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Our Trip
December 6, 2001 - Day Nineteen, Part One: The Pilgrimage Begins click HERE for Day Nineteen, Part One Photos
Greetings from the First Class lounge of Asiana Airlines in Seoul. Part one of the four part flight is behind us and as soon as I send this, we'll board Part Two: our flight to San Francisco. "Three" is the flight to Dallas on Friday and "Four" is the connection on American to Minneapolis.) We rolled out of bed at 5:30 this morning at the China Hotel in Goungzhou. It had been our home for six nights and we were just beginning to get settled in. A bellhop helped bring down our stuff and at 7 am, we filled two cabs with two adults, one child, and eight pieces of baggage and a stroller. Luckily Sophia slept like a rock last night and was nothing if not compliant throughout the packing, checking out and transit to the airport, which is about ten minutes from the hotel. Since the other 16 groups had left early yesterday morning, Lineker and Amy, the guides from ACAA bailed also and went to their respective cities to prepare for the holidays…leaving us to fend for ourselves at the Departure Fees desk, the Quarantine Station, and about a half dozen other security and documentation checkpoints. Now, remember all that luggage we had? Most of that was on a cart that Ann was wielding with one hand while carrying the baby. I had a rolling carry-on, the camera bag, the diaper bag, and my briefcase, which now weighs about 80 pounds. Most of it documents. Finally we made it through and at 8:15, and with 15 minutes to spare, we boarded the China Southern Airlines Airbus for the three hour jaunt north and east to Korea. This is the only segment of the entire journey from Minneapolis to China and back that was not comped by frequent flier points, and they really stick ya for it. But it was a nice flight and they gave us the bulkhead. Sophia sat on my lap for the takeoff and I held her so she could face out the window and see her homeland vanish into the clouds. About two minutes into the flight I noticed her eyes were shut; she'd fallen asleep, standing up, with her head mashed against the window. She slept for the first hour of the flight, cried/balled for the next half hour and then was pretty easy for the rest of the flight. At the Seoul airport we returned to our old haunts at the Air Garden Transit Hotel. We booked a room for four and a half hours and both Sophia and Ann (who's sick again) conked out immediately. I went down and tried to fix the snafu that has Ann sitting in Business while the baby and I are up front in First. They're being kind of jerks about it, so we'll try to play upon the sympathies of the flight attendants. I've already been told there are open seats up front, but they're being bureaucratic. So we'll work the stews. If not, Business is still outstanding and she can get a break from the baby. I took
Sophia for a stroll around the terminal once she woke up and we
visited the Children's Playroom, which has all sorts of cool stuff
for kids in transit. One thing about being raised in an orphanage
is that all of this stuff is brand new for her. She's never been
on any kind of lawn toy or ride, and most toys are a new experience.
She soaked it all in like a med student on the first day of rounds. |