Travel Day

This morning we woke, had breakfast, finished packing and set off for the airport. Always fun with 5 children in tow, in China it is a whole other experience. There is no standing in line in China, no waiting your turn. There is only push forward. Nobody says, "after you," the attitude is totally, "me first." We have seen this in restrooms, security lines and at the various sites we have visited. If you want a picture in a particularly pretty spot do not hang back and wait or somebody new will arrive and push right up to the prime spot ignoring you standing there. I have adjusted easily, must be the New Yorker in me. Bill is too much of the polite midwesterner.

The flight was short, only 2 hours and the boys slept through most of it. Devlin was awake and kept Bill quite busy. We were the only western people on the plan. Not too surprising, Nanchang is not a big tourist destination. Although Suvivor was filmed in the mountains of Jiangxi province. Our guide spotted us easily as we exited the baggage area.

As we drove from the airport our guide told us a lot about Jiangxi. Population, industry, geography. It was kind of funny. When we were here four years ago we learned a lot about Beijing, but when we came to Jiangxi we landed, dropped our bags and headed to the Civil Affairs office to get Devlin. Tourism and local history was really not at the top of our list. It will be interesting to learn a little more about Devlin's first home.

Our itinerary has switched a little and we will be visiting Gao An and seeing the orphanage tomorrow instead of Monday. There is an adoption taking place on Monday, so this is a good thing. Monday we will tour Nanchang and go to the zoo. The current orphanage is not where Devlin lived, it moved a couple of years ago. Unfortunately this means we will not be meeting Devlin's caregiver as a lot of the staff changed when they moved. We were told there would be a fee for visiting the orphange but not how much it would be. When we arrived we were given a bill for more than half what we paid for the adoption fee. This was quite the shock as it is simply a one day visit. We were going to offer gifts or donations, now we are not so sure. We did bring a photo book that I did on snapfish showing Devlin, starting with her referal photos and adoption day pictures through just a few weeks ago. I wanted to show them how well she is doing.

The children are being little monsters. I think they really need some time outdoors to just run and be kids. This is not something that has been readily available thus far in the trip. Hopefully we can find them some time and space for this.