5.13.2012

Nanning Day 1

Wow!! Yesterday was a LONG day. We started our journey at about 7 am and headed with my mom, dad and kids to the airport. Our flight left Charlotte at 9:50 am. We had a great flight to Chicago and got one last American meal while we were there:) We left Chicago for Hong Kong at 1:30, and tried to settle in for the LONG, 15 hour flight! We were able to sleep off and on, just not great as the flight was full and we were pretty cramped! My curiousity REALLY wanted to know how much it would cost for one of those nice, roomy, comfy chairs up front.... you know the ones I'm talking about:) Well, the nice man at the counter told me we could upgrade our economy class tickets to first class tickets for oh, about $5000.00 each!!! For real?!? That is insane, but I guess if it were cheap, everyone would be going first class!

Once to HK, we thought we would have plenty of time to eat and walk, before our flight to Nanning. Well, we had to check -in again to get our boarding passes (that took forever), then we had to take a train, 15 different escalators, and a shuttle bus to get to our gate! That airport is HUGE. Oh well for the meal... glad I had packed us some snacks in our carry on:)) We finally got to Nanning about 10:00 pm, after 23 hours of travel. We went through immigration very smoothly and it was a beautiful site when our bags came out first at the baggage claim!! All I wanted to see at that point was our guide waiting for us.... but, I didn't. Oh my! I thought this might be my breaking point that some had warned me about, I thought I might lose it. We were in a foreign airport, nobody spoke English, I couldn't pull up my email..... but then, there she was! Thank you Lord!! We only waited on her maybe 15 minutes, but after that many hours of travel, in a foreign country, that seemed like a REALLY long time.

Our guide Cindy is really nice. Her and our driver got us to our hotel. We are staying at the Nanning Marriott Hotel. For any of my adoption friends, if you are coming to Nanning, this is a great place to be. It took me a while to get the internet connection working and the VPN, but everything worked out and I was able to Skype and FB and email, etc. It is so great to be able to stay in touch with my family back home!!

Tulah day will be tomorrow!!! We don't know what time yet, but it will be tomorrow afternoon or evening!! We are so excited, but it still feels surreal!

Please keep the prayers coming!!

7 comments:

  1. Amber, I am from DTC FB winter group. How exciting!!!!! Have a wonderful time. Glad to see your update. ($5,000??!! Ouch.) LOL. Have fun. God bless all of you.

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  3. Awesome! Praying for you all to have a wonderful gotcha day!

    Christine K (From DTC group)

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  4. hi amber! i am so excited to see you have arrived! can't wait to follow along! :)

    wondeirng what vpn you used? we travel in 22 days. :)

    erika (same agency as you! ) :)

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  5. I am going to wear out my keyboard hitting the refresh button on this page. Hope Tulah is there and things are going well!

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  6. We had the same experience at the Hong Kong airport - - - - that place is huge! And I am glad that your guide arrived. Tulah is beautiful1!

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  7. Experiencing China with you, Amber. Praying for safety and a smooth transition! I have to admit, we would have passed on the first class tickets as well!

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