Hugging Pandas

One of my favorite shot of ma with the pandas:

Day 6 or 7 or 8?

Day 5: Celebration in Chengdu

So I believe that mom has been too tired to write anything and I have not talked to her for more than a few minutes each day, so I cannot really post much... except for photos.  Hopefully on her return in 3 days, she will be able to post about the trip. 

Here are some photos from Day 5:

Day 4: Teaching, Traveling to Chendgu and Thanksgiving

Day 3: Teaching in Enshi

Teaching at the Wuhan Affiliated Hospital and a Secret Visit

Day 2

Couldn't sleep too much.  Woke up and worked for a few hours in the middle of the night!  Was picked up at 7am for breakfast, then left at 8am for the airport in Wuhan to hopefully find our lost luggage.  Got to the airport; had some Oolong tea while waiting with three chinese speaking intelligent people. No one was at the airport until 9am. Finally found and retrieved luggage!  Went to china southern upstairs in the terminal and checked in. Removed the many tags on our luggage- i'm amazed they really got to us. 

Though flight was supposed to depart at 1030am, by the time we got thru security and they confiscated dads precious few saniwipes because of the alcohol, we arrived at the gate thinking "wow this is an empty plane."  Betty (our translator) and I tried to rush to bathroom. Long line. Forget that. Then we headed onto to the plane, well actually rushed onto plane because they suddenly announced final call at 10:05am!  We checked in first class but for some reason sat on coach. It was fine as the luggage issue was just fine. Phew.

Arrived in Enshi grubby and thought we were going to hotel first. Nope. Went to lunch in what they called "country cooking."  One dish was better than the next except what they called chicken might have been dog. It was well, awful. I think they haven't translated chicken correctly. (Think that's what becs and I discovered last time.)

Kind they were. To the hotel. Just a lovely place. We each have a beautiful suite!

Had about an hour to rest and although they said I was sightseeing for the afternoon five minutes later they annouced, "oh no, we have two patients for you to see."

Pops interviewed two. And then it was my turn. 8 year old little boy. Head pain. All medical tests normal. Very difficult to do consultation with translator. Needs good battery of testing. Not psychotic. Had even been in psychiatric hosp for a month.

There was no electricity in the room and it was getting dark so they brought in two candles and we continued.

Then a 13 year old. Depressed and clearly conflicts with parents. Both kids terrified and very angry.

The rest of this day is not written as of yet as Ma was too tired to continued... hopefully she's sleeping now!

Luggage was picked up in an Ambulance again!

Suite

Lunch

Day 1: 35 hours of traveling

So I was going to begin by writing a bit about today before I climb into bed. Well, as I climb into bed, which looked just luscious, boom…this is a bed. No I think it is a piece of wood with some slight padding on it. I can’t wait to see what pops says. I hope he won’t hurt himself when he falls into bed.

A very long day indeed. I know Becs has already posted and I do not know what she wrote since I can’t get on the blog. She will post as much as she can from what I tell her.

We left at 4am, arrived before 5 at Westchester, and was checked in and through security at 5:10am. I thought this is the way to fly to China! We were delayed because some paper work was incorrect. Then after a very nice flight to Atlanta, we arrived on time BUT the bagged helpers and greeters were not organized and so the time was a ticking. 15 minutes waiting at the gate, we almost missed our plane to China. We were the last one to board. We almost did not have time to sit when we felt the plane starting to move. I figured I had 16 hours to organize myself. Most importantly was the champagne and what to order for dinner as I was trying to figure out what to put where. Although the flat beds were unbelievable, the layout obscures the windows for the most part and there is oddly less space to put stuff then in coach. I won’t complain too much. Though the plane itself seemed a bit dirty and old for some reason.

Sixteen hours into Shanghai was amazingly comfortable. I slept for a good deal of the time while listening to The Help, Swan Lake I can’t remember the name, a fabulous story about two Chinese women, and Becs, help, the name of the movie about the facebook guy (the Social Network). Hopefully on the way back I can really watch them.

