Almost over

It's sort of bittersweet that our time here in China is almost over. Today we have the swearing oath at the Consulate, we'll get Katie's visa, and then early tomorrow morning we fly to Beijing to catch our 1:40PM flight to San Francisco...to start our journey home. I'm hoping that our journey home is less eventful than our journey to Beijing. We really need it to go smoothly as Katie is still sick (doing better), I'm having breathing issues myself (asthma reaction to air pollution), and Dh has caught some sort of respiratory infection or similar reaction to the air pollution. I don't think Guangzhou is any worse than any other city we've been in, but it's just been so long since we've been in clean air.

The cigarette smoke is really starting to bother us as well, we just are not used to it. Here people can smoke practically anywhere - restaurants, grocery stores, shopping malls, hotels, and I've seen quite a few ignore the no-smoking signs in elevators. The airports can be bad as well, smoking in the seating areas and little air circulation. It's just been rough on Dh and I to deal with that, and it appears that Katie is not used to it either.

The traffic is interesting here, not nearly as crazy as I thought it would be. Sure it's different, but I actually feel fairly safe. Crossing a street can be interesting though, but if you cross with a group of people you are fairly safe. You don't have to watch carefully for cars on the sidewalk, but you do have to be aware that they can be driving there.

The people are friendly, but sometimes they will stare at us. I think they are trying to figure out why two Americans have a Chinese baby. Everyone is friendly though. Communication can be interesting though. For example, when we got to this hotel we had 4 feather pillows. As I'm allergic to feather pillows, we called housekeeping to get a different pillow. After a little bit of trying to make himself understood, the desk told Dh to go to the Business Center to get a pillow. We ended up having our guide help us the next morning. Our mistake was not asking for "Cotton Pillow" I think. When we go to a restaurant, like Pizza Hut or KFC, we have to get the picture menu to order. It's not been hard at all. We've not been very adventurous on our own for trying Chinese restaurants. However, we've laughed with our travel mates over some of the funny room service tries. One tried to order Sweet and Sour chicken. She said "with the orange sauce on the chicken and noodles." Her room service arrived and they had noodles with orange juice. I'm sure the chefs were thinking "What crazy things they eat!"

We found out recently that last Monday our flight out of Beijing was one of the only ones out that day. It was snowing when we left, and they de-iced the plane. It was a little scary for me, but right after that Beijing had lots of snow and the airport cancelled all the rest of the flights for that day. If we had not been able to leave that day, we would not have gotten Katie on a Monday, so our passports for her would not have been ready on Friday, meaning we would not have been able to come to Guangzhou on Saturday...and our entire trip here would have been extended by at least 3-4 days. Just the thought of what could have happened with that makes me thankful we were able to fly out somewhat on time.

Katie seems to be accepting me more, and last night when Dh gave her the amoxicillin (which she hates) she reached an arm out to me so she could get away from the medicine giver. That is the very first time she "reached" for me. She was crying, did not stop crying in my arms, but did not get worse either. She was looking at me this morning as well without turning away. We did not maintain great eye contact, but she did hold it for about a second or two. No spontaneous smiles from her to me, but she will smile if we are playing together while she sits in Dh's lap.

I can not believe how fast this trip has gone, it seems just like yesterday that we were having all those flight troubles to get here. I can laugh about it now though.

Those of you in our hometown, our flight is scheduled to get in fairly late (after 9pm). As of this point I think we're good to go for a welcome, but Katie may not smile for any of you. She tends to turn into Dh when we meet new people. If we're coughing, just know it probably is not something contagious, just by-product of the air quality here. If you want specific flight information, email me or leave a comment. Given our trip to Beijing, I will try to update the blog if flights change on us.