Well we are back to where it all began – Hong Kong. We are staying at the Airport hotel, and it’s… well, it’s good we’re only staying here one night. It’s the most expensive hotel of the four we’ve patronized, and it’s easily the worst. My opinion pretty much begins and ends with the cost of the place. Not only is it the most expensive, but the internet access even costs… AND the buffet is NOT included! The ultimate insult is they charge $57 USD an hour for a massage… which means I didn’t get a massage this entire trip. Who comes to China and doesn’t get a massage? I knew I should have done it up in Changsha where the price was $10.37 USD for an hour. Next time, perhaps.
So we took a two-hour train ride from Guangzhou down to Hong Kong. The excitement came when the Customs official at the Hong Kong entry questioned whether Shari’s passport really belonged to her. He held up the passport and asked, “You?” I guess there was also excitement when I was singled out to have my temperature taken… because I was wearing a leather coat in the warmth of the day.
It was my first time on a bonafied train. It was kind of like a low-flying (like ground level) plane… only bumpier, slower, with bigger windows, and with nastier lavatories. Shari said I wouldn’t get any reading done, but she was wrong. From the train station, we took a taxi to the airport. I video taped almost the entire ride. I hope to make people car sick from watching the footage.
Shinko helped us get our rooms (after lugging around a good chunk of our luggage) and helped us locate the nearest fast-food establishments in the airport. Then we bid her a fond farewell. We consider ourselves privileged to be her first official adoption process, and we tried to convey to her how much we appreciated her. Most of my appreciation came from the fact that she did an excellent job of tolerating my unrivaled sense of humor and dazzling quick wit. She dished it back me quite a few times, which I always enjoy… especially from a self-labeled “quiet” person.
So tomorrow we eat some breakfast, take a five-minute stroll to the airport departure terminal, and enjoy the rest of the process. Shari and I are really looking forward to the 13-hour flight… because we are finding that Cassidy doesn’t really have an inside voice. Yes, Cassidy is very talkative in her simple gibberish… which is not even quasi-Mandarin at its core. I’m not exactly sure when the institutes start teaching Mandarin, but the process is apparently nowhere close to being complete by 21 months of age in the Yongzhou area. I have no doubt that she can understand quite a bit, but we’ve tried to get a translation for her cries, and they amount to noise.
Cassidy hasn’t been as adventurous today as she was, but she’s definitely being more vocal. When Shari has to leave her side, Cassidy is preferring to freak out in my arms rather than freak out alone on the floor or in her crib. I ask her if she wants me to pick her up, and she lunges at me… and then continues to scream. She is absolutely panicked in those situations. It’s become a running gag with me. What else? She tried to club me with a water bottle three times after I kept her from swallowing a staple she had found on the floor of the hotel room (another thumbs up for the hotel here). She’s a real spitfire…
Cassidy and Mama have had to go a few rounds today. We’re finding that Cassidy is what one might call a “strong-willed child,” and she seems to really enjoy pushing things to the limit. Right now, she is refusing to go to sleep, and Mama is refusing to enable her play time. I will enjoy the process of teaching her who the boss and who the boss isn’t. I will enjoy the process of her becoming a Daddy’s girl even more… but establishing the hierarchy in the house is very close behind that on my enjoyment scale.
Oh well. This should be it from the foreign soil. Perhaps I’ll continue this blog just because there are definitely a few more chapters in this adoption story. We’ll see.
So we took a two-hour train ride from Guangzhou down to Hong Kong. The excitement came when the Customs official at the Hong Kong entry questioned whether Shari’s passport really belonged to her. He held up the passport and asked, “You?” I guess there was also excitement when I was singled out to have my temperature taken… because I was wearing a leather coat in the warmth of the day.
It was my first time on a bonafied train. It was kind of like a low-flying (like ground level) plane… only bumpier, slower, with bigger windows, and with nastier lavatories. Shari said I wouldn’t get any reading done, but she was wrong. From the train station, we took a taxi to the airport. I video taped almost the entire ride. I hope to make people car sick from watching the footage.
Shinko helped us get our rooms (after lugging around a good chunk of our luggage) and helped us locate the nearest fast-food establishments in the airport. Then we bid her a fond farewell. We consider ourselves privileged to be her first official adoption process, and we tried to convey to her how much we appreciated her. Most of my appreciation came from the fact that she did an excellent job of tolerating my unrivaled sense of humor and dazzling quick wit. She dished it back me quite a few times, which I always enjoy… especially from a self-labeled “quiet” person.
So tomorrow we eat some breakfast, take a five-minute stroll to the airport departure terminal, and enjoy the rest of the process. Shari and I are really looking forward to the 13-hour flight… because we are finding that Cassidy doesn’t really have an inside voice. Yes, Cassidy is very talkative in her simple gibberish… which is not even quasi-Mandarin at its core. I’m not exactly sure when the institutes start teaching Mandarin, but the process is apparently nowhere close to being complete by 21 months of age in the Yongzhou area. I have no doubt that she can understand quite a bit, but we’ve tried to get a translation for her cries, and they amount to noise.
Cassidy hasn’t been as adventurous today as she was, but she’s definitely being more vocal. When Shari has to leave her side, Cassidy is preferring to freak out in my arms rather than freak out alone on the floor or in her crib. I ask her if she wants me to pick her up, and she lunges at me… and then continues to scream. She is absolutely panicked in those situations. It’s become a running gag with me. What else? She tried to club me with a water bottle three times after I kept her from swallowing a staple she had found on the floor of the hotel room (another thumbs up for the hotel here). She’s a real spitfire…
Cassidy and Mama have had to go a few rounds today. We’re finding that Cassidy is what one might call a “strong-willed child,” and she seems to really enjoy pushing things to the limit. Right now, she is refusing to go to sleep, and Mama is refusing to enable her play time. I will enjoy the process of teaching her who the boss and who the boss isn’t. I will enjoy the process of her becoming a Daddy’s girl even more… but establishing the hierarchy in the house is very close behind that on my enjoyment scale.
Oh well. This should be it from the foreign soil. Perhaps I’ll continue this blog just because there are definitely a few more chapters in this adoption story. We’ll see.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I gave Shari a ticket to the gun show...
Goofball out!
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