Home at last

I didnt post much- actually at all from our last stop in Guangzhou. I didnt have internet in my room and not much really happened. It was a very nice city. It was very europian feeling with the bulidings. The weather was nice and warm too. It rained most of the time we were there..and i was sick for the last 2 days. I mostly stayed in my bed watching the 4 american tv channels. Mostly HBO. I watched the same 3 movies at least 4 times.



There were awesome places to shop. There were stores everywhere. My mom and i spent lots of money and bought gifts for everyone. MY dad was sick for the first 2 days we were there so it was mostly my mom and I doing all the town exploring. Our friend Eddie took pics of us..it was crazy when i first saw them cause i didnt even see him on the street taking them. Talk about paparazzi.





We also took gracie and the babies to the doctor the second day we were there. It was very overwhelming. there were so many people there..and the doctors didnt really tell us anything we didnt already know. It was just something we had to do.

We havent even been home for 10 hours and it feels so good. The plane ride was even longer coming home then going. The plane was actually really awesome. It was brand new and had a tv moniter in the seats. I was excited because i could plug in my laptop cause you didnt need an adapter but i didnt have to! The plane had about 500 movies in the seat to choose from! It was so cool. I watched about 8 movies. Across the universe, chicago, spinal tap, blow, batman begins, lord of the rings...it was awesome. They also had full length albums to listen too...its almost like you dont even need to travel with electronics anymore.

The last 3 hours of the flight were awful though. We all started to feel motion sickness and were very tired. Gracie also thew up all over my mom. Im not talking about spit up, but projectile exorcist style vomiting. As my mom was moving to go to the bathroom for a stinky poo diaper explosion...gracie perfectly aimed her spit up right at me. Good thing i had a new shirt in my backpack.

As we FINALLY got off the plane, we made it through customs and immigration. It felt kind of strange to travel without our group. It was empty feeling. Keith and Kim were the last ones in our group on the flight with us. We said goodbye at baggage and walked through the airport out the doors. I couldn't help but tear up as i walked down the ramp to the outside airport doors as i heard an airport worker looked at us and said happily "welcome home" where my mothers response to that was a quietly spoken "thats right- amen"


We arrived around 4pm at home. As we pulled up we saw Aunt Debbie and the girls out their back door jumping and waving for us. We walked in and said hello to Anthony. We introduced him to gracie. He did what we predicted and laughed. Then we brought gracie over to aunt debbies. she was kind of confused and scared. We came back and stuffed our faces with real home made italian food. the way we were eating you would think we haven't eaten in like 2 weeks- oh wait..

We got settled in and showed anthony our travel videos and pics. Then we all fell asleep in the living room waiting for everyone to come over at 7..Gracie on moms chest. It felt good to all be in the same room together as a full complete family.

gracie had a pretty good first night. I heard her wake up a couple times during the night. She loves her room. She woke up around 4am. So did both my parents. I woke up around 430 and i was really hungry. I went back to sleep then woke up for real around 11:30...i forced myself up..i could have slept longer. I woke up and made a grilled cheese since thats all i wanted when i was in china. It tasted so good.

Now here i am back in my own bed in the middle of the afternoon. I need to catch up on the 2 episodes of Lost i missed out on before tonight. I also can not express my excitement enough that i get to start watching The Colbert Report and Conan o Brien again. They dont got that in china!

One week in China

One week in china today. And also my dads birthday. Today was pretty much a free day. We went to peoples park. It was actually a lot of fun. My dad is really sick with a cold so he stayed in bed all day. Me and my mom went with the group to the park. We saw people dancing and exercising. While we waiting for the other people in the group who were walking slower, the old ladies and people would come up to the babies and touch them and hug them. It was really overwhelming. Now i know how rock stars feel when they go out in public. It is funny at first but i can see how it can get annoying when you just want a normal walk.

After another group lunch downstairs, we celebrated Emily Grace's first birthday. It was really fun. We had chocolate cake but she didnt really know how to eat it.

Tonight is the last night of Chinese new year so fire works are going off right now. Its more like fouth of july here rather then a new years celebration. I am also watching The Prestige for the 8th time on HBO. Its alright though cause its a really good movie.

We all decided to venture off and go to the square down the street to see some chinese celebrations. We went early so there wasnt anything to see. It got really overwhelming because we were just standing around and a huge crowd formed. You would think someone really important was there with the crowd that formed around us. It was too much so we walked and moved a little further and yet another crowd formed. It got really crazy and hectic. I felt a pinch at my butt and then i said that was enough. I dont know if someone intentionally pinched my irresistible booty or if it was a pick pocket but either way i was ready to go back to the hotel.

