Summer Days Gone Bye

We are finally settled into an apartment in Shanghai. It has been a LONG difficult journey since June when we left Beijing with 5 suitcases and what seems like 10 carry-ons. I’m sure it wasn’t that many, but traveling through airports with kids, carseats, backpacks and rolling carry-ons sure makes for some difficult traveling. Our flight to the States went well , with no major issues.

Two minor annoyances in the Beijing airport - first not allowing the family into the lounge with A (who is platinum or whatever it takes to be in the lounge). They said only the ‘platinum holder’ was allowed – so he just went in and took the free food and drinks and brought them out to us. The other annoyance – we had already gone through security, so had done the whole “no liquids” thing - there were liquid drink vending machines in the terminal next to the boarding area of our plane, so we figured we were allowed to bring liquids bought AFTER security onto the plane. We bought water and orange juice and put them in our carryons. During boarding, the agents were checking through all bags and threw away all the unopened bottles we had just bought. ARGH! No signs, no information saying you can’t bring on board the plane. VERY FRUSTRATING!

The plane was full of some older American travelers who had just finished a tour of Beijing – they were definitely having some fun on the plane which made for some interesting people watching. You know when the captain turns on the fasten seat belt sign and says everyone needs to sit down for turbulence – AND THERE IS NO TURBULENCE – that someone has been having a bit too much fun on the plane.

It was wonderful being back home – visiting with friends and family. It was quite hectic with the three kids – going around visiting with people isn’t as easy when there are more kids – and one of them has to take a nap everyday. The kids were troopers though – going everywhere and staying in different houses without much fuss. Anthony went back to Shanghai weeks before the kids and me. I visited family in AZ with all the kids (never again will I fly alone with 3 kids until the youngest is able to sit in a seat by himself and watch a movie for the whole flight) and tried to visit with friends/family once back in TX. I did not get a chance to visit with everyone who I wanted to – and for those who missed out on seeing us, I am truly sorry and sincerely hope that next summer there will be better planning on our part.

My friend, P, took up the offer of a trip to China in exchange for helping me fly with the three kids back to Shanghai. She was truly a godsend and helped keep me sane during the trip – especially when the pilot turned the plane around 2.5 hours into our flight out of San Francisco and made an announcement that there was an alarm in the cargo hold that was going off and SF told him he needed to return for safety. ARGH. I have a rather high anxiety level when flying and this setback DID NOT HELP! So, 5 hours after we left SF, we returned to SF. Stayed on the plane for 2 hours – with lots of chinese high school students – before taking off again on the same plane. Talk about a NON RELAXING flight. The kids were absolutely positively angels during the flight. They slept a good portion of the flight and there were no fits going on at all. I was very impressed with their behavior – maybe they sensed the anxiety level in mom and decided that mom having a nervous breakdown on the plane wasn’t the way to go. So about 19 hours after getting on that plane, we arrived in Shanghai – at 2:30 in the morning! Everyone was happy to see Anthony waiting on the other side of customs.

We stayed for about a week at a serviced apartment and then moved into our new apartment. It is a good area with lots of greenery around. I am truly amazed at the pollution difference between here and Beijing. Not having dust everywhere and dirt covering everything is so nice. I have seen so many blue sky days that I just can’t believe it. That part of Shanghai I really do like.