If you are trying to get out of China and back to the U.S. (which, after two weeks of traveling with stressed-out small children, sounds REALLY good), I don't generally recommend taking the bus. I'll start from the beginning with this one.
We had an excellent guide from Heritage while in China (Kathy), and she was incredible about helping us with every detail before we even asked. She even found us the holy grail in China - pull-ups for Genevieve. We were sure that when we ran out that we were toast (and we had declined taking the Clark family's pull-ups, since they were going to give them to the orphanage, and how on earth can you take pull-ups that are going to be given to orphanage children?!). We were in China with a little kid who had totally gone south on potty-training because of the stress of the trip, and we were going to be at the Ladybug Corner laundry in Guangzhou for the rest of our trip, every single day, because we couldn't shove another pack of pull-ups into our luggage if we had used a crowbar. And wouldn't the hotel and restaurant staff love us, too - as our youngest daughter peed on everything she sat on. And NOBODY finds pull-ups in China. But lo - Kathy did! She could find ANYTHING! Kathy was awesome.
Kathy also found us a great alternative to taking the express train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong - the EEBUS. The bus went from Guangzhou directly to the Hong Kong airport. Well, almost directly. You have to stop in Shenzhen (border city before crossing over into Hong Kong), to go through customs and switch vans (because Hong Kong uses the British drive-on-the-left system). It was also cheaper. Cool. We wouldn't have to worry about taxis in HK, and it sounded great. Genevieve was also free of charge, since she was only 3 years old. We need to e-mail Kathy so she can warn the next families, though - the bus sounded great, but we had a few issues come up!
Well, we made it to Shenzhen, and got off the bus. And there we stood, trying to figure out where we were supposed to go, until somebody started yelling at us in Mandarin to get out of the way of another van which was backing up (so we herded the children and carted our luggage up to the office, which rather reminded me of many Greyhound stations in the U.S. - and it was equally as fun). We were told to unlock our luggage and hand it over to a guy who really looked like a bad guy from the movies or something. Scowl, greasy hair, fought with the agents at the desk (with much yelling and rude gesturing) before taking our now unlocked luggage into his van. Swell - here's our friendly van driver, taking our stuff to who knows where, while we wait in the bus station. He drives around to the other side (and I'm hoping we actually get to see our stuff again), while we enjoy the bus station restrooms, Gen gets sticky watermelon juice all over herself, and Eleanor Zitao aims badly in the squatty potty and has pee soaking her left pant leg. We also get to fill out more forms about who we are, where we're going, where we've been, and I attempt to copy our passport info at the counter while my children run in circles, screaming like banshees.
The agent behind the desk asks me in Mandarin if I speak Mandarin, I say "yi dian" (a little), and she rattles off something unintelligible to me, I tell her in Mandarin that I don't understand, and she tells me in halting English that we have to buy another ticket. Why? Because Gennie "looks" to be 4 or 5 years old. Oh, well, that's easy to prove wrong - so I show Gennie's passport, which clearly shows her birthdate as April of 2003. She's 3. The agents argue, "But it's 2007, so she's 4," I say, "Yes, but it's only March, she's not 4 yet." We continue in this vein, while I actually write out dates, pointing out the month, holding up three fingers, but no dice. They want 150 yuan if we expect to actually get to Hong Kong. So I pay it - I only had 160 yuan left to begin with, so we were lucky it wasn't more. Grrr, I was mad (especially since I heard one of the agents speaking in Mandarin about how the Americans didn't know what was going on "mei guo ren bu ming bai" - yeah, no kidding). And we wait in the bus station to be called to our van, with kids soaked in various sticky and stinky juices, and we haven't even gotten to the long part of the trip yet.
Thankfully we did get to the van (which had our stuff intact, as I found out while unpacking yesterday), and the driver got us to Hong Kong safely, scowly face and all. I gave him my last 10 yuan. I got Genevieve wiped off, and Eleanor into clean pants. And we went to a nice restaurant in the Hong Kong airport, where we were served by a friendly waiter who brought us dim sum and brought Gennie her plain noodles on the house after she wouldn't eat the noodles with beef and sauce.
Diane was wonderful about attending Gennie on the loooong flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco, as what little sleep I got was essentially involuntary. I was wiped out. Sarah and Eleanor were wonderfully well-behaved, and sat with their Baba. We arrived in San Francisco in the early afternoon (so weird that you actually get in earlier the same day with the time difference), and met my family there. Here are some great pictures from my Aunt Diana. It was so great to see my folks for a little while before catching our last flight.
On the plasma screen at the airport - apparently our folks could see us coming out of customs this way. I'm deciding whether I like that or not... in some ways it's nice, in others, it's kind of Big Brother (or, in this case, Big Grandpa). Of course, we're being watched on camera by somebody just about everywhere we are in the airport, so at least our family benefited from the cameras this way.
Grandma greeting her grandbabies - including the new one!
With my mom and dad (Grandma and Grandpa Hill).
Eleanor Zitao with her Ponka (my grandfather, her great-grandfather)! I really like this picture of them together.
Talking, smiling, laughing, gabbing. Wish my family were closer - they came to SFO from Oregon just to see us for a few hours. Thanks, Mom, Dad, and Grandpa. My Uncle Tom and Aunt Diana were at the airport, too - fortunately, they live in the Bay Area. It was so good to see everyone. We love you guys.
We're smiling big, considering that we're about to get on yet another plane and have already been awake for longer than we cared to calculate. Fortunately the kids slept on the plane from SFO to Denver, and were good in the car from the airport home, too.
When we arrived home, Zitao ran around the house yelling, "Mama! Ni kan!" (Mama! Look!) She loves it here, and we're settling in nicely. She was afraid of the cats at first, but now laughs and pets them gently, saying "Hao xiao mao" (Good little kitty). She is asking for hugs, actually wants me to carry her around the house (big turnaround from Mommyzilla), and we've been playing a lot of hide-and-go-seek around here. It's so sweet to hear her little voice calling "Mama? Mommy?" as she searches the house - then squealing with laughter when she finds me behind a door, in the closet, etc. We also need to go the grocery store ASAP - we're out of Eleanor-friendly foods. She continually explores the pantry with me, tasting things, and giving me looks that say, "You people EAT this stuff?" Fortunately, she hasn't been picky to the point of having nothing to eat, and chowed down on roasted chicken, salad, ramen noodles, strawberries, and watermelon at dinner last night. She likes scrambled eggs in the morning with some orange juice, and she likes yogurt. She doesn't like to drink milk, though, so we'll have to work on that for the sake of calcium intake. (We'll probably get OJ with calcium added).
Next Monday is her first pediatrician appointment (fortunately, we already have her added to our insurance), and I'm going to try to get her in to see an opthalmologist, too. (I can't believe nobody noticed the eyesight issue before - she walks around squinting, poor kid!)
I hope to update every few days with reports from the home front. I feel very happy and blessed - it's all strange and new, and yet feels "right," like she's always been with us. I love all my daughters.
