Day 5

Another long day of travel today, but we had some fun interspersed. In the last 48 hours, we have been on a plane, a train, a subway, a van, a car, and feet.

The day started bright and early, as we all woke up about 2 am local time. Most of us were able to go back to sleep for a little while, but we still got up and moving about 4:30am. Ah, the joys of jetlag.

We had arranged with a friend to meet in our hotel lobby at 9am, so that gave us plenty of time to start the day off nicely. Our hotel had a really nice shower head where it could hit you from multiple directions, so we all took long showers. It was nice. The kids also had fun with the room's toilet. I kid you not, it had a control panel. It was a combination toilet and bidet, with a lot of different options for front cleaning, rear cleaning, adjusting the water temperature, drying, etc. So, that was pretty much our morning: Long showers for the adults and long toilet sessions for the kids.

While we were eating breakfast and getting ready, we got news via email that a measles outbreak had struck our son's orphanage. We don't really know any details, other than what is in our previous blog post. So, we stopped then and prayed, and we continue to pray. We'll keep you posted if we learn more info.

We met our friend and he went above and beyond in showing us around town. We walked the Bund, the famous riverfront area in Shanghai, and then he took us to a local outdoor marketplace. It was full of people, and just like something out of a movie. Hannah later said, "Well, I was introduced to several new smells today." They had lots of pushy folks trying to sell you everything from cheap kids' toys (now I know where they all come from) to fake Rolex watches and Gucci handbags to everything in between. But, they also had some nice handmade crafts which we enjoyed looking at. We'll post pictures when we can.

We stopped at this marketplace to have a second breakfast/brunch. Shanghai is known for a certain type of dumpling, so we had to try them. They were delicious and fresh, dumplings filled with pork and crab meat. We ate them with a little egg soup and some fried tofu (though we all decided we could do without the fried tofu). The place we ate had a chopstick dispenser, just like you would see a straw dispenser at a fast food restaurant in the states. You know the kind where you push down on the lever on the front and a straw comes out? I've always been a little germophobic of the straws that come out of those things, because so many people touch them. But today stepped it up a notch, because it was chopsticks, with germs from a foreign country. Oh well.

After we ate, it was time for us to go and check out of our hotel and get to our train. We had to take the subway to the train station, and then we rode a bullet train to get to Nanjing. We were so grateful for our friend's guidance, because this train station was huge. As in, roughly the size of Walla Walla, with at least twice as many people. And all the signs are in Chinese. But, with his help, we made it on to our train safely. 

We were all exhausted from the massive amount of walking we did (hauling all our luggage) to get through the station, that everyone napped a bit on the ride. About halfway through the trip, a police officer came walking through the train, giving loud instructions to everyone and looking very stern. I was just really hoping that whatever he said didn't apply to me, because we couldn't understand what he said. This language is a total mystery to all of us. (Side note: as I am typing this, Elliott is watching some anime cartoon on TV. Anime is odd enough, but when you can't understand it, why bother? Still, he's glued to the TV).

When we arrived, we were at another very large train station, like the size of a couple of Wal Marts put together. Our guide who was to meet us was informed that our train was delayed, (though it wasn't), and so she wasn't really looking for us yet. Fortunately, we literally walked right up to her without knowing it and she recognized us. Weird thing to happen in a very crowded train station, but I suppose we do stick out a bit.

We headed over and got settled in to our new hotel. It will be nice to stay more than one night in a place. Our guide took us to dinner with another family who is adopting. We'll both pick up our kids tomorrow.

At dinner, Elliott fell asleep at the table. So, we ate quickly (we fed all of us for only $12), and trudged back to our room. Everyone is trying very hard to stay awake as long as we can, so we can start to adjust our body clocks, but it is about 7:30 and I'm the only one still awake. As we head to sleep, I can see fireworks outside our window.

We found out that we'll meet our guide at 2:30 tomorrow so that we can go and meet Ruthie at about 3 pm. It's going to be a long morning waiting until 2:30...