Last Few Days in China

We didn't do very much our last three days in China.  It rained on Tuesday and Wednesday, and the only significant thing we had to do was our consulate appointment on Wednesday.  We were not allowed to take photos, so I have nothing to show for it.  Eventually we'll get the kids' Certificates of Citizenship in the mail, but as usual the whole process was uneventful.

We enjoyed a final dinner in Guangzhou with our guide, Lily, and one of her friends.  She chose the food and it was quite good.  We had sweet and sour pork, which tastes so much better in a Chinese restaurant in China than in a Chinese restaurant here.  We also had beef and noodles, seasonal vegetables, and a chicken and peanut dish.

On Thursday the four remaining families in our travel group packed up in three small vans and began our journey to Hong Kong.  We did not have our guide with us, and had to rely on our non-english speaking driver to get us there safely.  Sarah is not a pleasant traveler, so the four hour trip was pretty annoying, and the fact that she had to sit on our laps made it that much worse.  She hates to be confined.

We spent our last night in Hong Kong, which by the way is a beautiful place.  I would love to go back there one day and see more of it.

We flew out on Friday morning, and experienced one of the worse flights I have ever had.  We had a two hour delay which caused our us to miss our connecting flight in Chicago.  Sarah screamed and cried for most of the 14 hours we had her, and she slept on the floor for about 1.5 hours.  The flight attendant was very unhappy with us for putting her on the floor and made Jay pick her up.  We had purchased a seat for her, but she refused to be in it, and would not lie across it to sleep.  Jay really did take the brunt of the torture on that trip, because he held her and kept her contained for most of those hours.  Fortunately, Joshua was pretty good.  He slept quite a bit, and was willing to spend some time with distractions.  It was a long trip for a two-year old to stay in one place, but he did.

Once we arrived in Chicago we sailed through customs and immigration (the staff must have changed since our last trip because we were treated so nicely, and everyone just slid us on through.  Thank you O'Hare Immigration Services!).  However, the United Airlines employees left much to be desired.  We were reassigned to a flight leaving an hour later and were assured we could make it.  So we dashed through the airport, made all the trains and shuttles, got through security, and got to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare.  Then the gate personnel told us we couldn't get on the flight because it was overbooked and the next flight was four hours away.  Needless to say, despair was at an all time high.  A young pilot who was standing near me waiting to fly to Albany (his home town) asked me if I was all right.  I dumped on him without being rude, and pretty much told him I was disappointed in the way United treated us, and why would the ticket agent tell us we could get on this flight if we couldn't.  I also let him know that we had accumulated at least seven hours in delays on this round trip.  He went to the gate agent and had some words, and spoke with the pilot of the aircraft, and within a minute the gate agent asked us if we could hurry and get on the plane.  That young man was an angel, and I was so glad to have the opportunity to thank him once we got to Atlanta.  People like him are few and far between.