Just for info regarding the posted photos

Just for info, you can double click on any of those photo's I've posted to see the full size version.  Some of the photo's look pretty cool full size.

I'm signing off soon to pack the computer and peripherals. 

Tiananmen Square

Tiananmen Square with Chairman Mao photo in background

Tiananmen Square entrance into the Forbidden City.

One of the Emporer's Palaces in the Forbidden City

Couple more photos

GREAT WALL OF CHINA

Very hot...Need Melon Soda

GOTCHA DAY is this afternoon!

Can't believe that today is the day we've been waiting for.  We started the paperwork process in January 2006.  We got to bed early and were both asleep before 9pm.  I woke up at 2am and saw that Cindy was already was already up and showering.  Boy we still have another half hour before we even get our wake up call.
Funny thing last night.  You don't really find "cold" beverages here.  The other day we went to the grocery store and found Cindy Coke Light.  I just looked at the labels trying to recognize the colors that matched what american soda looked like.  I found a can of soda called "Melon Soda."  It was in a green can similiar to Mellow Yellow or Mountain Dew.  I put it in the fridge that night.  Last night after our tour I popped it open, my mouth was almost watering.  Then I took that first drink...  OMG when they say Melon Soda they mean it.  It tasted like a melon.  Not like soda.  The can is still sitting right where I left it.
Getting used to the boiling water for coffee every morning.  You get a nice "hot pot" to boil your water and then you just use the instant coffee.

So much anticipation today.  Will she cry?  How long will she cry?  How big is she?  How will she eat and sleep?  All the families are going through the same thing.  Right now everyone just wants to get on this plane flight w/o any problems.  We have our luggage scale out again.

Quite the workout today

Left at 8:00am for touring and just got back to the hotel at 7:15pm.  Tons of walking and it was very hot.  We ended our tour on the Great Wall.  That was much more work than it looked like.  Shot some good video and pictures but too tired to download them today.

Tomorrow our luggage has to be outside the room at 4:30am.  At 5:00am we leave for the airport for the next leg of our journey.  At 3:30 pm tomorrow afternoon we will have Adriana!  We can't wait.

For now its packing everything back up and re-weighing our luggage to make sure we make the weight tomorrow morning.

2 short video clips

Video 1

Video 2


Just click on where it says "Video 1"  "Video 2" to view the movie clips.

Short video clip

I attached a short video clip of the hotel lobby.  Just click on the title "Short Video Clip" to see the video

Sleep trouble

Third day in a row and we can't sleep.  We were up at 2am again.  It's going to be a rough day of touring when we are both tired.  I'll just have to boil more water and drink lots of coffee.

Kinda funny last night when I blew out most of the outlets in our room.  I was at the front desk trying to explain when they didn't have a clue what I was trying to tell them.  It was like a game of Charades.  And I was the one that couldn't act it out finally cheating by pointing to the outlet near the front desk.  When I left I thought they actually understood what I had told them....Wrong

A few minutes later the housekeeping guy that we found on our computer showed up with a powerstrip.  So all of my acting, pointing and talking slowly hadn't worked.  She thought I just wanted a powerstrip!  So now I showed this guy, pointing to the outlets and running my finger across my neck.  I think at first he thought I was threatening him for being on my computer earlier.  Just when I showed him the tv wasn't working either I thought he got it....Wrong again.  Now he started futsing around with the tv and to where the tv was plugged in.  Finally he realized what was up and called for the maintenance guy.  He showed up with a ladder and went up in the ceiling resetting the power. 

First dinner in China

Just went out for dinner with some other families.  It was a Chinese restaurant down the street.  We all ordered, then a few of us had to run over to the grocery store to buy something to drink.  All they had in the restaurant was fountain drinks, which you should not drink.   By the time we got back most of the food was ready.  Everything looked and smelled great.  OMG was everything HOT!  Spicy hot.  I normally like hot food but this was over the top hot.  I immediately broke out in a sweat and started gulping my newly obtained Coke.  I had ordered celery with beef.  They forgot to say anything about the pile of red chopped peppers mixed in.  I almost broke out in another sweat just thinking about it.  Looks like I’ll have to eat that other bag of cucumber chips now.  It’s 7pm here now and its already dark.

Oh forgot the after dinner surprise.  We came back to our room and there was a housekeeping cart blocking our room door and the door was open.  Something looked fishy so Cindy moved the cart and walked in to catch the “turn down service” was the guy on our computer.  He left and we reported him to the front desk.  I went through the computer and don’t think he had gotten anywhere yet.  He must have just turned on the mouse.  We now have it password protected.

First full day in Beijing

Our first full day in Beijing is very nice so far.  We were up at 2:30 am and unable to sleep.  The buffet opened at 0630 and the food was good.  It was a mixture of American and Chinese food.  It was a little strange that there was a lot of food that I wouldn’t classify as breakfast food.  There was salad, mashed potatoes, noodles and rice.   At about 9:00 I exchanged some money.  I had heard that this can be difficult because the US bills need to be pristine.  The woman working the counter checked them over good and even wrote down each serial number but exchanged them.  We took a walk today to a mall and grocery store.  We bought some soda, water and some cucumber flavored potato chips that some people raved about on some blogs.  Note to self: Don’t believe everything you read.  We bought two bags. One is sitting here only to be opened in case of desperation.

