hmmm. So we got on the elevator and decided she must have meant the second floor, so up we went. Nothing.
I found another young lady at a help desk that confirmed with me that there were two KFC’s and one was on the first floor and the other was down a floor. Boy were we confused. By this time, we felt like we were in the Amazing Race and getting beat very badly by the other teams.
Long story short, there are two first floors. One first floor and one negative first floor. So we finally found our group.
We made our way to the bus and took a one hour drive to our hotel through a portion of Beijing.
First impressions:
- Hazy sky (we were told it is almost always like this due to pollution)
- Helpful people: everyone is eager to help with luggage, directions, or other needs
- Crisp: There seems to be a crispness about the people here. Most have very good posture and are thin and well groomed.
- Bicycles: Many people ride bicycles (most look like antiques) in and out of traffic. Little children riding on the backs of the bicycles. We know they make bicycle helmets in China but apparently they are all shipped over to the States! Little ones as small as Charlotte Riegel with no helmet riding alongside very large tour buses. Yikes!
Our room is very nice with very nice ammenities. After I write this entry I intend to take a long hot shower and put on a luxurious white robe. The folks here really know how to treat you right.
Tonight we will wander downstairs and have supper and then attempt to get some sleep at about 9 p.m. and get right into the China time.
