Ni hao from Beijing, I think . . .

Hmmm . . . we left Guangzhou yesterday . . . I think . . .
I do know we got up, packed, had a late lunch, drove en masse to the American embassy, and did the final paperwork for the adoptions--so Lulu is now an official Tripp-Spy; also, an American citizen, due to my holding my hand up while a bureaucrat said something official.

After that, it all gets hazy.
We drove to the airport, amid thunder and lightning. Our flight was delayed. We spent several hours at the airport, playing with modeling clay I had cleverly packed for just such an occasion. We were surrounded by curious and friendly Chinese travelers, and I got to practice my Mandarin. I gave one guy a Harvard tee-shirt, which I had cleverly packed for just such an occasion, and he gave me something--I don't know what, because the plane was boarding, so I threw his gift in my bag, and ran as fast as one can run hauling a kid and assorted heavy bags and parcels.

Note to self: never, ever again travel with more than one carry-on. Never. And never again buy any souvenir or trinket larger than a pearl.

Ok, then I think we sat in the plane, with no air conditioning, for oh, two or three hours. Then they said the flight was cancelled. Then we sat there for about half an hour. Then they said ok, we're going. (Pierre may have to edit this sequence of events later, as I am not good with details at the best of times, and I'm now NOT at my best.)

So we flew for about, oh three hours, then they said we couldn't land at Beijing, the weather was too bad, and we would land some other Godforsaken place, I think it is called Tianzhou. (note to self: look up someday.)

Then we took a bus from the plane to the airport, and sat there for awhile. Then we were going to go to another hotel to wait for a few hours, but no! then we were going to Beijing again! So we took a bus out to the plane, and got on, and after awhile we got to Beijing. Maybe around 6:00 A.M. or so. Then we waited in the Beijing airport, and wheeled the kids around on luggage carts for, ummmm, maybe an hour. Because by this point my cleverly packed bag of tricks was empty. Then a bus came and brought us to the Sino-Swiss Hotel. We took showers, we ate breakfast, I went to the business center to write this, and here I am! I think. I'm really not sure, it all seems like a queasy sort of nightmare!

So, I think the next time I blog it will be from the U.S.A. We are scheduled to fly out of Beijing to Newark, then on to Boston. What a long, strange trip it's been! Zai jian for now!