Today was the last day in Nanchang. Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou for another 5 days and then we finally go home

day6

Just when i thought the day was a dud. A guy from our travel group did some research before he came here. His name is Doug and he found out this town had a Buddhist temple about a half hours walk away. A bunch of us decided to go. I got some really awesome shots along the way. It was still crazy and we got looks but the stares are getting more normal..normal in a sense that we dont even really notice it anymore. Actually since we are american, people dont mind as much when we take pics of them.





THe temple was awesome and really peaceful. It is still active. We climbed up a really narrow tower which can be compared to best to a lighthouse. The staircases were really narrow..almost straight up. There was a great view from the top.




We climbed down and walked to another temple. When we got there we walked inside. There was a crazy amount of insense inside. it was really cool.

For dinner we all ate as a group in the hotel chinese restraunt. I noticed everything is really small. Small plates, glasses, and servings. There were about 10 people at a table and the portion size was that of a small american size. it was very interesting. afterwards i wanted ice cream but there was none to be found

Tomorrow we are going to explore some more and go shopping. should be a good time.

China day 5 1/2

Today is our first free day in almost a week. It is also the first time i slept the whole night. I read somewhere that every timezone you fly through, its one day to adjusted to the jetlag. We flew through 7 time zones and ive almost been here a week, so it makes sense.

Gracie is awesome. She is such a joy. She is so funny and sweet. I get sad when she falls asleep at night cause i miss her. She brings hope to me in the morning. I keep telling her wait until we get home cause she has so many people who love her already. I think she has flashbacks of the orphanage when she sleeps cause she starts crying for no reason. She also sucks her thumb and plays with her fingers. My mom said in the orphanage since they dont have any toys they play with their fingers to keep themselves occupied. Its heartbreaking. She has all the toys in the world but still wants her fingers.

Yesterday we took a trip to walmart. There is one down the street. its about a 20 min walk. What an experience. The streets were very crowded. The driving here is worse then NYC driving. NYC at least they stop for you...here they will run you over. There is also no such thing as street lights. i mean they have street lights but they dont pay attention to them. we almost got hit a few times. While walking to walmart our buddy scott wanted to stop at one of the street venders to get this pita bread type stuff. it was pretty good.

After many stares we arrived at walmart. It took a while but it was just like any normal walmart. Ironically all the stuff there said Made in Texas. just kidding.

On the way back we decided to be brave and took a taxi. I actually lived the game Crazy Taxi. The driver made an illegal U-Turn in the middle of a one way street into on coming traffic. He also jumped the curb and drove onto the sidewalk in the middle of a train station with people waiting to buy tickets. Underneath the overpass and booked it diagonally onto a one way street to our hotel. It was a ride of a lifetime. My dad and scott went to walmart again today and i told my dad to bring the video camera to tape the taxi ride. wait until you see it.

Tonight is a group sit down dinner with that little turn table thing in the middle. Should be fun

China day 4 and 5

Yesterday was probably the craziest day yet. We left beijing to fly to nanchang to pick up our babies. We landed and the weather was wonderful. Its cloudy today but yesterday it was in the upper 50's and its suppose to be around 70 this week. We took a very anxious bus ride to the hotel. We found out that the babies were here before we were so it was kind of hectic. We ran up into our room to drop off our stuff then rushed down to the third floor conference room to get the babies. We got lost along the way but they finally came. They delivered the babies orphanage by orphanage, gracies was the second. It was kind of emotional. I thought the delivery of grace would be emotional but we forgot to bring our passports down with us. I saw gracie get carried in by her nanny and she was right in front of me. I was the first to see her. My mom and dad went upstairs to get the passports. my mom got lost so went back down and my dad took what seemed like forever to get back downstairs. He didn't want my mom to get Gracie without him being there so it was a long and actually pretty humorous wait.






I think we are all still in shock that she is actually here. She is such a good baby. She has yet to even cry that much. All the prayers that people have been saying are true..that she knows our family and knows our voices. She was just waiting for us to come get her. Its amazing really.







After we got her we went back upstairs to give her her first bath and put awesome new clothes on her. She drank about 3 bottles in one sitting.

Once we got settled in i looked around the hotel. Its probbaly the sweetest hotel i've ever been in. a whole king size bed to myself is a good deal.

