Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

The first part of our journey was 14 hours in the air. We flew from Houston to Seoul Korea. We left at 10:40 am on Thursday. 14 hours on a plane sounds like a long time and you think you know what it feels like to fly that long, but until you have done it, you will never understand how incredibly looooooooooooooong 14 hours is. Matty and I sat next to each other, next to the window, and Gabe and Sarah sat in front of us. A stranger sat next to me on the aisle and the same for Gabe. I got to talking to the lady next to me and learned that she was traveling with her sister and her 2 nieces, ages 2 and 4, to Vietnam. They were in the middle row next to us. Behind me sat a grandmother and her 6 year old grandson. I think God was trying to prepare me for my new boys. The 6 year old came with NOTHING to play with (and a very strong set of legs..my seat was kicked off and on for 14 hours) and the 2 year old NEVER slept! I gave the 6 year old my tablet for a while. He loved angry birds. We also let him play Mario Kart on the Ds. I showed him how to play games on his TV screen and how to start the kid movies that Korean Air had running. The grandma spoke very little English. He was really cute...he kept pushing his face between my seats and saying "can you help me." There was nothing I could do for the 2 year old. She hated everyone around her. The plane ran out of milk for her to drink. Oh yeah and her mother was pregnant. Whew!
The food was doable, the flight attendants were great, and the seats were small and hard as a ROCK.

We arrived at the Seoul airport on Friday at 3:30pm. Communication quickly became a problem. After 30 minutes of talking to people who had no idea what we were saying and walking to the wrong place twice, we found the Korean airline counter that could issue the voucher for our hotel. The nice lady told us we had to go thru customs and then find another counter that would tell us where we were going. At this point, I had been awake for 24 hours, I was carrying 4 bags on my shoulders, and I was thirsty. So patience was not a virtue for me at this moment. With all of the kindness I could muster, I asked the lady if we could stay in the hotel, in the airport. After a few minutes of checking with someone on the phone, she said yes! Whew. Another 10 minutes of paper work and we were walking again...thru security, another mile thru the airport and voila...there was the escalator for the hotel. We get to the counter, NO connecting rooms...we had rooms across from each other. Okay...I can deal with this...I didn't care where I slept just as long as I slept. We got our room keys and then my kids learned what spartan living conditions were like. One double bed in each room, no rug, no closet, no cartoons, and everything smelled faintly of mothballs. I still didn't care. The room was clean and I was EXHAUSTED. We went to bed at 6:30.

Saturday morning we all woke up at 2:15...we walked around the airport for a while...Starbucks finally opened up at 6:30 am. Momma and daddy were happy! Our flight left at 8:45. Big plane...2/3 empty. Short 1:30 minute flight. I was very happy. They served us a meal. The kids got kids meals. We got some kind of meat rice and green vegetable. I started eating it when I noticed what looked like intestines were in there. Now most of you know that I will eat most anything and I will try lots of new foods. But for some reason the intestines were not doing it for me. I tried to find the pieces of meat and eat the rice. Then it happened, I couldn't get my food to swallow. I was starting to gag, I pulled what was at the back of my throat out of my mouth and 7 long inches later, a piece of intestine came out. I almost threw up. I handed my husband my tray, drank my water, and tried to think about the bright side...MAYBE I will lose some weight on this trip.

The Shanghai airport was uneventful, we met our guide Emma, and we got into a van. Emma is GREAT, the van ride wasn't harrowing, and I enjoyed my conversation with Emma. Then Gabe started getting car sick. I pulled him from the back seat to the front, Laid his little head on my shoulder, and he started to feel better. Then we got to the train station. We had 7 suitcases, 4 carryon bags, and 4 backpacks. The train station was the size of a small airport. For 25 dollars we paid these 2 men to load up all of our suitcase and carry them, ultimately, right to the door of our train....hands down totally worth the money! While in the train station...Gabe had his first McDonalds, and we all ate some fries. Our train ride to Hangzhou was nice...it was relaxing and we all enjoyed looking at the country side. The problem arrived when we got to Hangzhou...the nice man that carried all of our 15 pieces of gear was gone!!!! We had to carry all of that down 2 full flights of stairs, thru another train station, and outside to the man with the next van....Matty and I each had 1 carry on, 1 backpack, and 2 suitcases, the kids each had 1 carry on, 1 backpack,  and 1 suitcase, Emma had 1 backpack (her own) and one suitcase. Gabe fell down...thankfully on his butt, Sarah made it down along with Gabe and Emma. Matty struggled but made it down....as hard as I tried, I could not get the rolling duffle bag and 1 hard sided suitcase down the stairs (the rolling duffle kept falling sideways). Here comes Emma...THANK GOD FOR HER...she trudged back up the stairs and grabbed one of my suitcases!!! :) We made it outside, found our van driver and got to our hotel. It was now 3 pm. I am starting to get exhausted again.

The Marriott Courtyard is brand new, as in just built this month, brand new. The front desk was so nice. We got to our room...which is  now filled with all of our junk. The room next to ours (which is connecting) will be ours too on Monday (that is when we will have the boys) The beds are comfortable, the bathroom is awesome (the shower is very hot). Dinner was a bit disappointing but we did eat at 4:30 which was before they were ready to start serving dinner. We were all asleep at 6:00pm...we tried to stay awake, but we were truly exhausted.

Sunday May 25th.... Sarah, and Gabe woke up at 1:15. I slept until 4:30am (I am making progress) I see a nap in our future this afternoon. We just finished breakfast and it was AWESOME!!! Huge Buffet...they had an egg station, noodle station, and all kinds of other foods. The only thing missing was a coffee bar! I am super impressed with this Marriott Courtyard. Today we are exchanging money and going to Walmart. We will get water, some snacks, and maybe a souvenir or 2.

                                            Our spartan room

                                            Picture of one of the Shanghai train stations

                                                            Very happy to find MacDonalds!

Our luggage minus one of the carry ons and minus all of the backpacks. 

Cute family bathroom

Couldn't not go to Walmart

The moving walkway to get to the Walmart

My 2 boys on the train.

Tomorrow is the day!!!! The day we meet our sons! Gotta get onto a sleep pattern here. Just ate some lunch and now we are going to nap.......TTFN :)