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| The Hutong tour via rickshaw |
At the end of this day (Sunday) we met our new baby. But we had a very full day before that. The itinerary listed these for Sunday: check out of hotel, Hutong Tour, Forbidden City, Tienamen Square, fly to Nanchang, receive babies.First, a rather hurried checkout - turns out it was too hurried on our part, as we found out later in the security check at the airport. Then the Hutong Tour. It was hard to imagine what this was since we had never heard of a Hutong, but we were pleasantly surprised. Hutong used to mean "well" in ancient times (more about ancient times in a second) and the Hutong area of Beijing began as a number of public and private water wells in one ancient neighborhood. (Side note: we heard "in ancient times" from our tour guide many many times today, and it seemed to mean basically in the days of the emperors, which ended in the early 1900's.) Today the Hutong area is a grid of tightly woven streets of tiny apartments. In fact, "hutong" now means any street narrower than 9 meters (from 9 to 18 meters is a "street", wider than that is an Avenue.) Anyway, we were bussed to the Hutong neighborhood, driven around it in bicycle rickshaws, and allowed into one of the homes to visit with a family. This tour was my favorite so far - an up-close look at some Chinese people and how they live. While we were chatting with the family, the teen-aged son walked in with a new haircut, apparently, and the mom had a fit. Moms are moms the world over.
The Forbidden City is terrace upon terrace and palace upon palace of protection and ceremony, which served as the home for the emperors. There are a million of (fascinating) details, but the gist of the place is to surround the emperors with wealth, privilege, good luck charms, ritual, luxury, and countless minions. I found it hugely impressing, but also terribly sad, as an enormous temple to misplaced faith.
Our tour guide didn't go into much depth about T. Square as we walked across it. If you knew nothing else, you'd find it to be a large peaceful paved city square surrounded by government halls and other important buildings. I won't write too much here of Jon's and my opinions, but I will say I was sorry I did not know more of the square and the government's recent history.
Off to the airport (via Kentucky Fried Chicken, which was terrible) and off to Nanchang. I must have fit the security guards' profile because I was pulled out of line and busted for shaving cream, face wipe cloths, a water bottle, and a can of apple juice. Jon chugged the apple juice as I expounded on the insulin pump and received a pat-down - you know, just in case.
Very cramped two-hour flight to Nanchang; good food service, but we are too nervous about getting sick to eat Chinese airline food we don't recognize. New tour guide and driver, and more updates, schedules, and info. By now, us remaining three families traveling together were getting very anxious to meet our babies as well as rather travel weary from the marathon day. The guide said the three babies were at a different hotel from ours, so when we arrived at our hotel, we would settle into our rooms while she called the nannies to bring our babies. Something didn't work as expected, and the babies and nannies were actually sitting in the lobby waiting for us as we got off the bus and hustled our bags inside.
After waiting five years for the moment, we were all caught off-guard. None of us was prepared, no one cried, we hardly asked any questions, we just were shuffled off to our rooms, stunned, and holding stunned little kids.
There is too much to say about this sudden life-change and this incredible little person to adequately put it in a blog post, but here are a few details. Grace is absolutely darling and has lots of thick hair, cut and styled into a precious little look. She is definitely a Daddy's girl - he held her the most right at first, and she is really only happy when she is with him. The 12 month clothes I brought are going last maybe this week and next, then we'll switch up to 18 month clothes (she's built just like our boys at that age.) We are in love with this little girl. She slept very well after a bath and bottle.
I am writing this on Monday evening, so more has transpired, but I am too tired to write about today's events and too tired to post pictures (hope you like them now), so I will leave it here.
Our tour guide didn't go into much depth about T. Square as we walked across it. If you knew nothing else, you'd find it to be a large peaceful paved city square surrounded by government halls and other important buildings. I won't write too much here of Jon's and my opinions, but I will say I was sorry I did not know more of the square and the government's recent history.
Off to the airport (via Kentucky Fried Chicken, which was terrible) and off to Nanchang. I must have fit the security guards' profile because I was pulled out of line and busted for shaving cream, face wipe cloths, a water bottle, and a can of apple juice. Jon chugged the apple juice as I expounded on the insulin pump and received a pat-down - you know, just in case.
Very cramped two-hour flight to Nanchang; good food service, but we are too nervous about getting sick to eat Chinese airline food we don't recognize. New tour guide and driver, and more updates, schedules, and info. By now, us remaining three families traveling together were getting very anxious to meet our babies as well as rather travel weary from the marathon day. The guide said the three babies were at a different hotel from ours, so when we arrived at our hotel, we would settle into our rooms while she called the nannies to bring our babies. Something didn't work as expected, and the babies and nannies were actually sitting in the lobby waiting for us as we got off the bus and hustled our bags inside.
After waiting five years for the moment, we were all caught off-guard. None of us was prepared, no one cried, we hardly asked any questions, we just were shuffled off to our rooms, stunned, and holding stunned little kids.
There is too much to say about this sudden life-change and this incredible little person to adequately put it in a blog post, but here are a few details. Grace is absolutely darling and has lots of thick hair, cut and styled into a precious little look. She is definitely a Daddy's girl - he held her the most right at first, and she is really only happy when she is with him. The 12 month clothes I brought are going last maybe this week and next, then we'll switch up to 18 month clothes (she's built just like our boys at that age.) We are in love with this little girl. She slept very well after a bath and bottle.
I am writing this on Monday evening, so more has transpired, but I am too tired to write about today's events and too tired to post pictures (hope you like them now), so I will leave it here.
What a wonderful moment! I'm tired just reading about your day...and can't imagine the fatigue and excitement all wrapped up in one. Hey John, a little girl looks great on you!
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