(cont'd)
Life has loveliness to sell,
All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff;
Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children's faces looking up,
Holding wonder like a cup.
(Sara Teasdale)
I've been making progress with assembling things for our trip-- Rob and I still have to have our wills made and Rob still has to get his polio and diptheria boosters. I also have to buy a video camera and I have to make sure Corinne practises with it before we leave. I'm getting about $4000.00 in good American bills for all our fees from the Continental Currency Exchange in Hamilton. I'm also going to bring about 700 Yuan. Our trip is really only about four weeks away and after such a long wait, I'm suddenly feeling very rushed.
October 4 & 5:We left Toronto on Thursday, October 4, spent the night in Vancouver at the Hampton Inn (quite nice) and then departed for China on Friday, October 5, on a 12:30 p.m. flight. LONG-G-G-G flight!
October 6: We arrived in Shanghai about twelve hours later, which made it Saturday. I was feeling really sick to my stomach, so when Yulin took us to a restaurant, I couldn't really eat anything and I was very glad to get back to our hotel room. Neither Rob nor I felt up to touring the Shanghai harbour and seeing the lights. I had cramps and diarrhea that night, but felt a little better the next morning after eating a Western breakfast of boiled eggs and dried toast at the breakfast buffet. (The English tea tasted like ambrosia!) We walked along the Shanghai harbour for a little while and marvelled at how much construction was going on all over the city and how clean it was for the APEC summit. The airport was also brand new and very modern-- not a problem to transport luggage through at all. (This was the case with ALL the airports in China we experienced. I don't see any need for going carry-on only when the airports are new, modern and have great luggage carts for FREE!)
We also went to a Friendship Store and headed directly to the food. It had a good selection of Western foods and we bought saltine crackers for my queasy stomach and Pringles for Rob's snack-cravings. We also bought toothbrushes and toothpaste, because in my packing and unpacking frenzy, I'd left them on my dresser back in Canada. That afternoon, we headed back to the airport and caught the plane to Nanchang. We would receive the babies that evening at the Gloria Hotel in Nanchang.
October 7: We got to see a little of the countryside during the bus trip from the airport to the hotel. It was interesting to see the small, shack-like houses that most people lived in, as well as the apartments. Some people had the equivalent of one room and laundry hung everywhere. When we got to Nanchang, there was a lot of construction going on, as there was in every city in China we saw. The Gloria hotel was beautiful, especially the entrance way-- sky/cloud murals on the high lobby ceiling, marble everywhere you looked and ceramic tile on the floor. The sheets on the beds were the highest quality cotton I've ever seen, and so were the thick towels in the bathroom-- very luxurious. The restaurant at the Gloria was good as well, with several Western choices on the menu. Because of my endlessly queasy stomach, I pretty much lived on won ton noodle soup while we were in Nanchang and it was very tasty at the hotel restaurant. Still, the Gloria is in need of a facelift-- the carpets are stained and things look a little worn and frayed around the edges. It was comfortable, however, and Rob and I and my sister Corinne had connecting rooms, which came in very handy once we'd received the baby. Each room had a cradle-style crib, an umbrella stroller and baby toys. We also had a kettle to boil water and a small bar-sized refrigerator. The only Western station on the television was British CNN, but at least we were able to keep up with the news. The U.S. commenced its bombing of Afganistan on the Sunday we arrived in Nanchang, but none of us were surprised, since we all knew retaliation for the horrendous events of September 11, was inevitable. As depressing as the news was, it still felt really good to hear reports in English. It was a little link to home.