Our Trip: What Day is It???

Yesterday was a long, not-so-fun day.  We spent the morning at the Summer Palace in Beijing.  It was rainy and FUH-REEZING.  Needless to say, Li'l Miss was not too excited about looking at traditional Chinese architecture in the 40-degree drizzle.  The rest of us weren't exactly thrilled either.  That being said, the Summer Palace is pretty incredible.  And I'm sure it would be a lovely vacation spot...in the summer, that is.

Jeremy was super excited to eat at KFC for lunch.  The rest of us had a yummy Chinese meal with Ping, the world's best guide.  After lunch, we headed to the Southern Beijing Railway Station to catch our train to Shanghai.  That was a whole new adventure.  The station was huge and very modern.  There were people everywhere; it felt a lot like a big airport in the States.  

Someone (who asked to remain anonymous) was studying her camera on the way to our gate and managed to get completely lost.  Ummmm...how do you find a lost family member in a Chinese railway station?  No cell phones.  (Moment of silence for our lost iPhone here.)  No English-speaking security guards.  It was a very scary 67 seconds.  Thankfully, we tracked down said lost family member and made it to our train in plenty of time.

I've decided that bullet trains are my new favorite way to travel.  They are clean, spacious, and very quiet.  It was almost completely silent as we whizzed along at 304 km/hr.  (That's about 189 mph for those of you who are metrically challenged like I am.)  My mom, Jeremy, and Li'l Miss took a long snooze on the train, while I read.  The 800-mile trip from Beijing to Shanghai lasted less than five hours.  One of our agency's guides met us at the station and took us to our hotel.

Shanghai is an impressive city.  The skyline is incredible, a mix of modern skyscrapers and historic buildings.  Our hotel is in a great location, close to everything (shops, restaurants, famous sights).  

By the time we arrived at our hotel, I was seriously regretting my decision to skip naptime on the train.  I was super tired and hungry and pretty much grouchy and miserable.  Jet Lag Girl is not nice after nine hours without food.  My sweet family accommodated my demand request to take a walk and look for a restaurant.  Unfortunately, finding a restaurant at 9:00 at night in an unfamiliar neighborhood turned out to be a bit of a challenge.  After unsuccessfully circling a few blocks, we settled on a grocery store.

Everyone but Jet Lag Girl was very happy strolling the aisles of the grocery store, stocking up on all their favorite snacks: jelly, milk, yogurt, etc.  Jet Lag Girl just wanted something hot and proteiny (that's totally a word).  When my mom and I got to the check-out, Jeremy was wandering in some distant aisle picking out Lay's potato chips.  We checked out without him, so he had to go to the back of the line.

At this point, I totally lost it.  (Serious lack of sleep and protein going on here.)  I think I may have actually stomped my foot and said, "I'm starving" before stomping out of the store.  (Yes, I know, I'm thirty-two years old.  Jet lag is nasty, I swear.)  I sat down on the front steps of the grocery store, tore open the bag of custard buns we'd picked up, and ate the whole thing.  (Actually, I ate all but two...which I ate as soon as we got back to the hotel.  They looked so lonely all by themselves in that big bag.)

Today has been much, much better.  I actually slept until after 7:00 (yay, me!).  This morning we got a map of Shanghai and headed to the Bund (a famous historical area of Shanghai).  It's within easy walking distance of our hotel.  We walked along the Huangpu River and took in the Pudong skyline: gorgeous!  It actually feels a bit like Chicago.  And they have Starbucks.

Right now Li'l Miss is napping, our giant stack of dirty clothes is in the washer, and I'm sitting quietly in the lobby.  Our internet connection has been pretty unpredictable.  The VPN I downloaded to access Facebook only works occasionally, so my posts might be a bit sporadic.  I'm going to end now so I can try to post some Beijing pictures while I have a good connection.

Before I go, some of you might be interested to know that we pick up our son tomorrow morning!  We're meeting our guide in the lobby at 9:00am, so we should see him for the first time between 9:30 and 10:00.  (That's 5:30pm Sunday in California and 8:30pm EST.)  I promise to post pictures as soon as I can.  We unpacked this morning, and it was so fun to pull out little boy shoes and little boy clothes and little boy toys.  So exciting!  

And, no, he doesn't officially have a name yet.  But he will soon.