We flew from Beijing to Hefei this afternoon. Before we left, we met the other 2 couples that we will be traveling with. Gwen and Craig came here to Hefei with us, while the other couple (Rick and Antinette) went to another province and will meet us in Guangzhou next weekend. The flight was only an hour and a half and was pretty uneventful, except that the seats are very close together and the meal service was a questionable sandwich.
On the way to the hotel from the airport, our host Linda told us to not be surprised if we hear fireworks at night in the city. They will light off fireworks here for any reason at all, The Chinese New Year is coming, somebody got married, or a new job or a new apartment - any cause for celebration will bring out the fireworks. Well, sure enough - Bryan and I have seen or heard at least a half dozen fireworks displays in the last hour and half! We took a video of it that we will show you later. They are lighting off huge fireworks from the sidewalks down there. Keep in mind, we are in a major city. Can you imagine everyone lighting off fireworks in downtown Minneapolis?
By the way - the city has 1.5 million people in about the same amount of land space that just the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis take up. Imagine taking all the people in all the suburbs of the Twin Cities and squishing them into the city proper. We have not seen one house in this country, everyone lives in apartment buildings.
Also - Hefei is a much brighter city than Beijing (the area we were in at least). I will post pictures later of the lighted buildings you can see from our window. We are right in downtown Hefei which is comprised of a couple dozen square blocks of buildings surrounded by a river. Very pretty. The riverwalk is all lit up also.
Anyway - we meet Maggie in 14 hours! The time has been changed to 9:30 a.m. our time, so that would be 7:30 p.m. Sunday night Minnesota time. (I had the math wrong before)
Make that more than a half dozen fireworks displays - another one just went off.
I will blog in the morning and try to figure out how to fix the picture upload problem we are having. Cross your fingers.
M
Original Comments from Post
| Re: Good Evening from Hefei! | By Beth on 1/28/2007 |
| I am so excited, I will still be at work and you will be meeting Maggie. I can't wait to meet her, I guess I will have to make another trip to MN. | |
| Re: Good Evening from Hefei! | By Joan on 1/28/2007 |
| I can't wait either. I'm so excited for you "Mom & Dad". We all will be thinking of you at about 7:30. Hope all goes well. Don't forget the kleenex | |
| Re: Good Evening from Hefei! | By Mom-Joan on 1/28/2007 |
| Have been following your adventure, though Davin has been doing the commenting. I've been here at Davin's since Fri. night. Your pictures are really wonderful and now the best is about to become. I am so excited for you !!! Hoping with you that she won't be too upset by all the changes. It's unfortunate that you have all had to wait so long. Especially loved the pictures of the Great Wall - we don't really hear enough about China over here and really there hasn't been much until the last few years that we could see. Jumping up and down over here too, Love you- Mom-Joan | |
| Re: Good Evening from Hefei! | By Ellen on 1/28/2007 |
| So I heard some advice from a friend of a friend whose a niece of a lady that adopted a 2-year-old from China. She said she kept her new daughter's sweater in a plastic bag (the one she was wearing when she first met her). (I think they might have kept it in the freezer too.) When her little girl ever had trouble settling down for the night, they would give it to her because it smelled familiar to her. She also said she ate nothing but noodles for weeks and ramen noodles are her favorite to this day. | |
| Re: Good Evening from Hefei! | By Lori Matt and the Girls on 1/28/2007 |
| We just got back from Wisconsin and the first thing we did was to check in to your site. We are so excited for you. I will be checking 1st thing tomorrow to see how every thing went. Did I tell you how excited we are!!!!!!!!!! I am counting the seconds. We love you all, Lori Matt and the girls | |
| Re: Good Evening from Hefei! | By Davin on 1/28/2007 |
| I just got to Des Moines (teaching at Wells Fargo this week) and am checking your blog. When things settle down, please tell us how she is! Bryan - after you get back, we have to go to a new movie called, "Ghost Rider". Looks awesome! | |
| Re: Excited | By Emily on 1/28/2007 |
| It's 10 oclock Sunday night here. I'm so excited I can't sleep. So I came down to the kitchen to bother my Mom. POST PICTURES ASAP. !!!!!!!!Love you May May and Bry!!!!!! | |
No comments:
Post a Comment