Travel Journal
March 29, 2013
We're in Guangzhou! Zhengzhou was a nice city where we'll always cherish our first memories with Annie, but we are thankful to be moving on in the process.
We left the hotel about 8:30 this morning to head to the airport. After navigating the check-in desk and security, we successfully found our gate with plenty of time. Upon boarding, we were thankful that we didn't have to take any kind of shuttle us to the plane!
Once we were on the plane, things went downhill for Alaina. We were not sitting together, and traded seats with our travel partners. This put Alaina (with Annie on her lap) one row behind Dan & Dayna. The flight attendants were very pushy, grabbing the boarding passes from Alaina and telling her we were in the wrong seats. Once they finally let it go, they started yelling at Alaina because she was holding up the people trying to board. Never mind the fact that the man in the center seat wasn't moving so she could get to the window with a baby, diaper bag and purse in tow. She was all but shoved into her spot. From that point, the flight got incredibly hot with no air movement. Alaina was starting to feel pretty ill from the lack of air. When the food came, Alaina passed hers up for Dan to hold until we could play "pass the baby." When Dan finished, Annie sat with him so Alaina could eat. When she was done, the flight attendants had already gathered the lunch trays and boxes. Alaina asked for them to take her box, and was brushed off and left holding her trash until the plane landed. Needless to say, at least one person in our family was more than happy to be done with Shenzhen Airlines. And we're ALL happy to be in Guangzhou.
When we left this morning, the temperature was in the 40's. When we arrived it was in the mid 70's and humid. Guangzhou is definitely a different climate than where we came from. In the last two weeks, we've had smog, snow, clear skies, cloudy, rain and now summer-like temps. China's climates vary as much as the United States.
We are currently staying at the China Hotel, which is a Marriott. This place 20 floors of rooms and each floor has almost 100 rooms. The first four floors are hotel services, shops, boutiques, restaurants and recreation (pool, excerise, play area.) I will take some pictures of the room and post them tomorrow night For dinner we had American food: Burgers and fries!
One little bit of adventure we had tonight was a minor medical emergency. Dan was boiling some noodles in a small plastic bowl. Well, Annie got curious and pulled said bowl onto her left arm and chest. The amount of water was less than a half a cup, but it still startled her and scared us pretty well. She had some red marks on her arm and chest which have now subsided. Our guide brought some burn cream to apply just in case (we're pretty sure it's 98% sesame oil...Annie now smells like a stir fry!) By bed time, they weren't bothering her and were hardly noticible to the eye. Still, your prayers would be appreciated.
On tap for tomorrow, Annie has her medical appointment in the morning, then we will be preparing paperwork for the consulate appointment on Monday.
Prayer Requests:
• Annie's burn
• Pray for Dayna's transition with a new little one in the family
• Still having computer problems
• Some of us are feeling a little dizzy.
Praises:
• Safe flight from Zhengzhou
• A hotel room with lots of storage
• Warmer temperatures
• Large bath tubs
Our travel group with Vivian
Because they couldn't say, "Fly the friendly skies"?
This is how Dayna and Alaina passed the time on the airplane:
"I love you bigger than the sky :-)"
"I love you deeper then the ochen"