| Libby's Travel Journal for Gwenn |
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Trip Log The Adventure In Search of the Rare Empress Gwendolyn March 1, 2000 What a couple of days. On Sunday, February 27, I flew to Seattle (via Cincinnati) to meet Lara (your Mama) and prepare to leave for China. The weather in Minneapolis was rather Seattle-like. It was warm (45 degrees Fahrenheit), the snow was gone and it was wet and cloudy. I am so excited to go to China. I have never been to a Far Eastern country and I relish the chance to get to go. I am also on pins and needles at the thought of meeting you, Gwenn. I just can’t wait. After a much-too-long flight, your Mama met me at the gate
in the Seattle airport. I was
totally exhausted. Your Mama was
very sweet and showed me the essentials and let me go to sleep. On Monday, February 28, we packed our stuff and got ourselves ready to go. A friend of your Mama’s took us to the airport. We checked and found an internet terminal to send a quick message to Jordan and Linnea. We flew from Seattle to Tokyo. The flight was long and uncomfortable. We had an extra seat in between us, but we had armrests that would not lift. My rear is much too big for that kind sort of thing. There was a family across the aisle from us that was traveling to Japan. They had a four year old boy. It reminded me of how much I miss my Jordan and sweet Linnea. It is hard to express how I felt about leaving my family for so long. On the other hand, I was tickled pink at the opportunity to meet you. Every mile that we flew across the Pacific was another mile that we were closer to you. I know that your Mama is excited, and I am too. We had a short layover in Tokyo and went on to Hong Kong. The flight was very crowded and we had the same uncomfortable seats as before. It seemed like we’d never get to the point where we were not on a plane. We saw Wayne and Carol Markel, who are friends of my Mother in law. They were also traveling to Hong Kong, but they were taking a cruise there. Imagine traveling to the other side of the world and running into friends from home. We arrived in Hong Kong in the evening of Tuesday, February
29. We stayed at the Regal
Airport Hotel. The hotel was
beautiful and convenient. It was
right next to the airport. Our
breakfast was tremendous. In the morning of Wednesday, March 1, we went back to the airport. This time we were heading for Guangzhou. We were only hours away from seeing you, Gwenn! We found other families traveling with WACAP. Everyone was very close to getting their little girls (except me, but I was living vicariously through Lara). I think that we were all nervous and excited and didn’t know what to expect. While waiting at the airport, your Mama spotted Lorna and Matilde! Matilde was such a beautiful and happy girl. We were all very excited to meet her. The trip from Hong Kong to Guangzhou was short – only 40 minutes. We flew on China Southern Airlines. The Guangzhou airport was great. It was obviously designed for the locals and not for tourists. It seemed like we were walking onto a movie set. The surroundings were so different from anything that I had experienced before that it seemed more like a movie than reality. The Guangzhou airport had fruit markets, groceries and restaurants. We were met by a WACAP guide who helped us to get our boarding passes and to pay the “airport tax.” Once she did this, however, she had to go and pick up another group who was leaving the White Swan and flying back to Hong Kong. We were alone in an airport full of people who didn’t speak English. It was time for lunch, so we found a restaurant and sat down. After some trials and tribulations, we managed to get food. Most of the menu items involved organ meats or worms. Yuk! Your Mama and I ate vegetables. After lunch, we found our gate. We had heard that the boarding would be announced only in Chinese and only once, so we were watching our gate closely. Periodically, someone would walk up to the desk and speak into a bullhorn. We were nervous and had figured out that they were announcing that a flight had changed gates. We didn’t think that it was our flight, but we weren’t sure. One of our group would ask about the announcements, but we were always told to stay put. After a bit, a woman came to me and introduced herself. She was a woman from Guillin who had moved to Seattle and worked for a travel agency. She was familiar with WACAP