Coming Home, a.k.a. Back To Reality

We checked out of The China Hotel on Friday afternoon at 3:30, received Henry's visa shortly thereafter, hopped into a van with Dr. & Mrs. Dutter and their little boy, and took off for Hong Kong.  The boys made the trip pretty well.  The constant speed-up and braking as we passed through the cities made me a bit queasy, but nothing big-deal.  Henry filled his diaper once.

As if to seal the vision in our minds, we saw high rise after high rise under construction and crane after crane, even in the "smaller" cities from Guangzhou to Hong Kong.  Whenever I used to hear about China having over a billion people, and knowing that big sections of the country were uninhabitable, I wondered where they put everybody. I don't wonder anymore.  They put people one floor on top of another.  Some of the apartment buildings look nice, but we saw many, many buildings in which I'd think nobody would want to live.

Going through customs into Hong Kong was interesting.  Definitely more intense than the Peace Bridge.  The man on the Chinese side checked our paperwork and waved us past.  At the Hong Kong gate, a masked woman opened the door to our van and aimed a gun at each of us and pulled the trigger.  That it was an infrared tool to check our temperatures was a good thing, but still kind of creepy.  We were shortly waved past as our passports and visas checked out okay, and we apparently weren't carrying any diseases.

The drive into Hong Kong was neat given the time of evening.  The buildings around Victoria Harbor were starting to light up, and we wove through traffic to the Regal Kowloon Hotel.  They're renovating this hotel floor by floor, and unless you can get a reservation for one of the updated rooms, we'd suggest finding another hotel.  The noise from the hallway and adjacent rooms was not blocked out in the least, the network did not work for us as it was advertised, the drain in the shower gave us a shower/bath sensation, and the crib they gave us for Henry was a dangerous joke.  The location was cool, but the room was not.

We passed a Subway on the way in, and that sounded like a good dinner to us, so after we got settled I asked the concierge how to get to Subway.  He told me to walk out of the tunnel, make a right, and it would be about a five-minute walk.  Dr. Indiana and I walked out of the tunnel and Subway was right in front of us.  I think the concierge was giving me directions to the subway.
We rose early to catch the airport shuttle, which was very convenient, arrived at the airport and took off on time.  This was welcome because our in-China flights never left on time.  I've got to say, too, that the staffs of the into and out of Hong Kong flights have been the friendliest I've ever seen.  Good job, United, for hiring great workers for long and potentially trying flights.

Going strong after 14 hours on a plane.

We couldn't have asked for a better traveller in Henry.  Sure he was loud at times, but he was always happy, he slept a good bit, and never gave us too much trouble. The only time he really cried was when we strapped him in the car seat at the Cleveland Airport. Grandpa Doug and Lincoln came to pick us up, and Lincoln had a Welcome Home sign that we loved. Jenn and I were thrilled to see Lincoln. Three weeks was too long.
Shortly after we arrived home, Lydia and Grandma Paulette came, and seeing Henry next to Lydia was a sight to behold. After 2 weeks with Henry, we were getting used to him and thinking of him as an 18-month-old, and it's now clear that he's much more like a 12-14 month old when we have Lydia as a point of comparison. That will all change in the next couple of months, though.
Getting home and seeing the three kids together was definitely a dose of reality. So was Henry's crying at 3:00am because of the time change and new environment. And so begins the next chapter of The Gates Experiment. The thought of being the mother and father that each of our individual children need is a bit overwhelming to think about at this point. Thankfully, we don't have to rely on our own strength. The blog posts will be fewer and further between now, but feel free to surf our blog as the days and weeks and months unfold.

Stay tuned for our upcoming Adoption-Themed post of "Things You Need To Have In Order Before You Travel," or "Setting Your Expectations Appropriately." You prospective adopters will not want to miss that.

From Hong Kong to Beijing

This was another travel day, and since our flight wasn't until 4:00, we shuffled around Hong Kong for a bit. It's nice that many of the buildings, especially in the shopping district are connected, many of which by air conditioned walk-ways. When we ventured away from the air conditioning, we found places like this.

One of the places we checked out was C!ty Super, the grocery store in the high-end mall. This here is a pig's leg.

