Goodbye Shenyang, thanks for the memories...

Yesterday (June 4th) was our final day in Shenyang, and it was a day of mixed emotions upon leaving the city:  the hotel treated us wonderfully, the people (especially George, our allergy-aware friend & personal chef) and events were enjoyable, the food was great, but as the week ends, it was time to move on.  It was one of those days where we had to check out of the hotel by 2pm, and catch a plane at 6pm, so we really couldn't DO anything outside of just wait for the evening to arrive.  We killed some time in the morning and strolled the local shops (again).  Betty stocked up on her favorite music (Farenheit, of course; she's partial to the "autumn personality" boy Wu Chun -- and I'll admit he is pretty handsome) and some new reading material: Chinese cookbooks of the Liaoning cuisine, and a few Chinese to English phrase books, and a dictionary.  She is working so hard on using more English to communicate, and she does really well.  And we have been trying to use more Chinese to communicate w/ the locals-- I may even string together a full sentence by next week!

After lunch and a celebrity goodbye from the staff at our favorite McD, we hurriedly packed up our final things for the bus to the airport.  We had two adjoining rooms, and upon doing the final visual sweep and under-bed check, Lauren noticed a pile of Betty's things on the desk: old clothes, a sweatshirt & pants, her backpack, some small empty boxes.  She went to grab them, and Betty -- my quiet, reserved, sweet girl -- shouted "No Mama!" and brushed her hand away from them.  We tried to explain that we are not coming back to the hotel room anymore; we are leaving for good, so she should take her things... I tried to gather them up for her, and she pushed them back down on the desk, pointed to the full garbage can under the desk, and said "No Papa, stay!" and walked out of the room with her brothers.  Maybe she did not like those clothes; they had probably been worn hundreds of times by many children over the years.  Or, maybe she was just... moving on.  I don’t know for sure.

Eventually our buses came, and our two families and flock of children headed to the airport.  Beautiful countryside along the way, reminds me of northern California with flat farm land and mountains in the distance.  I tried to explain to Betty that Florida is pretty flat, but I am sure she will figure that out fairly easily once we arrive.  Betty was about to take her first-ever airplane flight; the rest of us were embarking on our fifth flight of just this week!  And we still have two more before getting home for good (very very late on the 11th, I think).

She had no problem at all with her first airplane adventure; I think having three didi (younger brothers) -- plus the other family's children - probably gave her confidence that this was all no big deal.  Besides, we had PLENTY of snacks. LOTS of snacks... and we devoured them all on this short flight.  My daughter, somewhat surprisingly, just LOVES to snack.  The previously-mentioned meat Pringles (which the guys love, and the wives do not) disappeared in line at the gate.  The shortcakes, cream bread, milky chews, and even those tomato ketchup stix all were devoured quickly.   I had decided (and I am apparently the only one to do so) that I was going to eat whatever unique delicacies my daughter ate.  I don't think she has noticed, but whatever she orders for lunch, I will get the same.  I observe her dinner choices, and will at least sample the same.  Whatever snacks she eats, I would give it a try.  So far, so good.  Hooray for big brave me.

The standard pre-flight snacks most of are accustomed to are __XXXXXX__?

... yes, that is correct, peanuts.  The pre-flight snack on China Southern Airlines is some kind of dry fish.  A little pack of scaly, crispy, fish body.  My sons quickly determined they were not hungry for in-flight snacks.  Betty and the other Asian children dove into their packs like they were holiday candy.  I was going to eat whatever my daughter ate, so I opened my pack, convinced myself that smell was perfectly normal, and ate a piece.  Actually, I ate two.  Not bad.  Certainly not good, but not bad.  I had held strong in my determination.  I did not, however, get a chance to sample the other snack food we picked up at the airport convenience store... she and Gabe devoured them all before I could ask for a bite, unfortunately. I am going to assume they tasted "just like chicken."  I won't explain what they were, but I imagine we'll have a challenge finding them in northern Florida. 

Enough about the food.  The in-flight movie started.  I think it was an Asian drama/comedy made about 20 years ago, but it was a movie, it was the only thing to do (since we couldn't read the magazines) so we put on our headsets and watched -- it had the subtitles in Chinese and in English, so we could read and follow along.  

The first five minutes of this movie had enough cuss words -- spelled out in all their English glory – to make Richard Pryor blush.  Of course, the rest of the passengers are all silently enjoying the movie, ignoring two rows of American children reading the subtitles then screaming "Ohhhh!" and "WHOOOAAAA!" -- we were actually cracking up, just praying there wasn't a nude scene coming up.  (Thankfully, they all fell asleep about 20 minutes into it.)

We arrived in Guangzhou LATE last night (hence the delay on updates from yesterday) and checked into a 5 star luxury hotel designed for business travelers-- so we have had to make some room "modifications" to accommodate 4 children, ha!   Not a bad place to spend the final week of our trip-- Guangzhou is where everything official is confirmed; we do the final medical check-ups, and lots more paperwork.  And, I would guess, probably plenty of time for more sightseeing and shopping too...

We are loving our time in China, loving our time with Betty, loving the other families we are grouped with, and loving your encouraging emails and Comments on the blog – please keep them coming.  Note: the Internet service is much more expensive in this hotel, so we will probably not be on Skype much this week; sorry… (I am at the Starbucks now, enjoying a sesame green tea latte and some free Wi-Fi).


"Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart and the pleasantness of one's friend springs from his earnest counsel."  Proverbs 27:9