Across the Border

The drive to Shenzhen from the Hong Kong airport was about 40 minutes.  It was a quiet peaceful Tuesday morning when we arrived.  The van that picked us up was packed with our stuff, but it all fit thank goodness.

As we drove Cole looked with wonder out the window.  "There's China mom!" he kept saying.  Kenney was looking around jabbering too sounding something like "abba dabba dabba tree!" The city and surrounding water was quite a sight to see - tall buildings, boats, and taxis all coming into their day.  The city was quite modern and nice with lots of trees and clean wide streets from what I could see.

Someone's happy we made it!

It all felt a bit surreal to be back.  Had I ever left?  Did we go back to Oregon, to California?  I felt oddly at peace - hopefully a sign that we are in the right place. 

It was around 6am so the border crossing was very easy. The van would drive up to what looked like a toll bridge entrance with a booth in the USA. The driver handed our passports to the officer in the booth and opened the sliding van door so that the officer could look into the van and compare our faces to the passports.  There were two sets of these stations - one for leaving Hong Kong, the other for entering mainland China (about a half mile apart).  At the China side we had to pull the van over so that they could inspect our luggage.  Stan said there was an audible groan from the officers as they saw the number of bags we had.  He hopped out to help them unload the bags and open the ones they wanted to inspect which seemed to make them happy.  Everything checked out fine and we were on our way.  Interestingly enough, I inadvertently brought fresh fruit and nuts in country which they didn't see in the car.

Border crossing

Although Stan had already secured an apartment he decided to ease our transition by having us stay in the Ritz Carlton hotel for the first two nights.  Our furniture will not arrive until probably mid to late January. There is some very basic furniture in the apartment at this time, but not much. Stan had stayed at the Ritz for over a month earlier this year so he knew they would take good care of us. 

Well taking care of us turned out to be an understatement - we were on full celebrity status.  A team of people met us at the front door.  We were greeted with phrases like, "Welcome back Stan, we've missed you!", " You must be Cherie and that is Cole and the little guy is Kenney", " We are so happy to finally meet you!" Two people unloaded our van and the hotel

manager met us in the lobby.  He and the hotel services director escorted us to our room on the 20th floor asking what we needed and making sure all was to our liking.  The room was gorgeous - in a corner with no neighbors so that the boys we wouldn't have to worry about disturbing anyone especially since the nights would surely involve our kids running around trying to get past the jet lag that was sure to set in.  The room had a bathroom for guests right inside the door followed by a long hallway leading into the main part of the suite.  The suite opened up to a grand desk area, wet bar, large living room, private outdoor patio, and french doors leading into a large bedroom.  The bedroom had a hall dressing area and gorgeous bathroom with marble floors, a private rain and hand held jet shower, giant claw foot tub and double sinks. On the living room table there was a spread of fruits, desserts and little stuffed lions with the boys names embroidered onto them for the children.

Once we got settled in we headed downstairs for the breakfast buffet.  The boys were a quite amped up as we got seated at our booth.  The booth had plush tufted high backs and pillows which the boys thought were an invitation to jump and rough house.  Again three or four people stopped by to say hello to us and make sure we had all we needed.  I took Cole to get some food from the large buffet offerings - fruits, sushi, breads, curries, porridges, noodles, eggs, meats...  He was antsy so i carried him in my arms and held the plate in one hand.  One of the wait staff rushed to my side and said to just point to what we wanted and they would get it for me and it take back to the table. They then offered to custom make us anything we might want and brought special plastic dishes for the kids.  Again my mind was blown - I looked at Stan like "who are you?" - he just smiled. When we had finished our food and were walking out of the restaurant a different man showed up and asked if he could take our picture in front of their Christmas tree, ensuring us that it would be framed and ready for us to pick up at breakfast...

Our first outing was to get some additional passport pictures done to turn in at Stan's office.  We had tried to do the pictures in the USA, but the Chinese government wants a blue background and we couldn't find anywhere that would do anything, but a white background.  We went to a tiny local shop where a lady had a very simple set of colored sheets draped along a wall.  The kids ran around a bit in front of the shop checking out the locals. There was a man fixing a motorbike and peeling cucumbers, a barber salon and a little toy store. After the pictures we went to the Oakley office.  The office was nice and Stan got to check in on a few things.

Next it was time to swing by our apartment.  We live right by Shenzhen Bay in a highrise apartment building on the 27th floor.  The building is gated with guards at each entrance.  There are two apartments on each floor.  When we arrived our aiyee (domestic helper) Ahwa greeted us at the door.  She and I will be good friends ; ).  The boys took right to her and gave her a big hug.  The apartment is around 1700 square feet - a good size.  It has marble-like white tile floors throughout. There are 4 bedrooms - this means a guest room for all those wanting to visit! The boys will share the smallest bedroom which is fine - bedrooms should be for sleeping anyways right?! The next largest is a playroom for the boys.  Stan has done a great job of getting the place ready. It's fun to see how he has decorated and got things for the boys.  I'm sure if I had been here from the beginning I would have had lots of input (for better or worse) so it's nice Stan got to give his boys his expression of decoration. There is a small, but functional kitchen. Most kitchens I've seen in Asia are small and usually have a door to close off from the rest of the house.  The ideas is that if you have a nice place like this you would have someone cooking for you and therefore wouldn't want it open to the rest of the home.  The open concept kitchen is definitely a western idea. There are large balconys on each side of the apartment and lots of light streaming through the windows.  It really is a nice place.  Right now we are bare bones on furniture as we have items shipping from our home in the USA.  The shipment probably won't arrive until mid to late January so we'll make do til then.  I'll post more apartment picts in another post...

Ahwa and the boys became fast friends as she played with them and chased them around to their delight.  One of the my favorite moments was walking in on the boys and her playing and hearing Cole say, "catch me Kai Lan!"  For those of you without children, there is a children's tv show called "Ni Hao Kai Lan" that is about an animated little chinese girl and her adventures.  Like Dora the Explorer it helps kids to learn Spanish, this teaches some Mandarin Chinese.  I love that even though Cole couldn't remember Ahwa's name, he came up with calling her Kai Lan because she only speaks chinese.  What a clever guy!

We went back to the hotel and took naps.  Long naps! Jet lag was a definite factor.  In prior trips I could pop some tylenol pm at the appropriate time and have some help, but no such luck with the little boys.  Benadryl was our friend, but it was mostly a battle. My head either was foggy and pounding or I was asleep - tough stuff.  It was hard to know whether to try to get on schedule or just sleep when the kids slept lest they be up on their own.  I opted for the later which meant we were all awake by 3am.