Other than some of the usual Asian fare, it was really crazy to see a grocery store in the mall just a short walk from Armani.

It was neat that we were able to check in for our flight at the train station and leave our bags there so we wouldn't have to hall them around with us. The station was really cool-looking.

DragonAir was a nice flight, and Jenn and I were looking forward to it as it was our first non-US flight. The food was good, and aside from the flight being delayed by an hour and a half, it was a pleasant ride.

The trip to our hotel in Beijing was a little sketchy. Our cabbie didn't speak a word of English, and we didn't expect him, or anyone else we ran into along the way to know what we were saying. He dropped us off at the end of the road where our hotel is, and we got out with our luggage and began walking down a dimly lit street lined with bars, hole-the-wall restaurants, and what can probably best be described as workshops. There was one "landmark" on the map, Mr. Shi's Dumplings, that we found, but we couldn't see The Orchid from where we were standing. We kept walking and not seeing it, we showed our paper to some old people sitting on the side of the street and they pointed us in what proved to be the wrong direction, we kept walking (towing or luggage, mind you) until the street ceased to be lit... and then a man rode up behind us on a bicycle and began speaking Mandarin to us and pointing in the opposite direction. We'd heard that there is virtually no crime or muggings in Beijing, but when you don't know the language and can't find where you're going in the dark, your mind starts wandering. I looked like an idiot staring back at him, and because I didn't have anything better to do, we followed him back to Mr. Shi's. The nice waitress there pointed us to an alley off the alley and we saw The Orchid.

So we're here now, the place is nice, the guy who owns the place runs his network through Japan so he can get unblocked internet access, we just Skyped with Grandma Laura and the kids, and we're winding down to bed time. If we never have another Beijing Alley experience again, I'll be okay with it.

Our Day in Hong Kong

I've got to start off with a story about our time in the San Francisco airport that I forgot to share the other day. There was a plane that came in late and a bunch of people sprinting to their connecting flights, one of who me was a guy wearing a T-shirt that said... I am not making this up... "I HATE RUNNING.". It was, perhaps, the most ironic thing I've ever personally witnessed

Yesterday! After waking up and rigging our own little way to use Jenn's hair dryer,

we had breakfast at our hotel with an interesting mix of Western and Eastern items, and then we set out and walked all around Hong Kong... nearly twice. Taking the tram to The Peak gave us some really neat views of the island, and a bunch of the island is green.

There was also the incredible view of Victoria Harbor, which is what I wanted to see.

We passed through the food district, the pier district, the market district, and in the financial district we found Occupy Hong Kong camped out at the bottom of the HSBC building.

The Aisian hippies don't seem to have the same entitlement-minded vigor that we see in America. I'm not sure we even saw more than three people in their little tent city, and the irony is that a short ride up the escalator showed that it was business as usual in the financial sector. But enough of the socioeconomic and political commentary.

We walked from 8:30 in the morning until we got back to the hotel at 6:00 with only a few breaks such as our tram, bus and ferry rides.

our dinner back at the hotel by the culinary students was very good, and the cost was a fraction of what we'd have spent in one of the restaurants in Central Hong Kong.

So I feel like we've seen Hong Kong, and that's good because we're leaving for Beijing today. Hong Kong was a good way to ease into Eastern culture, it seems, because at least there are some Western elements here. It was really interesting to be around so little Western culture, though. Even in Mexico, the DR and Caribbean I could make out some of the language because it was similar enough to English or Spanish. Not here. Not with the spoken or especially the written language. And it'll be even more so in Beijing.

With each passing day we get closer to meeting Henry. He doesn't know it, but we know the LORD has been getting him ready for this time. The time is coming...

The moment of truth for my blogging prospects will be learned tonight. We'll see...

In Hong Kong

view from our room at the T Hotel

We're here! Long trip, loooong flight. We arrived at night, so that ought to help with the jet lag. I'm going to try to post on the blog now. The wifi networks have been spotty, and my strategies to get around the firewall haven't been successful yet. I also realized how funny the iPad's auto correct is when I sent an abbreviated version of this to our parents via e-mail. "Post on" without the space becomes "piston." Anywhoo..... After an hour of sleep here and an hour of sleep there over the last 36 hours, it's time for a shower, and then bedtime. Talk with you later...