Journey to Chenzhou!

I’ll be honest, at some points yesterday I didn’t think we were ever going to make it to Chenzhou.

We left LAX (10/12 of us) at 1:40AM and arrived in Beijing at 4:30AM. It was a 12-hour flight and I slept for 10 of those hours, definitely the best international flight that I have been on, thank goodness for zzzquil! Once we landed in Beijing we went through immigration and then tried to figure out whether we had to pick up our bags at baggage claim or whether they were going to be checked all the way to Guangzhou. We were told that we wouldn’t have to mess with them but we decided to go to baggage claim and check just in case since we had about 3 ½ hours until our next flight.

Our bags never came so some of us exchanged some money and then we went through customs with only our carry-ons. Once we were through customs we found where security was and started to head that way. We finally got to the counter and they started checking our boarding passes (we were split in 2 lines). Right away one of the girls looked at Megan’s passport and boarding pass and started yelling something to someone behind security and then when they didn’t answer she started yelling out to anyone that would answer. At the same time Charlie was at another counter and the man looked at her boarding pass and started yelling too. At that point I was sure we had doing nothing wrong…I wasn’t sure what we had done but I knew it wasn’t good. The security people eventually got in touch with someone who called us all out of line and to the side where he informed us that our flight to Guangzhou had be cancelled.

Let the panic begin.

Miraculously, we had met a man that we later found out was Bo who was on our LA flight and from Guangzhou. He had just gotten his phD in the states and spoke perfect english! By the end of the day we were so glad that we had waited for our luggage because without him there would have been no way that we would have ever gotten on a flight.

Bo told us that we needed to go find out how to change our flight to a later one so he helped us eventually get to the Air China domestic ticket counter…there was easily over 100 people in line, and by line I mean in a mob, and it was only 6:00AM.

By this point we were quite panicked, especially because Amy and Julia had flown in on another flight and had stayed in a day bed overnight since they had a 9 hour layover. They didn’t have any texts pre purchased and the wifi wasn’t working in the airport so we had no way to reach them. We also were trying to get a hold of our team coordinator back in the US and try to figure out what to do since we wouldn’t meet up with our guide Steve until we got to Guangzhou.

Shannon and Bo started looking around the airport at other ticket counters etc and eventually tried to announce over the intercom for Amy and Julia (the line was too long) while the rest of us stayed in line with all of our bags. We even witnessed a fist fight breakout in front of us…it was an experience to say the least.

A few minutes later when Shannon and Bo got back someone spotted Julia’s Visiting Orphans shirt and we started yelling at them so they knew where we were. By that point we were so glad that we finally found them and that we knew we would all be together at least.

We eventually got to the front of the line where they told us that we would be on a 12:30PM flight that afternoon and they gave us each a paper ticket with some Chinese writing on it that we had to take to Terminal 3 to get our actual tickets.

So we lugged our carry-ons downstairs, keep in mind we all have backpacks, some of us have totes, and some have roller duffles, and Amy and Julia had all of their luggage, so it didn’t really feel like we were travelling light at that point and all of our shoulders were hurting too, but we made it down the elevator and got on the shuttle to terminal 3 from terminal 2. Their shuttle isn’t quite like our’s in Orlando’s airport, it’s a bus that takes about 10-15 minutes on the expressway and streets to get you to the next terminal.

We got to terminal 3 and found domestic departures. There was quite a line at the ticket counter but they saw our shirts and took us to the other side where we all got our real tickets with Bo’s help and checked Amy and Julia’s bag on to the flight. After we had done that they also told us that we would have to go back to Terminal 2 and locate all of our baggage since the flight was cancelled and we would have to bring it back to Terminal 3 to check again.

So at 8AM everyone on the team besides Amy, Julia, and I went to Terminal 2 to get our bags. Amy thought that it may be easier to leave all of our backpacks and carry-ons there instead of lugging them back on the bus and to Terminal 2, so I decided to stay to help them watch all of the bags since I only had 1 small checked bag and there were a lot of carry-ons.

