We Made It

[by Rebecca]
We made it! It took us a little over 28 hours from the time we left our house in Wisconsin to the time we arrived at our hotel in Beijing.

The flight from Detroit to Tokyo was very long and crowded. Ben managed to sleep pretty well on the plane. The airline provided lots of food and snacks. The food was great! We had fresh fruit, pork fried rice, blueberry muffins, and orange juice for breakfast just before we arrived in Tokyo.

In Tokyo, we had a 50 minute layover, but were required to exit the plane, go through security, and get back on the same flight to continue on to Beijing. I assumed we'd be on the same plane, but they switched us to a smaller, newer plane for the last leg of our trip. As we exited the 747 in Tokyo, it was obvious why a new plane was preferable. It looked like our plane had hosted a frat party. There were crumbs on all the seats, everything looked stained and wrinkled and there was litter everywhere. Yet, with over 400 passengers, I was amazed at how smoothly everything went. Everyone was very courteous and quiet.

Ben opened his Halloween card from Grandma on the plane. He loved it and had lots of fun putting all the spooky stickers on the haunted house.

We arrived in Beijing at about 9:00 p.m. local time. The city is enormous. The population exceeds 15 million. Even from the air, it stretched to the horizon. As we flew in, Ben said, "Beijing is beautiful. It is even more beautifuler than I thought it would be!" Indeed, it was very pretty. There were many more colorful lights (blue, purple, red, orange, yellow and green) than are typical in American cities.

We had no trouble getting our luggage or getting through customs. As we left customs, we were greeted by a Starbucks, a KFC, and our guide, Joy. Joy is very friendly and knowledgeable. She speaks English well, and also speaks Mandarin and Cantonese. Jay quickly surprised her with his ability to speak a little Mandarin and Cantonese.

At the airport, Ben and I had our first brush with "squatty potties." The restroom had toilets and squatty potties. Each stall had an image outside of it to indicate what type of facility was inside. The "squatty potty" picture looked like a circle with two footprints on either side of it. Ben REALLY wanted to use the squatty potty, but alas, it was already in use and he settled for a traditional toilet. He's been on the lookout for a squatty potty ever since.

Our hotel is very nice. Our room is spacious and clean. I've heard many adoptive parents say the beds in China are very hard. It is difficult to comprehend just how hard until you experience it first hand. I would love to see a cross section of the mattress. I'm pretty sure it would include a layer of plywood with a 1/8-inch of padding on top. Nonetheless, after sitting up on various planes for 28 hours, the bed was heavenly and we all slept well until 7:00 a.m. this morning. We are adjusting well to the time change.

Today is a free day. So far we've eaten breakfast and walked to a local supermarket to buy snacks and water. The market was very interesting. The meat section had lots of meat I couldn't identify and all of it was displayed in the open on beds of ice. There were no display cases. There were also lots of products we have in the U.S. like Oreos, M&Ms, Ritz crackers and Coke.

On the way to and from the market, we saw lots of older people walking with little pet birds in cages. I noticed lots of people staring at Ben and pointing him out to their companions. A blond-haired little boy seems to be a real novelty. Ben said "zai jian" (good bye) to a group of young waitresses this morning as we left the restaurant. They all giggled and acted as though they'd never seen anything more cute in their lives.

Tomorrow we are off to an acrobatic show.