I made it. After a long day of travel, I made it with two kids to Beijing. I spent the whole morning tring to get so much done that I almost missed the bus to the airport. I was pullling the luggage to the bus, when it started to pull away. I dropped the bags, and chased after the bus. The bus driver looked peeved that I was holding him up. Until, he saw me run back to the car and pull out two kids and a stroller and carry on bags.
Two hours on the bus feels like an eternity with a 1 yr old. Careese doesn't sit well or sleep well. She finally slept for me for just 30 mins. Better than nothing.
We hung around in the kids play area of Narita for an hour, which really helped with tiring out the kids for the flight. Careese got SO much attention at the gate, She was waddling around the gate with her bottle in her mouth, and walking right up to strangers. She has no fears of strangers, and that worries me that she could get snatched easily.
The flight was almost 4 hours long. Evan was tired, but didn't sleep, so it made dinner time tough. He played more than ate. But overall he did ok and didn't cause too much of a disturbance till 20 mins before landing. There was another 3 yr old girl on the plane that would mimick his outbursts, that would just get Evan to say more and louder.
Careese slept for an hour, that gave me time to finish watching Mama Mia. hehehe.
As soon as I got off the plane a lady cleaning the bathrooms already gave me her optinons about something to do with the kids and my stroller. I couldn't quite understand her cause of her strong Beijing accent, but I understand unsolicited advice when I hear it. I just pretended to not understand and left. I understand that this is just how the Chinese are, and I've grown up with it. But come on! I haven't even left the airport yet! anyway, I knew that it was gonna be in for a culture shock going from Japan and China.
My cousin Faye met me at the airport, and a little later, Mark showed up too.. He just came in from Korea an hour before me and headed to the hotel first to drop off his stuff.
It was a good thing he did too, because with my two bags and stroller, we couldn't all fit in the cab. The cab people told us to take a van, but it was going to cost four times as much as taking a cab. Why not take two cabs then? But we decided to take the train. The airport express. It was a little tough getting around with a sit and stand type stroller and the elevators all over the place being out of order. My opinion, I think the Chinese just did enough to fix up the place for the Olympics, but not to last. While we were waiting for someone to come turn on the elevator for us, Mark decided to lean on the railing when it suddenly fell off the wall. It looked like the only thing holding it was a couple gobs of epoxy. hehehe. They never came to turn on the elevetor for us, and two of the people that work there helped us carry the luggage and stroller up and down in the tunnels of the subway. At lease they helped carry.
We finally made it to the hotel, and the room we got was well worth it. The bathroom is huge! It's what I want my dream bathroom to be like. Part of the hotel package is they will draw a bath for you every night, with bath oils, flower petals, and candles. Niiiice. And they included a foot massage machine in the room too. Niiiiice.
No internet access in the hotel room without paying WAY too much. There is free WIFI in the lobby. So it will be a little tough keeping my goal of posting once a day. But I will do it.
Sorry no pictures yet. I have to find where I packed the USB cord.
3 comments:
Silly Chinese people..... oh...wait... ;)
Have fun over there! Looking forward to seeing pics!
bev, you win for international adventures with kids! really, i'm always so impressed with you. mark, too, but moms usually do the detail work when traveling. anyway, you're such a pro. how do you do it??
I got it down to the bare essentials. I used to haul around SO much gear for the kid/s, but now, I just take what I need, and make sure to have stuff for those emergencies. Like when Evan spills apple juice in my lap in the middle of the flight. I now make sure to put his juice in a sippy cup far far from me. And I keep the airline blanket in my lap at all times, for diaper leaks or flying food, its nice that I can just quickly throw that to the ground before I get soaked and then apologize to a crew memeber. :)
Oh and acutally I hauled a huge can of Similac for Careese out to China, because I've heard that baby food here kills. ;) But usually I buy things like diapers and formula at my destination if it's possible.
Its no vacation for moms honestly. Cause you've got stuff on your mind all the time. but I think its fun to show your kids there's more to this world than just those few miles around home.
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