Safe in Shanghai

LONG update follows ... not entirely confident in the grammar and spelling, so if you find anything, just blame the jet lag.

Let me pass along a little piece of advice. If you ever find yourself moving out of the country, with your spouse, two small children, 5 very large suitcases, 2 computers, 3 additional carry-ons, a stroller, and a car seat -- do not take the first flight out in the morning, especially if that flight requires you to be at the airport at 4 a.m., in turn requiring a 3 a.m. wake-up call.

Just saying.

We were safely escorted into MSP by Nana and Grandpa Larry, who helped shuttle our belongings from the car to ticketing before sending us off to face the security gauntlet alone. By 4:45 a.m., we were through security and on our way to the gate.

The first flight -- a quick 50-minute hop to Chicago -- was smooth and easy once we were seated. Things looked a little dicey when we got to our assigned seats and realized that we couldn't put Betsy's car seat in that row, because it was in front of an exit row. The whole row in front of us swapped, basically. Then, John -- awake and alert since 3:15 ("Hurry, Mom -- We have to go to China right away!") had a brief but fierce meltdown when he learned that he would not have a window seat.
We were spared by a very gracious woman who gave him her window seat, and he calmly worked on his airport stickers all the way to Chicago. Betsy fell asleep during take-off, but woke up pretty soon after we got into the terminal at O'Hare.

Betsy and I made it up the jetway first, and turned around to wait for Tommy and John. That's when I noticed that the plane we arrived on was going on to Austin next. I had a brief moment where I wanted to just run back down the jetway and hide as a stowaway to get back home. Tommy came through the doors just in time.

We were facing a 3 hour layover, so we decided to let the kids run around, have some breakfast, and relax for our last little bit of time in the U.S. John eventually crawled into the stroller and took a nap, but Betsy was all over the place.

When it was time to board, we loaded everything into the plane and got our seats. We buckled in and waited. And waited a little bit more. Then Betsy fell asleep. About 5 minutes later, we got the announcement that there was something wrong with the plane and we would have to all get back OFF the plane and wait for a new one.

I bet you can guess how well that news went over in our row.

So we carted all of our stuff back up the jetway and headed for the new gate. We were told 12:45. And then we were told that while they had managed to commandeer a new 777, our flight crew had timed out and we would have to wait for a new one. The updated departure was now 3:30. But they were handing out $5 vouchers for lunch-- woo hoo!

Another hard earned lesson. Lunch vouchers do not guarantee that your children, who are exhausted and hungry, will behave, especially if you take them to an airport installation of Macaroni grill that features the world's smallest tables but lacks a children's menu.

The kids were actually having so much fun running around the gate area. Betsy met another little girl her age, and spent quite a bit of time checking that she would meet the carry-on baggage size requirements. We even ran into a friend from Austin -- Amber Quist, who was on her way to Steamboat Springs. Nice to have a little reminder of home. Tommy contacted the office in Austin and asked them to get us a hotel room and to coordinate with our driver, since we obviously wouldn't be following the original schedule.



We finally -- FINALLY -- boarded the plane. What had been a wistful, teary goodbye the first time turned into a quick dash onto the plane. See ya, Chicago! And Betsy was asleep in her car seat before they even finished boarding. Hallelujah!

John, though, had discovered the in-seat video games on the first plane, and was after 10 days of serious Wii training at the farm, couldn't wait to play. Two problems with that -- he didn't know how to play any of those games, and he wanted me to teach him. This is where all the really fun airplane gifts prepared by Nana, G, and Aunt Natalie saved the day -- thanks, guys!

He lasted a lot longer than I thought he would, about 3 hours, diving into his lunch and insisting that he use his chopsticks since we were on the plane to China. And then he pretty much hit a wall, falling asleep in my arms. I stretched him out in his seat and said a prayer of huge thanks.

I settled in to watch some movies, none of which were remarkable enough to make this report. And, oh happy day, they did have another episode of Friday Night Lights -- the one where they play the A&M Consolidated team, actually. Betsy woke up after a while and had some food, explored the plane, and watched some Baby Einstein with her daddy. I guess she was awake about 2-3 hours before passing out again, and she slept until we woke her up about 45 minutes from landing. All that running around O'Hare paid off.

John woke up with about 4 hours to go, and he first thing he requested was to see the flight tracker so he could find out if we had passed over the North Pole and Santa's house. The second thing he requested was more video games.

A quick word about our company on the plane. Everyone was in pretty good spirits, all things considered. I guess when you're facing down a 14 hour flight, a few extra hours in a comfortable airport isn't the end of the world. We had a few other families, plus a large group from Loras Collage. And one businessman in front of us who wasted no time in dropping his seat back the furthest it would go (into John's lap) and then snored and snorted the whole flight, waking up just long enough to eat, cough some, and change the movie on his screen. Good times. I was polite about it for the first 10 or so hours, but by the end, I was "accidentally" bumping his chair more frequently, just enough to try to startle him into a position that would lessen the snoring. No such luck.

We landed, found our way off the plane and to baggage claim. The NI driver was waiting for us and got all of our things loaded into the van. John, Betsy and I fell asleep as soon as we were on the highway towards the hotel, but I woke up just as we pulled into our new neighborhood -- Lianyang, Century Park, just down from Thumb Plaza.

The hotel staff couldn't have been any nicer, and were just in love with Betsy as she toddled around the lobby. We have a huge room that looks out over the plaza, and even got to watch the Fiesta Bowl. We let the kids run around for a bit, then put them to bed, and Tommy and I enjoyed a late dinner of M&Ms and wine from the mini-bar.

Today we're up early -- Betsy woke up at 4:30, but at least John is still asleep! We'll have breakfast here at the hotel, then meet our leasing agent and head for our new apartment!

Thanks for all the help and prayers in getting us here. The rest should be easier, right? :-)