Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
July 1 - The Great(est) Wall
The (really) part pertains to the fact that I can't figure out how to over-ride the automatic blog dates installed by this software. What I mean is that I'll be describing Thursday, July 1 - even though I'm writing (I think!) on Friday, July 2...during a bout of insomnia.
So after our little breakfast of hard-won yogurt, fruit, and stowed-away granola bars from Sam's Club (and tea, of course), we made it down to the lobby to meet our little traveling group - of 32! Plus 2 guides. We're so happy to be here with the Cohen/Evans family, whom we know...and their beautiful daughter Anna, also from Xinyi. But there are a sea of other families who we'll have to get to know! Eliza has immediately made a bunch of friends...in fact, I'm feeling a bit sad that she immediately co-opted the back of the (air-conditioned, cushy) tour bus...with a little fleet of tweeny/teen-aged girls. I sit in the front with the grownups and wish that I'd brought my knitting...but the view out the window is so fascinating that I just try to settle in and enjoy China.
We had a shift in our itinerary - wisely intended to avoid traffic and crowds. It's a misty, grey day - with quite a steady drizzle - which means it's wonderfully cool and not quite so smoggy. We began with a trip to a jade museum (flanked by a government jade store). Though I've always envied my friend, Joyze Zhang's jade bracelet - I can't bring myself to fork over the $140 (US!) that's the minimum price. We learned all about how jade is carved and polished, and I learned about all of the secret ways to tell real jade from fake/bad jade (glass mixed with plastic...which is all I'm sure I own).
So after our little breakfast of hard-won yogurt, fruit, and stowed-away granola bars from Sam's Club (and tea, of course), we made it down to the lobby to meet our little traveling group - of 32! Plus 2 guides. We're so happy to be here with the Cohen/Evans family, whom we know...and their beautiful daughter Anna, also from Xinyi. But there are a sea of other families who we'll have to get to know! Eliza has immediately made a bunch of friends...in fact, I'm feeling a bit sad that she immediately co-opted the back of the (air-conditioned, cushy) tour bus...with a little fleet of tweeny/teen-aged girls. I sit in the front with the grownups and wish that I'd brought my knitting...but the view out the window is so fascinating that I just try to settle in and enjoy China.
We had a shift in our itinerary - wisely intended to avoid traffic and crowds. It's a misty, grey day - with quite a steady drizzle - which means it's wonderfully cool and not quite so smoggy. We began with a trip to a jade museum (flanked by a government jade store). Though I've always envied my friend, Joyze Zhang's jade bracelet - I can't bring myself to fork over the $140 (US!) that's the minimum price. We learned all about how jade is carved and polished, and I learned about all of the secret ways to tell real jade from fake/bad jade (glass mixed with plastic...which is all I'm sure I own).
Then on to the great wall...which really can't be put into words. Suffice it to say that it clearly has earned it's spot on the greatest wonders of the world list. We had an hour and a half to explore the mu tian yu segment (accessible only by cable car)...and the mist lifted in this awesome way to reveal its splendor. We decided to head left and try to make it as far as we could go. We were proud to be the first from our travel group (and 2 of only 4 people) who made it as far as the gate that closed off the rest of the section - an enormous number of steps up...and I'll just now let the pictures speak for themselves. (actually posting a picture is taking upwards of 10 minutes...so I'm whittling this down to words for now).
So after our little breakfast of hard-won yogurt, fruit, and stowed-away granola bars from Sam's Club (and tea, of course), we made it down to the lobby to meet our little traveling group - of 32! Plus 2 guides. We're so happy to be here with the Cohen/Evans family, whom we know...and their beautiful daughter Anna, also from Xinyi. But there are a sea of other families who we'll have to get to know! Eliza has immediately made a bunch of friends...in fact, I'm feeling a bit sad that she immediately co-opted the back of the (air-conditioned, cushy) tour bus...with a little fleet of tweeny/teen-aged girls. I sit in the front with the grownups and wish that I'd brought my knitting...but the view out the window is so fascinating that I just try to settle in and enjoy China.
