the throw away day

And now I'm gonna get real with you. Our last day in Shanghai the days events quickly spiraled into a downfall that lead up to the one not-so-awesome day of the trip. The throwaway day. I didn't want one of those, but just one was okay I guess, like paying tithing for the rest of the awesome days we were given.

The last day in Shanghai after our cool river town excursion, for an unknown reason, Brittney and I decided to drop off our Mandarin speakers to pick up their suits. (BTW- imagine this w/ NO car seats: 2 adults, 3 babies. It sounds so irresponsible to admit here. Like social services are going to knock on my door tomorrow…but car seats are scarce if non-existent in China. The 4 of us wouldn’t have been able to travel together with them, and most taxis don’t have seat belts anyway.)
Our driver didn't speak English and we ended up getting lost as babies screamed and we desperately tried to figure out where their apartment complex was, we eventually found it and the boys returned home shortly after.  Brad left again for a quick "10 min" pant hemming adventure. I was tired and stayed home with the girls to make it easier, although tired there was constantly something not allowing me to sleep.  I was also hungry (bad combo) so after hours I decided to quit waiting for brad to eat dinner. I ate with a man I don't know who asked me strange questions. I was probably pretty irritable by this point. I wanted to go to bed, but there was laundry to be done and one would have to cross our mattress to do it, we needed clean clothes anyways. We'd been planning to go out for full body massages, but plans changed and we still got some nice foot massages. Late in the night we discovered no plane tickets were ever booked for the next leg of our trip. Last minute tickets to Hong Kong for the afternoon were purchased. No big deal, we arrived in Hong Kong. It looked awesome from the plane and it appeared we'd gotten out of our mini funk.

The taxi ride was pretty breathtaking, then we arrived at the nice, personal bathroom type hostel. They insisted we had cancelled our room reservation. None of their nicer rooms were available, so a guy took me to see a budget room that was open- a dump of an alternative room which was, in it's entirety, the size of a queen mattress. I'm certain our luggage wouldn't have fit in the the room. There were 2 tiny, dirty looking cots and a toilet with a small divider between it and the beds.   I felt like I'd taken my babies to jail in a third world country. And that's when I started loosing it. The girls were poopy and had been for who knows how long. It was hot, they needed to eat and be changed.

{insert image of a landfill squished into a box HERE}

 I was sweaty, my back was aching, I needed to sit down and get backpacks and babies off of me. Brad talked with the hostel folks for a long time as I waited with our luggage out the door, eventually they helped him book another nearby hostel with an open room. We wandered up and down the street till we finally found it. BTW- the sun was going down and the road we were wandering down with all our babies and luggage looked like this:

I think it was this road anyways, I didn't take the pic. I didn't think of it and we drew too much attention to begin with- everyone had to get out of our way with the big bags we were dragging, the babies were sad and my arms were full so I couldn't even wipe away the tears that I could no longer control from streaming down my face. It makes me laugh thinking what a funny sight it already was and would have been if I dropped everything, grabed my camera like a tourist should and started snapping pictures through my blurred, watery eyes.
We waited in another line with all our stuff for another elevator to another hostel. This one was more like a real hostel- we had to walk through all this hanging laundry to get to our room and everything was old, dirty, and gross. I was crying, more that crying, borderline hysterical.  Brad didn't seem to know whether to hug me or laugh at me cause I'd really lost it at this point.  He started making fun of me once I'd cooled down a little, but I quickly let him know it was too soon. He left while I changed and fed babies and he found us a nice hotel on the not-so-touristy, not-so-red-light-districty side of the island.  Off we went in a taxi (after a long discussion with the hostel owner who refused to refund us any of our money and both sides threatening to call the police...oh, Brad).
By the time we'd paid for 2 hotels (one rather expensive) and taxi rides, we really had some unnecessary expenses which also made me feel bad. The hotel was nice and clean though, the room was cool and they brought up 2 little cribs for the girls which meant they didn't have to sleep with us for once (awesome).  It was night time by this point and we were exhausted. Brad went hunting for our dinner and brought back some awesome BBQ pork, the highlight of the day.

We just woke up all the more determined to enjoy our (now) only day in Hong Kong. I still felt like I was recovering a little from the preivous day's trauma, but tried to suppress it so we could have an enjoyable experience in such an amazing city. It was quickly forgotten. :)

Spectacular Shanghai

The first thing that comes to mind when I think of leaving for Shanghai is...vomit. Not mine luckily, but poor little McKennas. We took a 5 hour train ride to Shanghai and it seemed we hadn't gotten too far when McKenna started throwing a fit, she was screaming and crying so Brad turned around then said, "Oh my gosh, she threw up all over Cam...all over their Computer!...Oh, it's all over Brittny. It's all over the floor, it's everywhere." As he said this a distinct smell of stomach juices mixed with partially digested food began to fill the entire cart. Somehow they managed to get cleaned up and Mckenna calmed down, and after some train attendants sprayed down the cart with air freshener all was well. Well, we had our little contribution too- the girls had poopy diapers and cried a bit, I'm pretty sure everyone on that train hated our group.

