The Sweet and Sour of Coming Home!!

 

Tay enjoying her last inexpensive Mani/Pedi in China

This week was a week of crazy and surreal.  Some of the greatest adventures are just in the organizing and traveling in itself.  You just never know what is going to happen when you start on your way.  So, sit back and enjoy our crazy ride home.
  ADVENTURES:  The craziness started right away when I returned from Xi'an on Saturday morning.  I got on my plane and arrived in Guangzhou around 10:30 am.  I then hopped on the metro and rode to the south railway station.  My friend Sam picked me up and brought me home.  When I arrived I hardly had a moment to say hello to my wife, before I had to rush out to the bank.  I had to go to the bank so that I could get the rest of my money from my teaching account.  One of the craziest things about leaving China is that Cecelia and I had to leave with cash and then change it over when we got to Hong Kong.  It is really bothersome to carry that much when you are traveling.
  Cecelia and I then went out to dinner with our friends John and Katie.  There is a great Korean restaurant that we like to go to in Biejio so we went for our last visit with them.  We had a wonderful time and promised to meet up again in Auburn in August.
  The next day was a frantic day of packing and finishing up the last of the little details to take care of before leaving.  We did such a good job, that Cecelia and Taylor ended up going to get Manicures and Pedicures.  I on the other had got my last massage in preparation for the long trip home.  That evening the entire family was invited by my friend David to have one last dinner with his family.  We had Chinese food and spent the evening discussing when he and his family can come to visit in America.  I also talked with him about coming to visit if I return in September.  After saying goodbye we headed home for our last night of sleep on our hard Chinese bed.
 

Waiting at Ferry Pier in Zhuhai

  The next morning Cecelia and I awoke at 5 am and began organizing the luggage.  Our friend Sam had arranged for a driver to pick us up in his small truck at 7 am.  The reason he brought a small truck was because we each had two large bags, as well as carry ons.  That made the total luggage count about 12 bags.  That didn't include the two tea sets we were bringing home as well.  I do have to tell you that each of the large bags we were bringing back weighed about 50lbs. each.  That was roughly 400 pounds of luggage, not including carry ons.  My friend David was going to have a driver take us all the way to Shenzhen and drop us off at the ferry station, but when he saw the picture of our luggage he said they didn't have a big enough car to accommodate us.
  The driver picked us up promptly at 7 and we said one last goodbye to the fish in our pond and we headed out for the Guangzhou South Railway Station.
  It took us about 20 minutes to get to the station and we weren't in a real hurry to get there, because we were not able to board the ferry to Hong Kong until 12:45.  The train we were going to take was going to only take 40 minutes at the most, so we had some leisure time to kill.  When we arrived at the train station, the driver dropped us and our luggage off out front.  I told Cecelia to go inside and buy our tickets and in the meantime, Claire and I would begin hauling the luggage to the second floor station.  Here I am taking my time and not straining too much and actually enjoying the leisure pace of riding the escalator up to the second floor.  I had just gotten all of the bags to the top except for two and was on my way down the escalator one last time, when I saw Taylor come running across the first floor yelling, "We have got to get going real fast, Mom booked us on the 8 am train."  So, instead of having 45 minutes to get through security, we had 25 and a big line of people in front of us.  Fortunately the Chinese people in line took pity on us and let us go to the front of the line.  On top of that a couple of people helped us get our 400 lbs. of luggage to the farthest gate at the train station with about 4 minutes to spare.

400 lbs of luggage!!!

  As I flopped into my seat on the train, I came to the realization that I was sweating profusely.  So much for taking the nice shower in the morning to prepare for traveling.
  The only other relatively exciting thing that happened was the negotiation with the taxi driver after we got off at the train station in Zhuhai.  The guy initially wanted 500 rmb to take us to the ferry dock, but with the help of an interpreter and some shrewd negotiating by Cecelia, we got him down to half.
  The rest of the trip was very pleasant and uneventful, that is if you consider a 17 hour flight in coach pleasant.  At least we had movies to watch and the airplane food was decent.  It  is really a strange phenomenon  to start your flight at 6 pm on July 8th and end up in San Francisco at 8 pm of the same  day.
  At the airport we had a great welcoming committee consisting of my brother Paul, his wife Shannon as well as  Kim and Sarah Meeks.  It was a very tearful reunion for Claire and Sarah.  They have really missed each other this past year.

Waiting at Hong Kong airport

  All of us then jumped into two vehicles for the ride back home.  It was a enjoyable ride and we were happy to spend the evening catching up with what was going on here as well.
  As I said earlier it was sweet and sour coming home.  Sweet because we missed all of our friends and family.  We also missed some of the simple pleasures about being in our own home.  The sour part, was that we had made some great friends in China and now we will be missing them.  We will also be missing the simplistic way of living as well.  So, it was with a heavy heart that we left Hong Kong, but a joyous greeting when we arrived home.

Home Sweet Home!!!!