Two Day Recap from Guangzhou

(Originally posted 1-14-2004)

Hello again from Guangzhou! Since we had no internet in our room last night, I'll recap the last two busy days here in this wonderful place!

Yesterday we left the Grand Sun City Hotel in Changsha at 12:30 pm to catch a 2:30 flight. That flight was delayed due to fog earlier in the day, so Echo booked us on another flight. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting, we boarded the plane for the 1 hr flight to Guangzhou. We stepped off the plane to sunshine and temps near 70 degrees, a welcome change. It was a day full of packing, travel, waiting in the airport, sitting in traffic ... and collapsing in the room.

It was about 6pm before we got through traffic, to the hotel and checked in. Mitch, Abby and I wandered around and ended up eating at the Thai restaurant, Cow Bridge. It was very good and then we came back to the hotel to get to bed for an earlier morning today.

Today we were up at 6:30 am and at the breakfast buffet with many American families and Chinese babies. The White Swan Hotel is adjacent to the American Consulate and is very full of adoptive families. Then we met our group at 8am and walked to a photo shop for visa pics and to the medical clinic where the girls would have their necessary exams to request a visa to enter the U.S. Everyone passed with flying colors and we were on our own by 9am. We spent the morning browsing for things to bring back to help Abby know and remember more about her culture. I bought a white Chinese dress for her baptism, and some white leather squeaky shoes. We walked over to Michael's and he took a pic of the 3 of us for a granite etching, and we gave him the boys' school pics so that we can have an etching done with all of us in it. Can't wait to see how it turns out, we pick it up on Fri.

We had lunch at Lucy's and wandered around to enjoy the nice day and the scenery.

At 2pm we met up with the group and boarded a bus for a little local sightseeing. I think we spent as much time in traffic as we did seeing sights, but that's ok. Then we returned to the hotel about 6pm and Mitch, Abby and I had dinner at the River View Cafe overlooking the Pearl River and the beautiful lights. A very good meal and very reasonably priced. At the end of dinner when we were having a little communication difficulty with our non-English-speaking waiter, a man nearby helped tell the waiter what we were asking ... then asked where we were from since he thought we had a "familiar accent", and wouldn't you know it, we traveled 8,200 miles and ran into someone from Chicago! He lives in Beijing now and works for the U.S. Embassy and is in Guangzhou for some business at the American Consulate. We had a good conversation about how his family has adapted to living in China, and marveled at what a small world it really is. He gave us his card and said to call if we had any problems at the Consulate.

Tomorrow is a big day for all of our families ... our appt at the American Consulate to formally request visas for the girls to enter the U.S. All U.S. families, regardless of which China province their girls come from, must come through the American Consulate here in order to bring the girls to the U.S. We are not allowed to take pics or video there, but the memory of this occasion will stay in our minds forever.

It's late and we're all in need of some "lights out" time ... so signing off from Guangzhou and will write more tomorrow!