Long Trip

Jason already posted his version of our trip, but I thought I would throw my 2 yuan in as well.

Sunday was a long day. We went to church, ate lunch at church, and then headed home. We had to do last minute packing and finish writing instructions for the dog sitter. Around 6pm we left for my parents house. The plan was to sleep until 1:30 am and then at 2:00 am leave for the airport. HA! Jason did get a little sleep, but I didn't sleep a wink.

We made it safely to the airport with our 5 check in bags, two carry ons, laptop, crammed diaper bag, cooler with breast milk, stroller, and carseat. We had been a bit apprehensive about whether all the check in bags were under 50 lbs or not, since all we were using to weigh them was a bathroom scale. Our heaviest bag was 48 lbs on the dot. Yay! At the airport we bid our farewells to my family.

After checking in and making it through security, we sat and waited for about 45 minutes before boarding. During that time we enjoyed the sandwhiches that my dad had so thoughtfully packed for us. Around 5:30 we boarded the plane. We were a bit miffed that they don't seem to do the whole "now we invite passengers with young children to board" thing anymore. We had to shuffle through the pack of people with our ridiculous load. The plane from Austin to Chicago was jam packed. Even the first class was full. I think there were about two empty seats on the plane and that was it (luckily one of those was next to us.)

We had been told that once we got to Chicago, our next gate was only 5 gates away. Of course we didn't have it so easy. Our plane ended up landing at a different gate so we had a nice little hike to get to our other gate.

While we were waiting for our flight, we heard someone announce, "Will the Fedelmans please come to the desk." (Yes, I know, the name is spelled wrong. Everyone likes to say Fedelman instead of Fedelem.) Jason went up at first and they asked him for Sierra's passport. I took the passport to them. They said that somehow her information was not in the system. The lady said that she doesn't know how we were able to make it there without that information. She said that if she had not caught it, we would not have been able to board the plane. She began working on that, but was not familiar with how to do it. She had to ask several other people. In between working on getting the information in, she was calling out, "We now invite ______ to board." It made us a little nervous to see everyone boarding the plane and our situation not resolved. Everything worked out, and we were some of the last to board. She ended up giving us a whole row of five seats, which was so nice!

The flight was long, but not unbearable. I think the first seven hours were the longest. We were able to doze a bit on and off, watch movies, and play games. The flight attendents were all very nice. They fed us three meals and gave us lots of drinks. Sierra was a real trooper and traveled well.

We arrived in Shanghai around 1:50 pm local time. We weren't sure what to do to go through customs. We just kind of followed the crowd and ended up in the right place. They let us go through a special line since we had the baby. That line was MUCH shorter! All we had to do to get through customs was give them our passports and our arrival cards. It was much simpler than I imagined.

Picking up the bags was a challenge. I ended up wearing the baby in the Ergo, pushing a stroller loaded down with stuff with one hand, and pushing a cart of suitcases with the other hand, while Jason dealt with all of the other luggage. The next step was to find our driver. As we entered the area where people were waiting, all the women started smiling and making comments about Sierra (they were saying something that sounded like "wowwow" I'm assuming it has to do something with hair.) That really did not feel much different than at home, because our wild headed child always solicites comments. :-)

We walked down the row of people and found our driver holding a sign with Sierra's name on it. We motioned to him and he jumped in to help with the luggage. He motioned for us to follow him. He certainly did not waste any time! I was wondering what would happen if we couldn't keep up with him. Jason was behind me and I was trying to decide if Jason got held up if I would keep up with the driver or lag behind for Jason. Jason must have read my mind because he said, "Don't loose that guy! If we get seperated keep up with him and I will catch up." Luckily we didn't have to worry about that.

We were able to fit everything in the van and begin the 2 1/2 hour drive to Hangzhou. Our driver did not speak a lick of English so it was a fairly quiet ride. At this point Sierra was tired of being in her car seat but she was able to endure the last leg of our journey.

The roads here are better than I was expecting. They do have English translatioins on many of the signs. Most of the trip here was filled with scenes of agriculture. There were rows of fields. Some were what I am assuming were rice fields, others had pretty yellow flowers. I'm not sure what type of plants the yellow flowers are. Next to the fields were apartment type buildings. They looked rather old and somewhat dilapitated. Many of them had laundry hanging out from the windows. The thing that struck me, was how many of them had solar panels. I would say a good 60% of them had solar panels.

In all the fields that we passed, I did not see a single tractor. There were also some interesting structures. They looked like barns made out of hay. I'm not sure what they were or what was in them.

The driving here is not for the faint of heart. Lanes and signals are overrated. I'm not sure why they even put lines on the roads. They must just be for decoration. The motto here seems to be, "If there is room, the car will fit." It doesn't matter if "room" only allows a few inches on either side of the cars or if that "room" is in a lane that is supposed to have oncoming traffic. Up until yesterday, I never though much about whether or not car horns ever have to be replaced. After all the music on the road, I wondered how long their horns last.

We made it to the hotel in one piece. It is rather amusing trying to communicate with the people here when they understand very little English and we understand no Chinese. Everyone has been very nice and helpful (once they understand). We met Lucy, the patient coordinator and she was very nice. She is going to send a driver later today to take us to the bank and the supermarket. Tomorrow we will be going to our room in the hospital which will be "home" for the next 25 days.

I am proud to say that we are getting quite skilled at using chop sticks. We still have a long way to go, but we didn't do too badly.

Well I'm going to say good-bye for now. Thanks for all the prayers.

Posted from Hangzhou on 4/8/09 at 9:27 AM China time.