1st day in Zhengzhou.....

Yesterday we started the day by gathering up all our belongings and heading to the train station. Ok let me just say there were more people waiting in that room then all of Winneconne it seemed like. Tons of people. Thank goodness we had seats assigned and it wasn't push your way to your seat. While we were waiting I told Cindy (our guide who was also riding the train with us and is our guide here in Zz) that I thought I should try to use the restroom before the 5 hr trip. She agreed and off we went. Now let me just say when your guide tells you to roll your pants and then looks in a stall and says.....ughhhh I do not want to go here. Do you think you can hold it until we are on the train???........the best thing to do is run the other way. I decided I wanted to check if there was a western toilet because I figured that was going to be tons better then a squat toilet on the train. OH MY WORD......RUN. No way no how was I using it. So off we go to wait to board the train. Once on I figured I'll go use it before the train is moving. No go. The doors to it don't unlock until the train is moving. Well I had my first experience with a squatty potty on a moving train. And to all those coming behind me they really are nothing to fear. Some tips.....bring travel kleenex because they don't supply toilet paper in bathrooms, bring travel hand wipes because many don't have an area to wash your hand, hand sanitizer for everything and roll your pants before going in.

The trip was long but I loved it!

We got in and Cindy led the way out of the train station. I would suggest if you are coming and taking the train to bring tie tabs to put on the zipper of your backpack. That way no one can unzip if from behind, people are so crammed in you would never know. We headed out of the tunnel and onto the streets from the train and oh my Lord.....crazy traffic, people everywhere. I have to say it is very odd to have everyone who walks by you just stare like you are an alien of some kind.

ok so we are having trouble uploading pictures so I'll add more if we can get them to work later.

Next we headed to the hotel that we had a room booked for or at least we thought we did. Now I do not understand Chinese but I do understand a questioning look, searching tons of papers and the computer and Cindy saying something and then just turning to smile at us. Yep no room booked for us. Oh wait they found one in are 3 which is in a different building. Ok fine off we go to enter a Holiday Inn. No not staying here we are to be at the Crowne Plaza along with all the other adopting families. Long story short about an hour later we enter a smoking, 100 degree temp room at the Crowne Plaza. The air conditioner doesn't work so we figure we will just open the window to cool it off. Well then it's time to leave and the darn thing won't shut......really. I haven't eaten since 7am and it is now 5pm and I am starving :) not a pretty sight for me. On the way out we learn there is a trick only housekeeping can shut it so we go off to eat. Cindy found us a great restaurant and Ben and I had a quick 101 from her on how to use chopsticks since when she asked for a fork for us there was none in the whole place...lol. Ben did much better then I did but I didn't starve and we both managed to get enough into our mouths to make us full!

We headed back to the hotel to get everything ready for tomorrow. Into the room we head and yep you guessed. They shut the window and turned on the heat!!!! So I call down to explain it is too hot and then send us a guy who tells us there is no air conditioning just open the window. I asked him what is the trick to closing it. He looked at me like I was crazy and just shut it. Ok easy enough. Bed time rolls around and Ben and I try to shut it. 15 min later lights out window unlocked.....I really don't get it. It looked so easy when he did it but I wasn't about to call down again....lol. We figure we are up too high for anyone to get in and Cori yes the word ...adventure....has been repeating itself in my head over and over for the last 24 hrs :) and it's working.

 

I'm actually typing this Monday morning here and we leave in 1.5 hrs to go get our little guy!!!!! We will post again when we can.

Also sorry about typos and layout of these posts. We are doing this off the Ipad and it looks different after we hit post sometimes and I am not rereading before posting. It just is taking too long.

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