We had a shift in our itinerary - wisely intended to avoid traffic and crowds. It's a misty, grey day - with quite a steady drizzle - which means it's wonderfully cool and not quite so smoggy. We began with a trip to a jade museum (flanked by a government jade store). Though I've always envied my friend, Joyze Zhang's jade bracelet - I can't bring myself to fork over the $140 (US!) that's the minimum price. We learned all about how jade is carved and polished, and I learned about all of the secret ways to tell real jade from fake/bad jade (glass mixed with plastic...which is all I'm sure I own).
So after our little breakfast of hard-won yogurt, fruit, and stowed-away granola bars from Sam's Club (and tea, of course), we made it down to the lobby to meet our little traveling group - of 32! Plus 2 guides. We're so happy to be here with the Cohen/Evans family, whom we know...and their beautiful daughter Anna, also from Xinyi. But there are a sea of other families who we'll have to get to know! Eliza has immediately made a bunch of friends...in fact, I'm feeling a bit sad that she immediately co-opted the back of the (air-conditioned, cushy) tour bus...with a little fleet of tweeny/teen-aged girls. I sit in the front with the grownups and wish that I'd brought my knitting...but the view out the window is so fascinating that I just try to settle in and enjoy China.
We had a shift in our itinerary - wisely intended to avoid traffic and crowds. It's a misty, grey day - with quite a steady drizzle - which means it's wonderfully cool and not quite so smoggy. We began with a trip to a jade museum (flanked by a government jade store). Though I've always envied my friend, Joyze Zhang's jade bracelet - I can't bring myself to fork over the $140 (US!) that's the minimum price. We learned all about how jade is carved and polished, and I learned about all of the secret ways to tell real jade from fake/bad jade (glass mixed with plastic...which is all I'm sure I own).
Then on to the great wall...which really can't be put into words. Suffice it to say that it clearly has earned it's spot on the greatest wonders of the world list. We had an hour and a half to explore the mu tian yu segment (accessible only by cable car)...and the mist lifted in this awesome way to reveal its splendor. We decided to head left and try to make it as far as we could go. We were proud to be the first from our travel group (and 2 of only 4 people) who made it as far as the gate that closed off the rest of the section - an enormous number of steps up...and I'll just now let the pictures speak for themselves. (actually posting a picture is taking upwards of 10 minutes...so I'm whittling this down to words for now).
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Trying Again - Back to China
Well, the blogging thing started with a bust of energy (probably fueled by one of those adoptive families workshops) and then fizzzled as my creative spark was drowned by the drudgeries of work, soccer, grocery shopping, cleaning (barely), gardening (worse), dog-walking, teenager-driving, and of course having wonderful evenings with friends. Here I am 2 years later (at least)...banging away on a laptop in a hotel room in Beijing...after waking up 3 hours ago (at 3 AM), tossing and turning for 90 minutes..and then just giving up and diving back in. First, for you purists - I wrote in my 'real' journal (which was begun nearly 20 years ago and has done much dust-collecting over the years). I gave Eliza some questions to answer in her journal and decided that to be fair, she should be able to give me a similar 'assignment' - which I have now completed faithfully, thank you very much.
So here I'll try to chronicle, for what it's worth, our return to my daughter's birthcountry. Blogging makes me a bit squeamish, but it's mostly because I can't figure out how to get my lame posts from 2 years ago to go away...and I cringe at my lameness being exposed. But I'm going to just get over it.
Okay, so we left Chicago at 12:20 PM (Central) on Tuesday, June 29th and arrived 13 hours-ish later in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 PM. We confidently strode through the machines that take your temperature up to the 'foreigner's line'...where I unfortunately discovered that I only had one of the scary forms that ask you where you're staying and why you're visiting. We were supposed to get two, but as Eliza was seated next to a young Chinese couple...and I was seated next to a grumpy middle-aged Chinese man who wouldn't offer to give up his seat to Eliza no matter how many times I reached around him, stepped over him and bumped into him....Eliza was assumed to be a 'national' and not a 'foreigner.' This led to me creating quite a disgruntled line behind me as I had to fumble for her passport number and visa number...and then wrack my brain to remember the number of our 'airship...' which I could't and thus had to scrounge through '100 Days of Solitude' for my bookmark - which was my seat ticket stub.
