Well today we leave for Chongqing! It is formerly a part of the Sichuan provice of China. This is also where Fuling is!!!! And Fuling is where our daughter is!!!!! So this will be a wonderful trip!!! Our Chongqing group is the first of the 52 CHI familes to leave for their provice!!! We were excited about that!!
Off we head to the airport!! And wouldn't you know...poor Fred...they searched his carry on bag. Try to explain with our limited Chinese what an aeresol can of deodorant is. I just about am convinced that the people at the airports are convinced that it is hairspray!!! Because they asked him in broken English...this for you hair??? I had to walk off again and let my poor husband handle that question because my answer would have been...in a manner of speaking yes!!!
Off we all go....our 9 families off through the airport!!!! We get to our gate and wait!!! I sent Fred on a hunt for an Olympics baseball cap for Phillip while we were at the airport!!! He did good, he found one!!! We all talked and waited and laughed and walked around a little bit waiting for our flight. We were finally able to board the plane for Chongqing!!! It wasn't a really particular long flight, but oh my goodness...it almost felt like there was no air conditioning on that plane!!! It was WARM!!! It was also a bumpy flight which made for a lovely time on the plane, but thank goodness we had our friends with us to make up for it!!! We finally arrived in Chongqing!!!! We would be here for the next 10 days!! And needless to say I was thrilled to be off of that plane. I always do very well on a plane...but that one was a little rough!!!
We gathered our luggage, met up with Joan, who would be our tour guide for the next 10 days! She is a fiesty girl!!!! But such a wonderful friend she became!!!! Off we headed to the Chongqing Hilton. On our way to the hotel, we were told that they were trying to improve the city conditions by upgrading buildings and getting ready for a summit of sorts and also getting ready for the Olympics coming to China in 2008!!! All of China is excited that the Olympics are coming!!!! We saw what seemed to be the oddest sight that I had seen.....Orange and Yellow fake palm trees in the center of this area in the road. That left me scratching my head a little!!!
We pulled up to the Hilton!!! What a beautiful hotel it was!!!! We walked in and saw the beautiful marble floors, the marble staircase and the fountain. We all got our room assignments and away we went to take our rooms! We got upstairs to our room and walk in...we look over at the window and waiting by the window is a little bed with blankets and waiting on the blankets was a little panda bear!!!! That was a gift from the hotel for Hope. It was the sweetest thing. It really made me realize that she was finally coming!!!!
Went into the bathroom and there they already had a baby bathtub, and a wide variety of baby bath soap, shampoo, lotion and things for us to use. It was very sweet!!!
We decided to meet Dave and Ruthie, from KY, and Matt and Lisa from Kansas City for dinner. We asked Joan where was some place that had really good food from the Chongqing area! So off we went following Joan!!! We went into this place called CSC-Chongqing Style Chicken ( I think is the name of it!!). Joan said that she would help us order. Well Fred and I were first. I'm not quite sure what we ordered and then they told us the amount. Well Joan told us to step aside. We thought that she was going to jump over the counter!!! She gave them what for and then some I do believe! Then she told us ok...we could pay now. She was upset because they were going to over charge us and she told them no! So then we get our food and go to look for a table. Well try to not look so obvious in a place full of Chinese here come 6 American people, on of them is over 6 feet tall. We were not wanting to be on display...but that didn't happen. One of the people that worked there said that he had a table for us! Guess where????? He put us right in front of the main window!!! So there we sat eating our dinner. It was good, but then it happened...my lips started to go numb!!! That stuff had some HEAT in it!!! I started to look at what I was eating...it had some of the darkest, deep red chili peppers that I had ever seen in my life!!!!! So I tried to stay away from the peppers and just eat the chicken and rice. Then I just ate the rice!!! I then noticed that they had put a pack of additional chili powder stuff on my plate just in case it wasn't hot enough for me!!! Needless to say I put that stuff in my bag and was going to hold on to the next chili cookoff that I ever did that had a prize for the hottest chili!!! I do believe we would take it!!! Then the fun started.....we kept seeing people as they walked by and when they noticed the group of us sitting in front of the window...you would start to see people back up and just stand there and stare. I told Lisa we could try to make some extra spending money....just advertise...picture with an American for only $1!!! We laughed. That went on for quite a while!!!! We then all finally finished with what we could eat and decided to go for a walk around.
It was fun to go walking around just to see the people, the shops...it was fun! The lights in Chongqing at night are beautiful! The people there are sooo friendly. They are just as interested in Americans when they come as we are when we see them. After awhile, we walked back to the hotel and looked around and went up to the top of the hotel to look around. Then the hardest part...trying to go to sleep when we knew that tomorrow would be the day that would change our families forever!!! GOTCHA DAY!!!!
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