Departures & Arrivals

I had originally planned on some dramatic account of the journey here (and a "journey" it truly was), but after recounting most of it to my parents on Skype… I realized I tend to blab and needed to be more concise. 

Our flight left from O'Hare in Chicago at 3:20pm on Thursday, July 24th, and flew nonstop to Beijing. We had a twenty hour layover, so we booked a room at the Hilton very close to the airport. The first flight was the "killer that everyone dreads - 13+ hours. I didn't know what to expect with three kids!! Since we've done it before, I knew it would be one of those things you just get through. We'd done it twice before, so it would be fine. The kids actually did great, and our flight on Hainan airlines was wonderful. The staff was great, they served an abundance of food and drinks, and everything was very clean. We flew on one of the new Dreamliners, and other than a few brief bouts of turbulence, it was smooth. Seth and Sydney fell asleep during the second half of the flight for about 6+ hours. Noah held out pretty long, and even told me he'd stay awake until we got to the hotel (the equivalent time back home was something like 4am). He passed out for the last 3 hours. All in all, I am shocked at how well they all did. We were NOT "that family with the screaming kids."

We landed in Beijing around 6:30pm on Friday, July 25th because of the time difference forwards. The plane didn't pull up to a bridge, but instead one of those rolling staircases on the tarmac. We got down the massive staircase and boarded a bus that wound sharply around the terminal drive. After various escalators and halls, we came to a checkpoint. A uniformed guy pulled me aside and said "temperature?" questioningly, and directed me into a small room to sit in a chair. He pulled out a form (no English) and for the next 5+ minutes we struggled through it, without me really understanding what was going on. He then came around the desk and pointed a digital thermometer at my head.

Oh, that temperature. 

As soon as he got the reading, he motioned me out of the room. Angela pointed out to me that the sign above the door said "QUARANTINE," a small detail I missed in my sweaty daze of blindly following this guy.

After getting through immigration, a uniformed man with a cart greeted us, and proceeded to grab our bags that I pointed to off the carousel. He lead the way, and we gladly, tiredly followed. I got a bit nervous when he motioned for me to follow him alone down a side of the terminal that wasn't fully lighted or occupied, but it was where our stroller had ended up. Whew…

Hotel Shuttle > Hilton. The room was beautiful. Full air conditioning, people to help us with our massive pile of luggage, amazing soaking tubs, and an American-style breakfast the next day. 

Too bad the kids didn't sleep. Sydney and Seth let us sleep about 4 hours before waking. At least we were the first ones to show up for breakfast at 6:30am when it opened!

We spent the rest of Saturday relaxing indoors, and admiring the smog of Beijing. It's very real.

I could go through the gory details of our next flight, but I'll sum it up: no fun.

Our flight left Beijing for a short, one hour hop south to Qingdao. The itinerary said it was an hour layover, and we'd stay on the same plane. 

Well, the kids all fell asleep. And then they told us we'd have to deplane, with all our carry-ons, go through customs, and come back to the place. To our same seats. Even though they'd already torn through all our bags. So we dragged three sleepy, grumpy, barely conscious kids quickly through a maze of escalators and halls and security checkpoints, and then back into the plane, into the same seats. 

The next flight was just over 2 hours, and we were beyond thankful to be on Japanese soil. Another maze of customs forms and line, and we were out! Yua and her mom picked us up in a big van (thankfully) that accommodated us 5 and our 12 bags, and we arrived at our apartment about an hour later.