Today we just ran around town to get passport and things done for gracie. We are going to venture out to walmart to grab some things that we forgot. It should be a trip

China day 3

Today was the closest feeling of being famous for me. I got a glimpse of what life is like for the Hollywood stars today. We took a trip to the forbidden city. It was quite a trip. The chinese people are not used to seeing faces like ours. A couple people in our travel group have blond hair and blue eyes. this is especially rare for the chinese people. We've had a couple people saying that yesterday at the great wall people would come up to them and just touch them or have pictures taken with them. Its so bizzare.

When we were walking today we had natives take our picture for no apparent reason. People would stare at us as we walked through the square. There are also many vender's here who try to sell their items. In my mind i replaced the things they were trying to sell and replaced them with cameras and its the spitting image of paparazzi. They would hound you and literally follow you around until you bought something. You had to just ignore them while you walked and couldn't make eye contact or they wouldn't leave you alone. We went on a rickshaw ride around parts of town, outside of the forbidden city. It was a hilarious experience being pulled around on a bike. There were only 2 people to a seat, so i went with my mom and my dad had to go with a new friend Keith. 2 full grown men on the back of a rickshaw watching a little chinese man bike them around was hilarious. When Dad got off he said the man was grunting a lot and making angry noises...at one point he said the guy had to get off the bike and PUSH them...what an experience. Also on the rickshaw the vendors would be on their bikes (much like the paparazzi in their cars) and follow us around the tiny ally ways. They almost caused accidents. One of them was trying to sell us "cashmere" scarves on his bike while we were riding..he was neck and neck with us on my moms side and she ignored him, but he wouldn't be fooled...he started POKING my mom saying "hello cashmere hello"..she yelled "SCOTT HE IS POKING ME" (scott is another new friend in our group who was on the rickshaw in front of us) We had a good laugh for about 5 mins.






All in all it was an adventurous day, one that can only be experienced in china. I have pics of the awesome buildings in the forbidden city.





We are out of Beijing tomorrow at 8:30. We fly to Nanchang to finally get Gracie around 4:30. They will bring her to our hotel room.

Day 2

Last night was probably the most confusing night of my life. I woke up a couple different times. I was so extremely tired from the day but my body was still on western time. I finally got up for the day around 6:30am and i went online and talked to my brother who just got home from school around 5pm.

I went into the bathroom to try and figure out how to take a shower (since its mostly baths here) and i did so. This is my room.

I also think its really awesome how they have Diet Coke, Coke and sprite.



After that we got some breakfast up on the 26th floor. It was a killer view. I think it was the only breakfast buffet ive ever been to in my life that served eggs, baked beans and lasagnia all in one shot. We had a travel meeting then it was off to the great wall. I noticed a lot of people ride bikes here. And not just bikes, but bikes with lots of stuff strapped to the back. I could have sworn i saw a guy with an actual green dumpster on the back.

It took about an hour to get to the great wall but it was worth the ride. I cant even explain how amazing it was. The history behind it. It was started in 1770 BC. Its about 3,000 miles long and can been seen from space. It was quite cold and windy but i got lots of great shots.






On the way there we also stopped at some factory that made copper vases. it was cool to see it all made by hand.

I will have more pictures up as i go.

Tonight is a Mcdonalds dinner- then tomorrow is the forbidden city and then sunday is gracie. I hope everyone has a wonderful friday. i already know whats going to happen since my friday is almost over. its almost like i am from the future....

Day 1- Planes, Trains and Automobiles

The day started off very very cold. in PA there were tons of accidents on rt 22 and 78 with the nasty snow and ice storm. We had to get out earlier than expected so as of right now i haven't slept in about 26 hours. We got at newark airport at 10 so our flight could leave around 12:30...

I've never been in an airplane for over 5 hours...this was about 13 hours. It was really odd to see a sunrise (or sunset im sitll not sure which one it was) from an airplane, then it got dark out and we saw stars...then it just turned light again as we got closer to china. I still feel like im moving. The time differece is really hard to get used to. Right now my computer clock says it is 6:35am on Thursday feb 14th. (valentines...YAY) but my clock here in wonderful Beijing says it is around 8pm Thursday feb 14th. Very odd. We want to make phone calls to home but we keep forgetting that we'd wake everyone up.

I dont really know what im talking about. i still have super jetlag. Tomorrow is the jet lag. So far this place is awesome...i really still cant believe im here. I look out my hotel room window and see all these Chinese letters and stuff....its just really cool. I feel like this whole experience is going to fly by..im trying to soak it all in. We get gracie on sunday if you all were wondering. I already have some great shots of what i saw today. There isnt too much cause it was mostly travel and stuff, but none the less...

excuse me while i eat my pizza hut, watch american HBO. Have a good day everyone. And i will have a good night.