We're home!

The last 24-48 hours have been a blur! The weirdest thing is we left Hong Kong at 11:40am 3/20/2009 and returned to the States on 3/20/09 at 12:50 pm- if only the ride was only 1 hour and 10 minutes!
We left Guangzhou by train again. Shelly, Madeline, and Eli were with this. This is quite an ordeal. You have to go through customs and everything...in my experience, China is very thorough compared to the US. We probably stand in line so long partly because they are smiling at my kids so much and want to talk with them, at least try to get them to say Hello. The train was packed this time. The diversity of the drive was interesting. We saw big cities to small villages with what seemed to be the equivalent of squatter houses. The gardens are meticulous compared to mine- they have nice irrigation systems. And finally back to Hong Kong. This is a very eclectic city. I haven't yet done my research but Todd said it was run by the British until maybe the early 90s. Many people here speak English. We got interviewed in the park by some school kids. We saw nursing students and Shelly asked them some questions. We ate at Mc Donalds again...sorry to those who are disappointed by this. I have been reminded on this trip several times that this is not about me...if it were today I would have spent the day in the humid sun and intermittently shopped for shoes (OMG- I will be writing about this on my other blog!). The boys each managed to get themselves some tennis shoes and Eli even got some, which are perfect for him- (they say "welcome to Wisconsin", not literally but are cow print with a purple Nike swoosh on the side-awesome taste, Eli!) then went back to watch Madagascar II. Everyone (except for me) wanted to get out of the sun. OK, so whoever does the translation for these movies is awful. I got a headache trying to read the subtitles. The language choice was Russian or Chinese...and subtitles were to be in English. Needless to say, I think they literally translate word for word. They could have easily copied the script but apparently needed a bigger challenge. Then it was back out to the streets of HK. Crowded. At all times of day. It is shoulder to shoulder and never ends, and mind you, this is everywhere. We are not necessarily in a "busy" part of town like would be seen in downtown West Bend (and, of course, that is never busy). The streets are packed with buses, trucks, cars, people, and bikes- and, as could be seen, this is true for the highways as well. I have never seen bikes and cars competing for the same spot on the road. They drive on the right side of the car. Mass transit. We ate at....hold your breathe...Pizza Hut. Now, I have to say, this is the fanciest Pizza Hut I have ever been to. Eli ordered the squid/noodle combo- we stuck with traditional pizza. Eli tried a piece (which may have made him sick later). We ventured back home after a quick stop at a perfume store. Our last sleep then off to the airport.
Our plane flight home was fantastic- I couldn't have asked for anything better- the boys slept a long time. We went through a very quick customs at home and it was off to home, home, home! And let's just say it was a memorable one. Thank you Don Goeden for your generous nature. Thank you Lemlers for your beautiful decorations. And thank you Todd, for being you! We loved our trip. We adore Mr. Eli Russell Waala. We were lucky to have precious time with my sister Shelly and niece Madeline. But we are so happy to be home!
We are adjusting to home just fine. Jordan is already off to archery this morning then a birthday party and Andrew is asking to have a friend come over later. We slept though are adjusting. Andrew awoke at 2 am asking for food. We went out to the couch and had some cereal, attempting to sleep but didn't fall back to sleep until about 4 then were woken by Dad at 7:35 so head off for the day. I have unpacked and keep staring at my ring finger! Andrew and Jordan have come up with their top 10-20 list about the things they loved followed by a shorter list about the things they did not love about China...we will post them tomorrow!
Love,
Paula