After surviving the line of shame we took a seemingly endless train to 'Terminal 3-C' - the largest terminal in Asia replete with scales to resemble a sleeping dragon - very impressive. We found our luggage (quickly, as we'd covered it in scary faces made of duct tape)..and marched through customs into a sea of guides waving signs....none of which said 'Johnson' or even 'Foran.' After walking around in circles for a while, Eliza bravely put on her glasses, marched around the parade of sign-wavers several times, and promptly spotted a guide holding a 'Lotus' sign. Bingo. Instant melting away of anxiety over having the capacity to utter about 15 sentences in Mandarin - most of which have to do with requesting one's honorable surname, or asking about how many family members one has - none of which begins to approximate 'can you tell me please how to find the Beijing Peace Novotel'? From there on, the ride has been pretty cushy. Everywhere we go, an air conditioned bus has been parked and waiting for us. It's very tourist-ey...but incredibly easy.
We ventured out Wednesday night to a grocery store to buy water (it's sweltering - about 94 degrees and humid as a rainforest), fruit, and yogurt. I quickly realized that I should have paid much more attention to the 'money' chapter of my Chinese text. I know that a yuan is worth just a fraction of a dollar...but which fraction? Why did the airport currency exchange she-devil had me only 100-yuan notes, which no shopkeeper will accept? Why didn't I take my old quarters and nickels OUT of my purse so that they weren't all mixed in with the confusing micro-yuan coins? Needless to say, we annoyed the shopkeepers (and I think paid more than we should have for apples, oranges, and yogurt) - though once I got back to google I discovered that my $14 yuan bill translated into less than $3.
Our goal was to make it to 8 PM...which we almost did...and then slept (kind of) until morning.
So here I'll try to chronicle, for what it's worth, our return to my daughter's birthcountry. Blogging makes me a bit squeamish, but it's mostly because I can't figure out how to get my lame posts from 2 years ago to go away...and I cringe at my lameness being exposed. But I'm going to just get over it.
Okay, so we left Chicago at 12:20 PM (Central) on Tuesday, June 29th and arrived 13 hours-ish later in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon at 2:30 PM. We confidently strode through the machines that take your temperature up to the 'foreigner's line'...where I unfortunately discovered that I only had one of the scary forms that ask you where you're staying and why you're visiting. We were supposed to get two, but as Eliza was seated next to a young Chinese couple...and I was seated next to a grumpy middle-aged Chinese man who wouldn't offer to give up his seat to Eliza no matter how many times I reached around him, stepped over him and bumped into him....Eliza was assumed to be a 'national' and not a 'foreigner.' This led to me creating quite a disgruntled line behind me as I had to fumble for her passport number and visa number...and then wrack my brain to remember the number of our 'airship...' which I could't and thus had to scrounge through '100 Days of Solitude' for my bookmark - which was my seat ticket stub.
After surviving the line of shame we took a seemingly endless train to 'Terminal 3-C' - the largest terminal in Asia replete with scales to resemble a sleeping dragon - very impressive. We found our luggage (quickly, as we'd covered it in scary faces made of duct tape)..and marched through customs into a sea of guides waving signs....none of which said 'Johnson' or even 'Foran.' After walking around in circles for a while, Eliza bravely put on her glasses, marched around the parade of sign-wavers several times, and promptly spotted a guide holding a 'Lotus' sign. Bingo. Instant melting away of anxiety over having the capacity to utter about 15 sentences in Mandarin - most of which have to do with requesting one's honorable surname, or asking about how many family members one has - none of which begins to approximate 'can you tell me please how to find the Beijing Peace Novotel'? From there on, the ride has been pretty cushy. Everywhere we go, an air conditioned bus has been parked and waiting for us. It's very tourist-ey...but incredibly easy.
We ventured out Wednesday night to a grocery store to buy water (it's sweltering - about 94 degrees and humid as a rainforest), fruit, and yogurt. I quickly realized that I should have paid much more attention to the 'money' chapter of my Chinese text. I know that a yuan is worth just a fraction of a dollar...but which fraction? Why did the airport currency exchange she-devil had me only 100-yuan notes, which no shopkeeper will accept? Why didn't I take my old quarters and nickels OUT of my purse so that they weren't all mixed in with the confusing micro-yuan coins? Needless to say, we annoyed the shopkeepers (and I think paid more than we should have for apples, oranges, and yogurt) - though once I got back to google I discovered that my $14 yuan bill translated into less than $3.
Our goal was to make it to 8 PM...which we almost did...and then slept (kind of) until morning.
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