Day 5 - Flying to ChongQing!!!
Good Morning...or evening everyone! AM here. Yesterday was pretty easy going as the only thing we really did was pack our bags and eat breakfast before we left the Novotel Peace in Beijing. We got to the airport with Joe(our guide) and it was sad to see him go, he was wonderful! All of families who were at the hotel boarded the plane for ChongQing at about 1 pm and it was packed. 
The flight was not turbulent in my opinion, very little bumpies along the way. We finally saw the ground right before we landed and boy is it different from Beijing...lots of farms & rice fields, mountains galore...breathtaking. 
We got to the airport and claimed our luggage. Xi Xi (She She) our guide, was waiting for us as we got past the luggage. She is wonderful too!!! Michael and Cathy were there as well(more guides). She and Michael explained what was going to happen tomorrow when we got the babies for a little while and we were able to ask questions etc. Especially about laundry...OMG...if we didn't do it soon, the clothes would have walked home by themselves! 
They also told us that the Evans family had their baby waiting for them at the hotel...surprise surprise!!! We arrived in ChongQing City and it is Gorgeous here. The roads are up hills and literally in the mountain. The streets remind me of San Francisco. It seems to be much less poverty here than in Beijing...at least what we saw so far. Again, it is extremely clean and well kept. We arrived at the hotel and wow oh wow...5 star and then some! Unbelievable. The room is very nice and guess what was waiting for us in the room...a beautiful baby crib with a Pikachu pillow!!! Gotta love it. Rewind... at the lobby, the Evans family received their baby and it was so emotional...for EVERYONE. Even some of the dads were crying. I think it has really hit all of us that this is what we have been waiting for, this is the pinnacle of the process, this is what we came to do. Their gotcha moment was beautiful and their daughter is adorable, laughing and smiley. She is 16 months old I believe and from the Fuling SWI in ChongQing, 
different than most of us who are from QianJiang. We snapped pics like crazy, as if it were all of our Gotcha days. 
Fast forward... back in the room, I unpacked everything, set up her crib, got the clothes out for Sydney etc...reality is hitting us hard :) After being in the room for a bit, we all decided to go back to the good old standby dinner of American Staple....McDonalds!!! Other than ordering taking a while due to the language barrier it was great! Actually, in some cases(as far as Mc Donalds service goes) BETTER than the US! I get my burger special as I don't like certain things and it came out exactly as I like it! The chicken nuggets taste salt free for some reason, but looked the same. Fries were the same, burgers the same. The have a few different things here too...like vegetable soup, and the grilled chicken is not how we know it, it almost looks like an apple pie...hard to explain. I will try to get pics. The locals are way more interested in us here than in Beijing...we are a sight to see. There is a mall attached to the hotel(Harbor Plaza) and it is like Rodeo Drive ...we won't be shopping in those stores, BUT there was a little drug store...like a Walgreens or CVS there too and I could spend hours looking at the items, fascinating stuff. The Hotel also has a gorgeous pool/spa area, fitness center, 10th floor outdoor garden and patio with a koi pond (too dark to see any fish but we assume that is what is in there) 
an a playground with tennis courts, gazebo type things...etc. It took up the entire floor that we were on and oh... by the way...it is like in the high 40's here I guess and it is like a heat wave compared to Beijing...light jackets or sweatshirts is all we need to go out. After dinner and shopping, I went back to the room and put together all of our gift bags and nanny stuff...we are less than 5 hours from Gotcha moment at 1pm ...stay tuned! I need to go shower and get ready for our paperwork meeting at 9:30. Just a note of interest... as far as the blog goes, we can do it here as well, but still cannot view it nor can I get emails from the internet from my baboom address, so if you post to the blog I will get it, but it doesn't show your emails so I can write back to everyone. If you can, send me an email at rogersrescues @ yahoo.com so I can reply back to everyone. I have been reading your comments, but haven' been able to write back. Ok...gotta run!
Until later as a family of 5!!!
Love always
Joe & AM
The flight was not turbulent in my opinion, very little bumpies along the way. We finally saw the ground right before we landed and boy is it different from Beijing...lots of farms & rice fields, mountains galore...breathtaking. 
We got to the airport and claimed our luggage. Xi Xi (She She) our guide, was waiting for us as we got past the luggage. She is wonderful too!!! Michael and Cathy were there as well(more guides). She and Michael explained what was going to happen tomorrow when we got the babies for a little while and we were able to ask questions etc. Especially about laundry...OMG...if we didn't do it soon, the clothes would have walked home by themselves! 
They also told us that the Evans family had their baby waiting for them at the hotel...surprise surprise!!! We arrived in ChongQing City and it is Gorgeous here. The roads are up hills and literally in the mountain. The streets remind me of San Francisco. It seems to be much less poverty here than in Beijing...at least what we saw so far. Again, it is extremely clean and well kept. We arrived at the hotel and wow oh wow...5 star and then some! Unbelievable. The room is very nice and guess what was waiting for us in the room...a beautiful baby crib with a Pikachu pillow!!! Gotta love it. Rewind... at the lobby, the Evans family received their baby and it was so emotional...for EVERYONE. Even some of the dads were crying. I think it has really hit all of us that this is what we have been waiting for, this is the pinnacle of the process, this is what we came to do. Their gotcha moment was beautiful and their daughter is adorable, laughing and smiley. She is 16 months old I believe and from the Fuling SWI in ChongQing, 
different than most of us who are from QianJiang. We snapped pics like crazy, as if it were all of our Gotcha days. 
Fast forward... back in the room, I unpacked everything, set up her crib, got the clothes out for Sydney etc...reality is hitting us hard :) After being in the room for a bit, we all decided to go back to the good old standby dinner of American Staple....McDonalds!!! Other than ordering taking a while due to the language barrier it was great! Actually, in some cases(as far as Mc Donalds service goes) BETTER than the US! I get my burger special as I don't like certain things and it came out exactly as I like it! The chicken nuggets taste salt free for some reason, but looked the same. Fries were the same, burgers the same. The have a few different things here too...like vegetable soup, and the grilled chicken is not how we know it, it almost looks like an apple pie...hard to explain. I will try to get pics. The locals are way more interested in us here than in Beijing...we are a sight to see. There is a mall attached to the hotel(Harbor Plaza) and it is like Rodeo Drive ...we won't be shopping in those stores, BUT there was a little drug store...like a Walgreens or CVS there too and I could spend hours looking at the items, fascinating stuff. The Hotel also has a gorgeous pool/spa area, fitness center, 10th floor outdoor garden and patio with a koi pond (too dark to see any fish but we assume that is what is in there) 
an a playground with tennis courts, gazebo type things...etc. It took up the entire floor that we were on and oh... by the way...it is like in the high 40's here I guess and it is like a heat wave compared to Beijing...light jackets or sweatshirts is all we need to go out. After dinner and shopping, I went back to the room and put together all of our gift bags and nanny stuff...we are less than 5 hours from Gotcha moment at 1pm ...stay tuned! I need to go shower and get ready for our paperwork meeting at 9:30. Just a note of interest... as far as the blog goes, we can do it here as well, but still cannot view it nor can I get emails from the internet from my baboom address, so if you post to the blog I will get it, but it doesn't show your emails so I can write back to everyone. If you can, send me an email at rogersrescues @ yahoo.com so I can reply back to everyone. I have been reading your comments, but haven' been able to write back. Ok...gotta run!Until later as a family of 5!!!
Love always
Joe & AM
posted by Anne Marie & Joe @ 12/05/2005 05:35:00 PM
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