We got to their HUGE apartment complex where a lot of Americans live, had some expensive pizza, and headed to see the city. First up was the fabric market which was very cool. We bought ties and Brad had a custom tailored suit, shirt, and jacket made. I wanted to have a custom dress made for myself, but time was short and I can be a little picky so now I have a good reason to make it back to Shanghai one day. :)










We walked down this cool old street, it was interesting to see the huge, modern skyscrapers in the background. It was also incredibly hot, hottest day of our trip. Despite the heat, even when we were all dripping with sweat, everyone kept telling us throughout the entire trip that our girls were too cold, too little to be taken outside, and that their headbands were too tight. People would rub their feet like they were cold, then pull on the headband and ask Brad, "why this?"

We headed over for a boat ride around the city. I'm pretty sure we were the only Americans on the boat, everyone was crowded inside and looking out dirty windows, then I noticed a "VIP" section was roped off out front... there were cushy seats outside and they gave you free bottled water. What did it take to get there? Turns out like $2. We did that. We would have done that all day long.

Our boat wasn't as fancy as some of the others, but we paid less and got cooler views of their awesome boats.

The skyline was incredible. What an amazing city. It's weird how I was just recently in all of these cool places and suddenly I'm bumming around Utah again, going to Costco...like the whole thing was just a dream.  Seriously though, check out this city- pretty phenomenal huh?

As usual, I fed on the go.

On our way home we stopped to get some famous Shanghai noodles. This guy kept twisting up dough, hitting it on the counter, and all of the sudden it was a bunch of perfectly thin noodles- like magic! They threw them in a pot of boiling water, mixed them with some magic sauce and I was too hungry to remember to take a picture of the finished product, but they looked and tasted delicious. Trust me.

We did a video, but we kinda missed the part where they turned into noodles... :)

Their apartment complex has people who you can, yet again, pay almost nothing to for a long, lovely foot massage. They were super nice and Brad had fun talking with them.

Ahh...spoiled suites me well.

And prepares me for this:

Day two we planned to visit a little river city called Zhu Jia Jiao. It was pouring rain by the time we made it to the subway station, we almost backed down, but Brad and I decided it was worth a try. The subways were PACKED- I actually had to feed the babies in this packed crowd because it was a long trip and they were hungry. I've had more pleasant feeding experiences... At some point I begin to get used to having a hundred Chinese people shamelessly stare at me while I got situated feeding a baby with my nursing cover, or while I changed a dirty diaper. Sometimes I'd stare back at the onlooker, but they could care less, just kept starin' away. Every time.

Someone's personal driver picked us up and took us to the quaint little city. It was touristy, but with good reason, kind of like a little Chinese Venice. We took a boat ride around to see the sights.

Lunch was rough, Lyla had been struggling on and off all day- exhaustion, teething, who knows. I was glad we went though and that the rain died down for us. I also got to try my new favorite magnum flavor- light chocolate inside with a chocolate coating that had little chocolate cookie crunch pieces in it! yum. China is awesome.

Bustling Beijing

So many people thought we were crazy for taking the girls on such a long flight, (you should have known already that me and Brad ARE crazy). For some reason I wasn't really worried about the flights and they turned out just fine- the girls liked being held pretty much the whole time, sometimes they hung out in the bassinet and it was all rather uneventful. (in a good way)
Brad thought this flight to China would be different for him since it wasn't him and his guy friends flirting with Asian stewardesses and getting hooked up with goodies on the flight (I can only imagine, I did see Brad once mildly "flirt" with a nordstrom rack employee who proceeded to give me her employee discount on my shoes! Who negotiates deals in US department stores?!) We were pleasantly surprised to discover they liked June and Lyla even more than him and his friends. They were going gaga over the girls and kept offering to babysit for us. :)

P.S. Is it just me or does the American working woman always dress like a janitor? (nurses, flight attendants...) I think we had it right in the 60's and the rest of the world has it right now- how darling are the Chinese flight attendants? Professional & feminine, love that.
Anyways...The flight was pretty much like this:

And arriving in china was kind of like this:

