Our Journey to Carson

Some Final Thoughts Before Going to Bed...


The pictures here were taken just before we left the Beijing Holiday Inn...forgot to put them in the last post, plus I figure my long, droning posts are more bearable with some photos thrown in for good measure!

We've learned a few things today here in Hefei...

...the converter plugs intended for "China" don't fit any of the plugs. Thank goodness we also brought the ones that say "Asia," 'cause they work just fine! (And big thanks to Gina and Olivia for lending us theirs!!)

...we have to pay our orphanage fee tomorrow in yuan, not American dollars. That means our first stop tomorrow, before heading to the registration office, will be the Bank of China to collect what will turn out to be a bag of cash. I felt conspicuous enough with all the cash in a money belt...how does one hide a brown bag brimming with bills??

...some things just aren't meant to be plugged in in China. I tried to charge the camera batteries. After about 30 seconds being plugged in, there was a loud POP and a bunch of smoke...yeah, ruined the battery charger! Good thing we brought TONS of batteries...we'll be fine. Thankfully, the computer is doing great being plugged in!

...for some odd reason, besides the water not being consumable, we also can't flush toilet paper...it has to be thrown in the garbage can. (I know, YUCK!!) Thanks to awesome advice from Jim and Lynn, who were here a couple of weeks ago, we take the long trek down to the lobby if we need to...ahem...spend any "quality time" in the bathroom. The lobby bathrooms are cleaned much more frequently, so our "deposits" won't hang around that long and be so offensive. (Was that put gently enough??)

...this hotel is SUPER CLEAN! As we were checking in this afternoon, we kept accidentally getting in the way of a maid who was dusting the base of one of the huge pillars in the lobby. When I took my long trek to the lobby a little bit ago, the elevator opened and there was a maid inside. When the doors closed, she dropped to her knees and continued wiping down the inside of the stainless steel elevator doors. Wow! Maybe we should also try to adopt one of the maids...

...jet lag is tough to overcome. We all took naps (Meggie slept for FIVE HOURS), now it's 11PM here and we're all wide awake!

...if you search long enough, you can find English programming in China. When I woke up from my nap, Kevin discovered we get HBO...we watched "The Producers" with Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick. Meggie also found an MTV type channel with music videos and a CNN type news channel. Definitely progress...

...we're getting bored. My posts are too long and we're watching WAY too much TV. Glad we get Carson tomorrow. We'll be taking walks, going to parks, keeping him entertained.

OK, off the computer. I took a Tylenol PM (aka my little wonder pill) about 20 minutes ago and we need to sleep. Watch for posts tomorrow that include Carson's pictures!! (We're hoping to catch him smiling at least once!)