March 30th - We're one step closer!

March 30th – We’ve Arrived!
All I can say is that I am so glad that the worst leg of our journey is now over. We’ve arrived in Shanghai after about 25 hours of travelling. Naomi has been stellar right from the moment she woke up at 5am yesterday morning with a big smile on her face. I am so proud of her – she’s been a terrific traveller.

Our flight from Toronto did end up being delayed about 80 minutes. When we checked in at Toronto, we didn’t notice that Naomi had been checked in as an infant and as such was not assigned her seat. In fact, we didn’t really notice until a gentleman showed up with a boarding pass – he was very gracious and offered to sit anywhere else, and in fact ended up in first class. Air Canada then had to reprint Naomi’s boarding pass and check her in for both the flights – which of course took a long time.

We thought we were on our way, but as the plane was being backed out of the terminal we heard a bang and then a thump. The vehicle that had been pushing us back had run into the front wheel and caused some damage. SO . . . back to the terminal where they replaced the tire and reinspected the plane. We did not have to transfer to a different plane, but the episode reminded me of our 2003 flight from Changsha to Beijing – and admittedly I’d rather have it happen on the Air Canada side of things. Once in the air, our pilot did a great job of catching some time and we arrived in Vancouver around 11:15am. We got a ride in one of those important looking vehicles over to our departure gate and headed off for the Shanghai flight with only time for a potty break. Our flight to Shanghai was very empty (about ½). We had lots of room, apparently because this is not peak season.

Our flights were as good as can be expected, although I regretted teasing Bernie in my last post about her luggage. When we went to check-in, we ended up having to “redistribute” some stuff from one suitcase that was overweight. The other two were well within the limits, but apparently letting Joel take that extra pair of jeans and my bottle of Bailey’s caused us about 6lbs of momentary grief. At 3am this morning as the jetlag hit Naomi, I only regretted was that the bottle of Bailey’s was not bigger. Naomi slept about 90 minutes on the flight to Vancouver and about the same on the flight to Shanghai. Despite that she was exceptionally well behaved. Blues Clues, Dora (who by the way is now a Big Sister) and Tigger were a huge hit. Naomi also made friends with two little gals that were sitting next to us. Vanessa (5yrs old and brilliant) was a great “big sister” to Naomi and her own sweet sister Vivianne (who is 1 month older than Naomi but a full 10 lbs heavier and a head taller). I’ve attached a few photos.

Our guide is Lily – very nice and quite helpful. She is working on arranging some activities for us over the next few days before our remaining group members arrive. Our hotel is very nice, newer and the carpets have recently been replaced.

Since Naomi was up at 2am this morning, I decided to take her for a walk around 6am to stretch our legs, get some fresh air and explore a bit of our surroundings. It is a sunny warm day and the area around the hotel seems to have lots of eating places and shopping that we’ll have to investigate more in the coming days. As we walked, we were attacked by the clothing police twice. Naomi refused to wear her jacket this morning (and probably doesn’t really need it), but I was too tired to bother arguing with her. Ladies kept coming up, feeling her hands, indicating that they were cold and scolding me. I just let her charm them with a few Ni Hao’s, but not before she pulled a Frances and yelled in one woman’s face NO NO NO NO! Internally I was howling.

We are all pretty tired, but breakfast this morning was delicious. I had forgotten how much I love some of the chinese breakfast dishes. Joel, Naomi and my dad are headed for the gym while I go back to bed. This afternoon we are headed for the Shanghai Zoo (or White Zoo as Lily calls it).

Cheers,
Karen