I Made it to China!

Ok, really I made it to China two days ago...or something like that. I left home at 8:40am Thursday 12/4...with crying kids and me crying...and then a boading pass that only had me going to Tokyo. BUT all of that worked out and we got to the gate just in time for boarding. The flight to Detroit was all but empty and I talked almost the whole way with Teri who is one of my travel-mates. In Detroit we had a bit of a layover and had lunch at Chilis before boarding a PACKED (read as totally full) 13 1/2 hour flight to Tokyo. But oh it gets better because those 13 1/2 hours quickly turned into 14 hours thanks to rain and delays. We barely made our connection to Beijing. By the time we landed in Beijing (after another 4 hours on a plane) it was 10pm 12/5 which was 9am 12/5 at home so I had literally been traveling for 24 hours. Thankfully our hotel wasn't far from the airport.

I slept ok that night (ie four hours) and was in for a day of touring. We went to the Great Wall of China and climbed. I know TOTALLY get what people mean when they say they climbed the Great Wall. Some of the steps are a good foot high and they are steep! The view, however, was amazing and it was a good workout : ) We climbed for about an hour and everytime you thought you were going to be at the "last or top" guard house...there was more. Getting down was tough on those steep stairs but we all made it. I can proudly say I was one of the three of us who climbed the whole time. I took a ton of pictures that hopefully I'll get a chance to post at some point. After the Great Wall we had a late lunch. We had some extra time after lunch so our guide took us to a tea house (Dr. Tea to be exact) and then headed back to our hotel. I walked with another couple to a nearby "mall" to look around. This "mall" was five or six stories high with all different stores, but they aren't divided the way stores would be in an American mall. They all just kind of blend together and when you want to purchase something someone writes you a slip, you take the slip to a cashier to pay, and then have to go back to pick up your items...it was different. From there it was back to the hotel for dinner (the food is...ummm, interesting) and off to bed. I slept pretty well last night (8-midnight and then 2-5ish) which was nice.

Today we spent at the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. HOLY COW ARE THEY HUGE!!! They were also pack with visitors and street vendors who are a bit on the pushy side. Oh, and we were total celebraties...people grabbed us for photos. One of the other families in our group has a 16 year old son who is very tall so a bunch of people wanted pictures with him and his Mom and I are blond enough to be novel so we got a photo as well. It was amazing to see all these sights in person! After that two families opted to do another (added expense) tour of part of Beijing while the other family and I hung out on the bus. Then we were off to the airport...again.

Our flight from Beijing to Changsha was only 2 1/2 hours but a bit bumpy. We landed here about 7:30 and came to the hotel. I knew it was going to happen...but walking into my room where there's a crib made me tear up. We're off at 9 tomorrow morning to get our daughters' (I'm lucky enough to be here in Hunan with another family while the other two families in our group are in their provinces by themselves). Hopefully all will go well and we'll sign paperwork tomorrow afternoon making us bigger families : )