We walked for hours this morning.  Observations:  Traffic is crazy here.  Motor scooters swerving in and out, cars not braking for pedestrians.  Walking across the street is like a real life game of frogger, and you are the frog.  Drivers don’t yield to pedestrians.  They just honk and keep going.  I bet there are lots of accidents around here.  It seems that honking your horn here is just to let everyone know your there.  From the airport to our hotel the driver never let the horn cool down.  I’m just glad we made it here without our driver running over a pedestrian. 

We just got back from Starbucks.  We met some other expectant mothers from our group.  We may meet later for dinner.

Tomorrow morning after breakfast we meet in the lobby at 8:00am to start our day of touring.  It should be a good time. 

Different customs here.  Lots of people walking and in a hurry.  Nobody says “hi” or Ni Hao.  They just keep to themselves.  You also don’t see smiles very often.  People are just straight faced.  In the hotel it’s different.  I call it walking the gauntlet because everyone is saying “good morning” or “hello”.

I found that BlogSpot was “read only” today because of some maintenance issues.  I’m typing this on a “Word” document and will have to cut and paste later when the blog is fixed.

The weather is good.  It is sunny and breezy today but very comfortable wearing shorts.  The swimming pool in our hotel is closed till the end of June for maintenance.  Bummer.

Oops, just burned up a power strip and knocked out half the outlets in the room. 

BLOG IS NOW WORKING!!!!!!

Blogspot had some problems so I'm trying to repost what I had up there at one time.  I will attach a picture from our room showing the lights and traffic. 

All checked in

8:30pm Beijing time we are up in our room.  Long trip but it wasn't terrible.  VPN internet connection is working.  Tomorrow we have no plans.  Breakfast, then exchange some US dollars so we can walk around.  We have a nice view from our room.  Lots of lights.  I'll have to slip a photo in.

We finally arrived!

This morning didn’t start too bad.  We both woke early, I checked the flight status online and found out the trip from Ohare to Beijing was delayed two hours due to maintenance on the plane. 

We arrived at the place we usually park our car near the airport.  I pulled up to the booth and was told the lot was full.  I didn’t like using a new place but found one nearby. 

Check-in went well.  We found that we couldn’t upgrade because everything was booked.  The guy behind the counter said he could give us an exit row seat for no charge.  We jumped at that.  I’m now sitting in my plane seat with my legs stretched out.  The only downfall is that we are 5 feet from the bathroom doors.  I don’t mind though, I’m a people watcher.

Once on the plane at Ohare we sat in the plane and couldn’t leave the gate until some thunderstorms passed.  Apparently by OSHA rules workers, have to wait a certain time period to go back to work on the tarmac after a thunderstorm.  All in all we were delayed 4 hours and ten minutes.  We met 2 couples at the airport that are also adopting in the same province as Adriana.  They are very nice and we might be able to meet up for dinner during our stay.

I have to say that Cindy and I were very impressed with Ohare airport.  It was clean, the bathrooms were spotless and smelled great.  Cindy said that she walked into the bathroom stall and there was a plastic covering over the toilet seat.  She said you waved your hand past a motion sensor and the plastic covering rotated 360 degrees to a brand new one.  Thank goodness she didn’t ask for the video camera.

We had left Chicago at 5:20pm.  It’s now 9:16pm.  We should arrive in Beijing at around 6:20pm on 5/12/2011.  The flight time from Chicago to Beijing is 13 hours and 8 minutes.  I’m glad we opted to go a day early.  I wouldn’t want to check into the hotel late in the evening and then have to wake up early for a full day of touring. The pilot said we will be flying 60 miles from the North Pole and flying across part of Russia. 

We haven’t slept on the plane yet but hope to get some sleep soon.

Signing off for now…

We are finally leaving!

It's been a long wait.  We started this process in January of 2006.  This morning we will actually be getting on the plane.  We didn't sleep very well last night but there will be plenty of time to sleep on the plane.

We are all packed and ready to go.  We are jumping in the car in an hour and a half.  The car seat is installed and ready.

We get to Beijing around 4:30 pm on Thursday, Beijing time.  The weather looked to be in the mid 80's and sunny for that leg of the trip. 

I better check on our flight statis and jump in the shower.  Our next blog will be from our hotel in Beijing!

Leaving in the morning

Can't believe we are finally leaving tomorrow morning!  I think we've been ahead of the game on packing and getting things ready, thanks to Cindy.  She gave me easy tasks that I can't screw up like mowing the lawn, cleaning the floors, dropping off the dog... 

We were both up several times last night and we finally got up at 4:30am.  Cindy has been vacuming, dusting...

I'm spoiling Kozmo today with several long walks.  He knows something is up and follows us around the house as we do things. 

Hope things go well with the blog from China.  I have the VPN in place and as long as we find an internet connection we will keep you up to date.  I believe the time in China is about 14 hours ahead of local time here.  We get to Beijing around 5:00pm on Thursday.  You can always check the itinerary in one of our last posts to see what we are doing and where we should be.

What is wrong with this picture?

This photo is of my suitcase.  Do you see any of my clothes?

Here is the total luggage:

Just a few days away!

Wow, just a few days away.  There is so much racing through our heads right now... Paperwork, how many shirts to pack, how many diapers will we need per day, how many bottle liners do we need per day, do we bring any long sleeved shirts, how hot does the heat index of 110 feel, will we meet the intra-China luggage weight....................  And no we are not sleeping very well.

This time next week we will be flying to Jiangxi to get Adriana! 

Cindy has finished packing with a few exceptions that will be packed later.  The clothes I'm wearing on the plane have been laying out for almost a week already.  I've just about completed all my projects around the house.  I'm tired...