Day 9 Guangzhou

(Please check in on Day 7 later today.  My friend Vanessa has volunteered to help out posting pictures, so hopefully we can get that working again.)

The short version of today is that we made it safely to the hotel.  Keep reading for the longer version...

After I wrote the Day 8 post, I went out of the VIP lounge to use the bathroom.  When I returned, there was a group of men standing outside trying to get in. The glass doors were locked.  I went to the front of the crowd and stood there trying to figure out if I should start banging on the doors or just wait on them to open them.  The staff was standing on the other side and could clearly see me, but they obviously didn't want to open the doors.  After a few minutes of this, a couple of people needed to leave the lounge, so they opened the doors and I hurried inside.  About a dozen men followed me in and got through before they locked the doors again.  Several people tried to jam the door open with their feet or water bottles.  It was a little scary there for a moment.  The guide who was there got his family in and then spent some time trying to get the third American family in so that he could keep us all together.  Every time they opened the door people tried to get in, but it calmed down a lot after that. 

All I can say at this point is that when people have been waiting for a flight for 6 hours, they get very agitated.

The guide let me know that the plane that was supposed to be there at 12:30 hadn't taken off yet.  I later learned that there was a big hail storm in Guangzhou preventing take-off.  I settled in to get some sleep at that point, with Tim staying awake to monitor things.  At 2:30 I woke up to find that they were going to board us at 3:00, but when we got to the doors of the plane, they wouldn't let us on because we hadn't gone through security the second time we got tickets.  We had stayed in the boarding area.  Only at that point we didn't know what the problem was, so I just started praying they would let us on the plane.  Finally a security person who spoke English came and explained they had to check our passports to see if we matched our boarding passes, and then they let us on. 

And then we sat on the runway for another hour.  For those keeping score, we spent 11 hours at the airport before we took off at 4:30.

We made it to the hotel about 7:30, with enough time to eat breakfast, shower, and brush our teeth before getting Jack to his medical exam.  Jack was not a fan of the doctors' office.  He was exhausted from spending the night at the airport and less than cooperative. 

And then we crashed.  The only other thing we have done is eat dinner.  Jacob and Mom and the kids have had a bit more free time and went to the pool after waking up.  I hear it is lovely.

Tomorrow is church and shopping on Shamian Island.  I am looking forward to going back there, but Alison says that everything is moving off of the island and that many businesses have closed.  Still, I think it will still be a peaceful place to walk around and relax. 

We are staying at the China Hotel Marriott.  Very fancy schmancy.  And jam packed with adoptive families.  Everyone who used to stay at the White Swan now stays here apparently, although I think there are still people who stay on the island at the Victory.  I would have loved to stay on the island again.

I am way too tired to tie this up in a neat bow.  Sleep time for me:)