So we arrive in Shanghai, not able to see any Shanghai unfortunately as we flew in, ask directions on how to get to the other terminal for domestic flights, go through passport check and wait for luggage. Actually the luggage came so quickly we discovered it was all out by the time we arrived at baggage claim. EXCEPT guess whose bags were not there. Yup. So we spent the next hour trying to figure out where they could send it since of course we had no idea where we were going other than spending the night in Wuhan. Thank goodness the baggage guys were just lovely, and spoke English, well enough English, and we decided they could send it to Wuhan Airport. Hopefully it will arrive sometime tonight after midnight and we will claim it in the morning when we leave for Enshi. Stay tuned. At least I have a change of undies. I told Len to take a change with him, but somehow I forgot to pack a change for myself.

We arrived in Wuhan, greeted by the translator that helped pops last time, Betty. A lovely linguistics scholar who will fly with us to Enshi tomorrow and remain our translator for the Enshi visit. The driver and the hospital representative will drive back to Enshi.

It is so interesting, the hotel looks elegant from the outside. Inside it is not. Most importantly, the bathroom reeks from urine. I know you really did not want to know that.

Oh yes, pops found out tonight he is giving a lecture in Enshi! I still do not know my schedule. She was sad she could not take us sightseeing more; apparently becs there is an interesting boat ride and also very interesting caves. No time though. Unfortunately we are not staying at that hotel. Some miscommunication that pops didn’t want to stay there which of course was never the case; we loved that place.

Shanghai Airport

Arriving in Shanghai

First class shuttle to lounge in Shanghai

On the way, barely!

After not sleeping very much and L, of course, not getting home until an hour before the car service was picking the 'rents up, they packed up and left the house at 4:20am.  By 5:10am, they were all checked in and through security and waiting at the gate.  If only their flight was as on time as they were.  Apparently, there were "errors" in paperwork and so they had to wait for that, then they closed the doors and they were on their way to Atlanta, 20 minutes late.  Unfortunately, they were delayed and with a 50 minute tight connection in Atlanta, that is not a lot of time!  The kids, us, called Delta (at 6:30am MST) and luckily got a great person the first time around calling, and she was able to contact Atlanta to let them know that the 'rents were running and to hold the flight.  They had to run from Terminals C to E (and take a train) and luckily boarded their international flight with not too much time to spare (about 5 minutes before they closed the door!).  Here are a few photos they were able to take as they got onto the flight and a few inflight photos taken by me to show their route:

M was very excited to test out the lie flat seats!

A relief toast that they made the flight to Shanghai.

Two hours into the flight.

Friday Evening 11.17.11

This will probably be my last post made by me directly. I cannot imagine getting everything done that needs to get finished before we leave. I was so excited when L said he got the schedule for us. Well, let me go back for a moment. He tells me this morning that I was invited to a meeting of all those going to China for a luncheon on Thursday. Yes, today is Friday. He was too busy to tell me and figured there was no way I could make it. But he does tell me he received a copy of our schedule. I was actually quite excited since one of the great anxieties last time was not knowing what we were doing from one moment to the next. Then L announces that there is a slight difficulty with the schedule. It is only for Enshi, first two days, AND it is entirely in Chinese!

So much for knowing our schedule.

Sunday Nov 12th

Several viewers have been anxiously awaiting for more posts. My toe has obliged. It seems that my little toe had an incident with the wheels on the rolling duffle. I began to wonder why my toe hurt so much tonight. I then remembered the crash earlier today. Good timing eh?  No accident so to speak.

Trying my hand at posting

I will surely miss my daughter doing this. I thought I might try to keep some form of a blog as several individuals have requested to follow my travels again. Since I will not have direct access to this site, my kids will try to post from what I will send them via email or calls. You can always email me directly with comments.
Plans are as follows:
We are leaving Sunday, Nov 20 very early. Flying to Atlanta then a 16 hour flight to Shanghai. Then a few hours layover in Shanghai before a two hour flight to Wuhan. There we will be met by our first host, spend the night in Wuhan and then another flight to Enshi for two nights. LS will be helping local hospital set up a dialysis program we believe. As yet unclear. I have no idea what is in store for me.
Off to work for now.