Our Own Fortune Cookies!: Friday Sept 10th

We’re home!!!
Ok.. Here’s the scoop on Friday Sept 10th and Saturday the 11th. Now pictures will be at the bottom.. because I can actually see Blogger now!!

Friday… after our last breakfast at the White Swan.. snif snif. We finished up packing and made sure Robyn got an early nap. We finished our leftovers from the night before while she was napping. I still had a wicked cough and my voice still wonky. Then David was having pain with yet.. another kidney stone. OH NO!!! We called the Front desk to see if they could get him some apple cider vinegar. Well they were giving him directions to the local grocery store.. so it was being lost in translation.. literally. I figured the French restaurant would have some. So David tried to call but got no answer. So he called Grace to see if she could help. We didn’t hear back.. then the bellman came to get our suitcases around 1:30pm, right on schedule and we went down to the lobby to wait for Grace to head to the Consulate and then the train station.

Grace is a miracle worker…she had gotten a hold of the French restaurant and was able to get some vinegar. David took a couple of gulps… yelch. Grace hopped out at the Consulate to pick the girls’ Visas.. Mandy and the others were with us. We got to the train station in Guangzhou. Now I’m going to go into some serious detail here. And that’s because I wish I had known about the station ahead of time but was not able to find anything online about it.

The Guangzhou-Kowloon through train runs from.. well Guangzhou to Hong Kong-Hung Hom station. We took the 4:12pm train. Here’s the link to the schedule. http://www.it3.mtr.com.hk/B2C/frmScheduleGuangdong.asp?strLang=Eng.. So after Grace hopped out our driver took us over to the station which was almost across the street. (for now, seems the US Consulate is moving to yet another location soon). We got all our stuff together and it didn’t look like a station at all. There was/is lots of construction going on around. Looks like a stadium of some sort is being built right next to it, possibly for the Asian Games which is in November in Guangzhou. So right now it’s a mess. Grace had a gentleman walk us thru the station up to our gate. Which was the only way to do it. Because I don’t think we would have found the platform any other way. Make sure your stuff is easily carried. Because there are some X-Ray security stops and have your tickets out and passport handy. Once upstairs we waited just outside of the ticket “taker”.. she punches it, for Grace. There is a restaurant of some sort and restrooms (Squat potties) and a place to sit. Grace finally arrived with our BROWN envelopes and we said goodbye. She was our best guide the entire time in China. She’s been doing this for 8 years and it shows. She’s amazing. So if you are a CCAI family hope that Grace is your guide in Guangzhou!!
So we went thru the ticket puncher then it was immigration. We were leaving Mainland China for Hong Kong. It’s considered a border crossing.. of sorts. All the time with your luggage.. all of it. No Carts here at the train station.. We sat for maybe 2mins before it was time to board the train. Now, you will have to get all your stuff on the train yourself.. and carry your kid and well you get the idea. Thank God we had Kevin and Mandy and their daughter Emma. It was great to have another family with you to help out. Big Suitcases fit in the bins above and we settled in for the train ride. Which was pleasant.. easy going. It’s neat to see the countryside and how people live in China. Most live in apartments. I’ll try to put a picture.. if any came out. They hand out free water on the train. That was nice.

There is one brief stop, then we were moving onto Hong Kong. Again no luggage carts avail at Hung Hom either.
Then you walk by a bunch of people with surgical masks on.. and they are infared scanning you.. (think Avian Flu folks).. and well they pull me aside and check Robyn’s temp and tell me she’s running a fever.. I’m like .. What?!?! Ok yea I feel her, and she’s a bit warm. I mean she’d been lying on David for almost 2hrs and now she’s strapped to me. They ask me a bunch of questions, well she’s teething.. it could be that. And I sign something. They hand me a flyer on Avian flu and then we are able to leave. We had to pass thru immigration.. again. Make sure your brown envelope is easy to get to. You don’t want to open it, they just want to see if you have one.
**The Brown Envelope is your all your paperwork for her US Citizenship. We are NOT to open it, but to present it to the US Immigration official once we reach the good ‘ol US of A.**

Now once we got downstairs Grace had arranged two vans one for each family to take us to our hotels by the Airport. DO THIS!! It was fantastic, the gentleman had a sign with our names on it and took us some back elevator to their beautiful vans ready to wisk us away. I felt like a rock star of sorts. It was.. as I said awesome, fantastic.. and well .. perfect. Again .. God Bless Grace! It was a 45min ride thru Downtown Hong Kong out to the airport. What can we say about Hong Kong.. except. WOW. It’s a beautiful city.. soo much going on. Especially at night with all the signs lit up and when we were heading out to the airport we were able to look back and see that classic shot of the Hong Kong Skyline.. again.. words cannot describe what it’s like to see it in person.. let alone drive thru the city. How different from Main Land China. Now it was still smoggy, hazy and the clouds were rolling in.

We got to our hotel around 7-7:30pm. The Marriot Sky City is wonderful. Beautiful hotel, comfy bed and nice room. Just a 10 min ride to the airport in their free shuttle (the next morn). Now you are thinking.. How did Robyn handle all this. Pretty well. She got really fidgety on the train and I had to stand some.. and we fed her Rice puffs almost the entire time. Then in the taxi I gave her pieces of vanilla grahams fish. She was dang good. One thing. We left the stroller in the taxi. I didn’t realize until about 2 in the morning. We called the Hong Kong rep in the morning to see if we could get it before we leave.. but if not to give to a family that might need it when they come. OH well.. it was a cool stroller. Of all the things to not make it home, it’s ok it was that.

Anyway once we got to the hotel room, I took her out of the carrier and she just flopped out on the bed! She was being so freaking cute! I’m Free.. look at me.. I’m free!!! We fed her and bathed her. And was about to put her to bed but she was in SUCH a good mood we played a bit and then put her down. She went right out. We ordered in some Room service. Me a caprese salad, go figure, and David had some Thai Noodles. He was feeling better, not great but a bit better. Seems the vinegar was starting to work
it’s magic.

We did not set up the computer, the internet wasn’t free.. so no point for just a few hours. We crashed and he slept well, I had another rough night with my cold.

And that was Friday…