and recognized our WACAP bags. She helped us to figure out what was happening with our flight. It really eased our minds to have someone who could speak the language help us out. The flight from Guangzhou to Nanning was just over an hour. When we landed in Nanning, we were met by Maria, our guide. She led us to the van where the other families were. We had a 45 minute ride to the hotel. The ride was amazing and frightening. Nanning was more agricultural than I was expecting it to be. There were fields, banana palms and trucks leaded high with green leafy vegetables. I was surprised that the soil was very red. I have learned since then that climates that don’t have winter don’t have black soil. Freezing and the resulting composting materials make the soil black. The road was split with a dotted line down the middle, presumably to divide it into two lanes. Each lane was pretty wide. One lane (the right one) was mainly populated with people moving in the same direction that we were. The left lane was apparently for people moving the other way. Both lanes were packed with cars, vans, buses, military trucks, vegetable trucks, bicycles, pedestrians, bicycles with cards on the back, scooters with rickshaws on the back, motorcycles, you name it. There was no apparent speed limit. Each vehicle went as fast as it wanted or was able to. If you wanted to go faster than the vehicle in front of you, you honk and pass, regardless of whether or not there is someone coming the other way. People just move to avoid each other. When we got to the edge of Nanning, there were some shabby buildings that looked surprisingly like the shabby buildings that you see in Mexico. I guess that poverty looks the same all over. The hotel is lovely. It is a five star hotel. It has a magnificent lobby and nice rooms. We got to the hotel at about 6 PM. We put our luggage in our rooms and ran to the lobby for some supper. As your Mama and I were going back to the elevator, we saw a van with people unloading babies. You were coming to us! I dragged (almost literally) you Mama onto the elevator and to our room. We got out the cameras and held our breath. The time was close. The waiting seemed to be an eternity. We could hear footsteps and crying in the hallway, so we knew that the others in our party were getting their children. We kept looking out the peephole to try to see what was going on. Finally, just after 8 PM, we heard a knock.
Your Mama ran to the door and found Maria waiting to lead us to you.
I fired up the camcorder and followed you Mama down the hall. Maria’s room was the one next to ours, so we didn’t have
far to go, but it seemed like it took forever.
We were so excited, I don’t know how we remembered to breathe.
When we walked into Maria’s room, we saw you.
There was a woman holding you, your foster Mama and your foster sister
was there too. You were way
overdressed for the climate. Your
cheeks were rosy and round. You
were beautiful and healthy looking. Your
Mama and I were in love with you already. 2 March Last night was a little rough. Not only did Gwenn have a difficult time sleeping, but we were very tired from our trip. Finally, we all got to sleep and slept pretty well. In the morning, we all (all of the families and Maria) went to fill out forms and do adoption interviews. We met with the official in the “adoption office” and then went to the police station and met with a notary. When we got back to the hotel, you Mama and you went to Maria’s room to have your family picture taken for your passport. Before we came back to the hotel, we stopped at a supermarket. We all wanted to pick up Chinese formula and bottled water. Your Mama and I also picked up snacks and warm clothes for you, Gwenn. When we had checked the weather before we left home, the temperature was very warm. Since we had arrived in Nanning, the weather was cold and rainy, with high temperatures of 14 degrees Celsius. In the afternoon, while your Mama and you were napping, I went to the hotel’s business office and sent an email to Tom and my little Jordan and Linnea. I missed them very much. As lovely and interesting as it was in China, I was heartbroken to be away from my family. After naptime, we went for a short walk down the street and then to a park not far from the hotel. The park is beautiful. We only had a short time to look around. I hope that we can find time to go back. In the evening, we had the “adoption banquet.”
