Day 15 -- Beijing, China and Changsha, China

We woke up at 9:00 this morning and Daniel and I decided to skip the less-than-appetizing breakfast. We managed to get everything back into the one suitcase, two backpacks, and one camera bag that we brought. Everything is stuffed to the limit, so I am sure we will have to get another suitcase before the trip is over. Checked out of the hotel by noon and went to Hard Rock Café for lunch. Afterwards, we decided to go back to the Hong Xiao Market to see if Mom and Dad could do anything about the memory cards that they got cheated on. Turns out that the girl was honest with them and managed to find one of the cards in the right size (and got a laptop to test it in) and refunded money on the other card. It didn’t turn out to be exactly fair (they got back half their money and only ended up with the 1GB card), but my mom appreciated the girl’s honesty and saw that she had to buy the right card from another vendor. The vendor didn’t have to do anything, but chose to. We took a cab back to the hotel to get our bags and another one to get to the airport. We had plenty of time, so Daniel and I went to some of the shops. He saw some stuffed toys (Beijing Olympic mascots) and wanted to buy one, but the girl working said he had to buy all five. They were packaged individually and priced individually, but she insisted that all five must be purchased. She couldn’t explain why. She even said that the price on the tag was for one, but she still wouldn’t sell us just one. Mom tried to talk to someone who spoke better English, but he wouldn’t talk to any of us because she told him not to. My Chinese isn’t good enough to do much in that situation besides make an ass of myself, so we gave up. Boarded the plane at 4:40pm for our 5:10pm flight to Changsha. I slept for about half of the two-hour flight. Woke up for dinner with a choice of rice or noodles. I chose the rice, which was covered with beef and gravy. Made the mistake of eating a couple pieces of beef and was miserable the rest of the flight. I’m not a vegetarian by any means (though I was about eight or nine years ago), but with my Crohn’s disease, I stick to lean meats and vegetarian meals as much as possible. Mom had made small talk (in English) with a Chinese woman who was seated next to her at some point during the flight. We aren’t sure if she overheard Mom and Dad saying that the plane was so hot that they were sweating or what prompted it exactly; but the woman tapped Mom on the shoulder, grabbed her hand, and doused her with perfume just before we all got off the plane. It was so ridiculously strong and we were all gagging. I think it really was meant to be a nice gesture. We sat patiently while the Chinese people jumped out of their seats and started grabbing their bags—literally seconds after we landed. We waited for the plane to finish taxiing to the gate and sat for another ten minutes waiting for the rush and pandemonium to die down. It seems that the numerous requests to remain seated are just vocal exercises for the flight attendants. We finally disembarked, found our way to the baggage claim, and waited about three-quarters of the way around the baggage carousel where it wasn’t crowded. All of the Chinese people cram around the first half so they can get their bags first and manage to trip over each other in the process. If nothing else, it is amusing for us to watch. We got our luggage and Mom tried to wash off the perfume before we headed outside. The weather was much warmer than Beijing and I was even able to ditch a layer of clothes. We hopped in a taxi shortly after 7:00pm and arrived at the Hua Tian Hotel by about 8:00pm. On the way we only saw one KFC and one McDonald’s. Also very little English anywhere to identify things. We checked in and tried to explain that we needed two rooms close to Netta’s room (she had flown in and checked in earlier in the afternoon). When we got to the rooms, not only were they in the wrong tower from her, but there were two single beds in each room with my mom and I listed on one and my dad and Daniel listed on the other. Went back to the lobby and had to show that my passport has been amended to my married name and explain that I wanted to be in the same big bed as my husband and my parents wanted to be in one big bed in a different room. We also figured out that Netta was on a smoking floor, so we got her room changed and ended up with three rooms next door to each other and each had big beds. While in the lobby, I saw a Westerner and smiled at him. He came over a few minutes later and talked to us. Turns out he is from the Seattle area. We talked for a few minutes and let him know that the Seahawks made it to the Super Bowl and would be playing the Steelers the next morning. We all talked for another minute before he and his friend left to go check out another hotel. Netta’s guide (who assists with transportation and adoption paperwork) had bragged about how great Changsha was on the way to the hotel and then dropped her off without giving any advice on places to eat or where anything was for that matter. He told her that they would get Tai at 10:00am and he would meet us all in the lobby at 9:00am. She wasn’t so pleased with him. Since we came in at night and it was raining, we couldn’t quite get our bearings to see where food was either. We all went to one room and I called to order food to be delivered for dinner. Between the girl’s broken English and my broken Chinese, we managed to get the right amounts of the right food ordered. I accidentally used the wrong measure word once (I basically said ‘one Coke’ (yi ge kele) instead of ‘one bottle of Coke’ (yi ping kele)) after already using the correct word two sentences before, so she corrected me. The conversation did consist of quite a few mentions of “Dui buqi” (I’m sorry) and a lot of giggling when we couldn’t understand each other, but it did all work out in the end. The lack of foreigners and very few people speaking English is allowing me to practice my Chinese, though I am a bit rusty after being out of class for so long and not having an opportunity to use it. We watched TV for a while and even saw an ad with a dancing condom named “JissBon” before we retired for the night.