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Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Americans in Beijing
The opening words for today are: THANK GOODNESS FOR
AMBIEN!!! After we each
took an Ambien, we
literally passed out at 7pm and we successfully slept all
night. We were up at 6am to prepare for the day and make a
call to Jacob and Katelyn
at 7am (7pm EST). The panda phone
is working great and we are so happy that we decided to rent
one. We blew the electricity fuse twice this morning. The
hotel staff was probably wondering what the heck we were
doing!!! My hair dryer
didn't work well even with
a converter. We did the same thing in Russia so when it
happened we simply looked at each
other and called the front desk. Not a surprise. We
had a wonderful breakfast in the hotel and we were happy to
see many recognizable foods. We met our guide Tom at 8:30am
in the hotel lobby and we proceeded to the Summer Palace.
There is SO MUCH history that it is absolutely impossible to
retain even 50% of what the guide told us. We had a "holey
moley we are in China"
moment when we saw the marble boat at the Summer Palace. I
can't tell you how many pictures I have seen of that boat but
being right there was amazing. We then proceeded to the Pearl
Market where Kiah now owns
her own set of pearls. We couldn't pass them up and the
gentleman was REALLY trying hard to sell us the whole case of
pearls which would have cost more than our international
flights to China!!! We had a buffet lunch and then headed out
to Tiananmen Square and the
Forbidden City. The tours were wonderful and our guide is
very knowledgeable. The traffic is as expected. AWFUL!!! I
simply close my eyes most of the time. Bikes, cars, buses and
people all "share" the road however it is actually survival of
the fittest. There are 14 million people in Beijing and I
think we saw ½ of them today!!!
There were some thrilling moments
and some not so thrilling moments of the past 2 days.
Thrilling would be when all of our luggage arrived when we
did. Not so thrilling would be when I decided that I would
use the bathroom in the airport. They were all "squatty
potties". all without
toilet paper. When I was leaving the bathroom I saw a lone
toilet paper dispenser on the far wall (it seemed people were
using this paper to dry their hands after washing them). So I
decided to go back in. When I turned the corner I saw a lady
using a squatty
potty, with the door open
while she was carrying on a
conversation with her friends who were looking right at
her. No one was embarrassed but me!!! Another thrilling
moment was standing in front of the Summer Palace. The not so
thrilling moment was when an old Chinese lady took that
opportunity to make some horrid noises with her throat and
nose and then practically spit on my shoes!!! At any rate, we
are one day closer to Kiah.
We have been showing our kids pictures around and everyone is
as taken with Katelyn here
as they are in the US. They also admire Jacob and
Brandon's matching "bald"
haircuts. ha ha ha.
Tomorrow we will be heading to the
Great Wall of China with 2 other
CCAI families. It should be great fun
Jacob and
Katelyn, we miss you and
love you to the moon and back!!! We love talking to you
guys. Be good for Gram!!!
Love to all from China,
-Nicole and Brandon.
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Forbidden City
Summer Palace
Tiananmen Square
Marble Boat at Summer Place
Imperial Garden |