All of the families and Maria met and went to the Cantonese restaurant in
the hotel. 3 March Today was an “unplanned” day. We didn’t have any tours or meetings planned. We woke up pretty early (Gwenn – you slept pretty well last night!) and got dressed. We had breakfast at the Garden Restaurant in the hotel. After breakfast, we went for a walk. We really wanted to go to the Nanning Department Store, but we couldn’t find it. We went back to the hotel and took a cab to the Department Store. The cab ride was a real carnival ride, what with the lack of order on the Chinese streets. The cab dropped us off across the street from the store. There was a small park with crowds of people and music playing. The music was interesting, that eastern-sounding tonality. We had to cross the street and it was really busy. We noticed that there was a huge concrete walkway over the street. It was really high and really crowded, but it got us to where we needed to go. The department store was big and as jammed full of merchandise and people as it could possibly be. We found shoes and a stroller for Gwenn. We took another cab home. This driver was apparently in a competition for the worst driver of the year. We managed to get back without the cab killing anyone, though, so I guess that he hasn’t won the competition yet. That afternoon we went back to the park near the hotel, the Peoples Park, and visited the Botanical Gardens and the Swan Pond. I took a lot of pictures! The park is quite lovely and has a lot of things to look at. Dinner was fun. We
went to the Buffet Restaurant in the hotel with two of the other families in our
group. The food was really good and
cheap! 4 March I went through most of the day today thinking that it was Friday, but it’s Saturday! It was warmer today, 15 C today and it will be 20 C tomorrow. This is the weather that we were expecting. Hot and muggy. Your Mama has been teasing me about my curly hair. I think that my hair may unscrew itself if it gets any curlier. We went to the orphanage this morning and met your foster family, Gwenn. It was emotionally wrenching, but beneficial in some ways. Gwenn, your foster family was sweet and kind and loving. You were their fifth foster child. They showed us pictures of the other four. It was easy to see why you were so happy and sweet. You were really attached to your foster father, and he seemed to be rather fond of you! After going to the orphanage, we went to a museum. According to our guide book (which we read after the fact), there is an impressive museum with grounds featuring different architectural styles of the region. We didn’t see the museum, only the grounds. There were examples of typical Zhuang and Miao houses and a Dong Wind and Water bridge. They were beautiful, but it was disappointing that we didn’t get to see the bronze drums in the museum. The morning was draining. After lunch and a nice nap, we went back to Renmin Park (Peoples Park) and took a walk. I dragged you Mama to the Monument to the Revolutionary Martyrs. There was a tall staircase with a monument on top. I climbed the stairs (no one would come with me) and found very beautiful grounds on the top. There was a sculpture near the monument that was lovely. At the end of the day, you were really worn out.
You are so incredible. You
love music. You like to sing and dance.
I think that you have a future as a performer. 7 March It has been a busy couple of days. On the 5th, we went to a park on a mountain outside of Nanning. It was lovely and green. We went for a walk and found a Buddhist shrine. There were tons of people and it was lovely. We then went to the “Grassy Area” and saw some women dancing in Miao costumes. They were doing dances that are typical of the people that live in the area. In the evening, we went to the Buffet restaurant and had a
nice dinner. the Buffet Restaurant has all
kinds of Chinese delicacies served buffet style (like fried rice and beef
tripe). They also have
"hotpot" which is a kettle of hot liquid with a flame underneath where
you can cook your own food at the table (there are frequent table fires).
We have eaten there a few times: the food is good and the beer is
unlimited. On this evening, there were a group of us there for dinner.
A woman named Adrian (from Manhattan) and I were the last to leave the
restaurant, because we had taken care of charging the bill to our rooms.
As we were walking past the buffet tables to leave the restaurant to
leave, an enormous rat ran out from under the one food table, circled around a
few times, and ran back under the table!! Adrian
and I were horrified, but everyone else was oblivious to the rat.
They were staring at us. I
think that we were more of a novelty than the rat was.
Yuk!! We didn’t go back to
that restaurant. I had a
really hard time sleeping because I thought that rats were going to come into
our room and crawl on us. On the 6th, we took a nice walk in Renmin
Park. Your Mama and the other
families went over their paperwork. We
were almost ready to leave! On the 7th, we left the hotel and went to the airport. We were going to Guangzhou. Soon we will be able to take you to your new home. The flight to Guangzhou was similar to the flight to Nanning, except they gave us dried lychee as a snack. Lychee is really not very good. The White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou was really beautiful. The rooms were nice, the view was outstanding, the restaurants didn’t have any rats and the shopping was outstanding! Best of all, there were floor attendants so that we wouldn’t have to push the buttons of the elevator ourselves. The floor attendants came in handy because we could never remember which way to go to get to our room. |
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