We got quite a few stairs sitting on the floor of the Beijing airport with about 14 backpacks, 2 totes, a computer bag, and 4 duffle bags, not to mention, Amy and Julia are both blonde so that attracted attention as is. We all just ended up talking about the trip and their adoptions from China (they adopted a baby girl from Chenzhou last year). I had texts that I could receive and send and so did Shannon so she would update me on how everything was going. At about 9 she told us that it would be another hour until they got luggage since it took awhile to find where to go (even with Bo) and now it would take awhile to receive it all. They had to wait at a baggage claim where the bags would come off very slowly and one by one. In the end, they got the 3 walkers that we had checked and everyone’s bags except for both of Charlie’s, one of Megan’s and one of Sarah’s. So Steve, our guide, has been trying to find those bags last night and today to get them to Chenzhou ASAP.

Around 11AM our group finally got back to Terminal 3 with most of the luggage and we then had to quickly go back to the counter and check our bags. Once that was done it was 11:30 and our flight was boarding at noon. So once half of us were done with our bags we ran to security and started waiting in line and then the rest of the team joined us when they were finished. We thankfully all got through security ok and headed over to our gate where we got to put down our bags, finally get some water (none of us had water since we had gotten off of the plane) and use the restroom (our first squatty potty experience).

Our flight was eventually delayed (a little bit of a panic since we didn’t know when our train tickets were for in Guangzhou and when the last train left) and then they moved our gate to the other end of the terminal. At around 1:30 we were finally on the plane and left around 2.

It was a 3 hour plane ride and most of us tried not to sleep, but sleep ended up winning. We got into Guangzhou around 5 and headed to baggage claim where we got all of the walkers and baggage that we had checked in Beijing, still missing 4 bags though.

We walked out and met Steve where we talked for a few minutes and then headed out to the bus which would take us to the train station. Our train was scheduled to leave at 7:00 and they do not wait for anyone, you only have 2 minutes to get on and situated as is. We got to the train station at 6:40 and went in, dropped our bags on the security belt, grabbed them and went straight up to where they check your tickets before going to the platform. They open those gates around 10 minutes before you have to get on the train so everyone lines up with their bags and then heads down all the stairs and goes to the platform and carriage number to wait. Then it is a bit of a frenzy and pushing fest while everyone tries to get on with all of their bags.

It is a high speed train so it goes up to around 200mph and we got to Chenzhou about an hour and ten minutes later. We were greeted at the train station by the director, Mr. Ren, and the head nanny, who I have to say is my favorite, she is so sweet. It was so good to see their faces and give them hugs! They had a bus come and pick us up that took us back to the hotel. We got to the hotel at 8:45/9:00 and that made it 40-48 hours (42 for me) of traveling for all of us to finally get to Chenzhou. We were given our room keys and went upstairs to drop our bags off and then headed downstairs to go get KFC across the street with Steve and our friends from the orphanage too. Once we were done with the craziness that occurs ordering from KFC and eating, we headed back to the hotel and took showers, unpacked, and got the internet to work before we all headed to bed!

It is 7:00AM here now and in about an hour we head to down to breakfast and then we will be at the orphanage by 9:00 to have our usual meeting/welcome and then we get to go see the kids. Most of the older kids won’t be there except for one day this weekend since they are still in school and stay there.

I have so many emotions going through my head right now, I cannot wait to see all of the kids faces and especially my little boy John. I am going to try to not lose it, but I’m not making any promises, it’s always so hard to see him like he was the last year, not improving much.

Thanks to anyone who actually read all of this J My roommate, Charlie just woke up and said “You’re still blogging?!” It is quite a rarity that I write this much, but I couldn’t sleep this morning so I figured I would at least write this since it didn’t really involve putting my emotions into words. I will try to blog again tonight about our first day. Thanks for all the prayers!