On to ZhengZhou

 

Day 5 – Sunday, November 22, 2009

 

We left Beijing for ZhengZhou in typical Chinese fashion of organized chaos.  =)  The flight was ok and short, which is good.  ZhengZhou is much more 'Chinese' – there is hardly another non-Chinese person to be found that isn't with us.  The city is quite large with lots of giant, interesting buildings.  Strangely, the streets seem a tiny bit safer to cross.  It is warmer here also, about 50 degrees- which is nice.  Our agency guide here, Yisha, reminds me of Lao Shi- I like her a lot. 

 

We got to our room at the Crowne Plaza and it was a thousand degrees!!!  The 'cool' button on the thermostat doesn't actually blow cool.  The air conditioning is not on.  We all were burning up.  Yisha spoke to the hotel people about it.  The heating/cooling system is either one or the other- and it powers 4 different buildings (3 of them hotels) on this block, so they could not just turn on the air for us.  They did let us know how to crack the windows and provided us with fans to cool the rooms- that helped tremendously!

 

We went to the bank and waited and waited.  We would have been the perfect target for robbery- so conspicuous we all were.  20 or so white people walking into the currency exchange.  I was very vigilant when the guard went to the bathroom, but I'm always watchful like that (I prefer careful to paranoid).  Of course nothing.  They even had Tom & Jerry playing in the lobby for entertainment!  They call it Mao he Lao Shu (Cat & Mouse). 

 

We came back and then a few of us trekked it down the block to Chinese Wal-Mart (about 2 blocks down).  I have a feeling we are going to spend more time there once we get the babies.  It was highly entertaining and very, very Chinese.  The meat was all out on stands where you could go though and pick the piece you wanted after handling it (with gloves of course).  We were stared at so very much, it was interesting.  We are all curious as to why the sidewalks seem to be constantly wet even though there is no rain. 

 

We came back, put some stuff away in the room, wrapped gifts and sorted money into their needed piles.  That took a while.  Jason called back home and it was torturous to hear Matt's voice.  He is doing fine however and doesn't miss us a bit.  The dogs too.  Not really surprising. 

 

Tomorrow is the day!  Wish us luck everyone, send all the good thoughts and prayers you can spare!  We're so excited. 

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--"We never touch people so lightly that we do not leave a trace"