After landing we took a short taxi ride to the Beijing Hotel, even though we were going budget on this trip I was so happy to discover it was really, really nice. We fed the girls then took to the streets.  It was a pretty cool first night in China. We weren't sure how the girls would be received since they aren't the foreigner's favorite blond & blue eyed Americans, but they were a huge hit. Crowds of people swarmed round the babies to take pictures, it didn't bother me, it was pretty fun to hold the little Asian rock stars. :)

We got noodles and dumplings off the street. I dropped my chopsticks and tried to eat noodles with a spoon and with a baby strapped to me. Yup, I was that ridiculous American tourist. Maybe some of the people snapping pictures of the girls were also trying to get pictures of how ridiculous I looked eating noodles with a teeny tiny spoon. I definitely had to work on my chops skills since the only time I ever saw forks was on the plane.

The girls were up by 3 ready for the day and we took off at 4:30 AM to visit the great wall. Yes, the great wall. It was cool seeing some of the country as we drove. For breakfast we got some fried bread off the street that you dip in warm sweet soy milk- it was yummy.

The gondola opened a little later than we'd thought so we decided to hike it so we could still beat the crowds. I wanted to die, I don't think I've exercised since I hiked Timp last year and also wanted to die. The steps just kept going and going...although I was only carrying one baby for my annual hike, she was bigger than a peanut this time. :) By the time we got to the top we were dripping with sweat, so much for a great family photo I thought... After sitting down and cooling off I was finally able to enjoy the view. (and dry off a bit) It was so beautiful and a bit foggy which made it look mystical and enchanting, just how I'd imagine it. It was truly amazing. I have no idea how they carried all those stones up there, I had a new appreciation for the work it must have took to build!

It is seriously a GREAT wall, it lived up to and exceeded my expectations, definitely a highlight of the trip! For the last half of a year I haven't thought too much beyond my little world of taking care of babies, it was so refreshing to remember there is a whole world out there, so much bigger than me and my little family, and it's full of other great people and great things. Even a great wall!  Inside my house I forgot how great walls can be. :)

I fed the girls and we took some adorable pictures of them. We took some family pictures, by then the girls were getting a little tired. We rode the gondola back down which was so much easier than walking. :) Brad and I headed to a huge, outdoor "dirt" market (we took an electric rick-shaw- big no no!) where people come with goods from all over china to sell to vendors, obviously tourists can buy there too! There were rows and rows of wood carvings, jewelry, jade, silver, everything really. It was overwhelming, but we bought a couple little things before the girls started freaking out too much.

After another feeding we headed to yet another gigantic shopping center. This one full of knock-off clothes, shoes, purses, make-up, etc. It was almost too overwhelming to shop, so we got some 30 min foot massages for 5 bucks while I fed the girls. It was fun, Brad spoke in Chinese with the ladies and they loved playing with our girls. We were completely exhausted by the time we got the girls back on the metro, to the hotel, and got everyone cleaned up and ready for bed. The whole trip the girls woke up for the day around 4-5 AM because they were going to sleep around 5-6 PM, somehow they quickly adjusted to Hawaii time and stuck with it.

Brad went out and got us some yummy breakfast including baozas (sp?), they were these little bread dumplings with a delicious, sweet pork filling. I could have ate them all day long. Instead, we headed over to the forbidden city and Tienanmen square, after all, we were in China and these historical landmarks were a short walk away from our hotel. There were TONS of people there, almost entirely Chinese people. It was very cool, but we ended up not going all the way through the forbidden city because we were already so tired and knew we had a full day of shopping ahead of us. Back to the market we went for jeans and pearls and more foot massages.  I'm so glad I had Brad speaking the language and not taking no for an answer- the negotiations were tough. I'm used to negotiating in NYC for a knock-off purse from $40 down to $30. In Beijing they were much more ambitious, trying to start around $200, and acting like you're crazy offering $20. At first I thought we'd never buy anything, but eventually we'd get things down to affordable prices. :)
Most of the trip's shopping was accomplished (or so we thought...) so we treated ourselves to another feeding/foot massage and a taxi ride home.

The Forbidden City

Tienanmen Square

We wandered down a little ally behind the hotel that Brad was fond of before calling it a night. It started to rain so we bought an umbrella, it was a magical Chinese evening wandering the streets under our little umbrella marvelling over the oddities of scorpions on a stick, eating far more normal street food, and enjoying the quaint scenery.

We visited a big candy store, a delicious bread store, and Brad was disappointed to learn Dairy Queen had closed right before we headed over to grab some ice cream. With that, we headed to bed and said good bye to Beijing, after one more yummy baoza breakfast of course.