Getting Tate

The train ride from Beijing to Jinan was smooth and uneventful. The train was very clean, not crowded, and the ride was pleasant. We got to see a lot of countryside, much more than I have before. However, moving at 360 km per hour, we were only able to get a flavor. We saw cotton fields with workers hand picking the cotton. We saw corn spread out on residential rooftops for drying. Most of the land we saw was cultivated or city. There were fruit groves that our guide told us were owned by the government but since they were not tended, the people can go pick fruit for no charge. We moved from tall buildings to fields with traditional homes connected by courtyards.

The ride to our hotel was “smooth” as in we did not kill any pedestrians, or hit other modes of transportation (bikes, scooters, cars, busses, hybrid bike-scooter-wagon things) though I am not sure how we managed to avoid it. Our driver picked whichever lane had the least traffic and drove in it, no matter which way the arrows were pointing or which side of the road. He honked to let people know we were coming through. After a few heart pounding, gasping moments, I stopped looking out the window as much.



Our hotel room is comfortable and pleasant enough, much like the other rooms in I’ve stayed in. The beds are narrow-full or maybe wide-twin? The mattresses are rock hard. This will be home for the next five days and I am happy to be here. We are waiting for the orphanage to arrive and bring Tate to our room. Any minute now.

UPDATE

He came to our room at 11:30 as promised. He’s wearing new clothing, only one set now that I have removed one. He’s is totally adorable. He let me pick him up and hold him and after a couple of minutes of that started crying and crying and crying. We went out to exchange money and get registration and passport pictures done and he finally stopped crying. We had to go to two different banks because the bank official at the first bank said I had to prove how I came up with so much money. Hmmmm. I think he just couldn’t read the English on my passport and didn’t want to deal with me. The second bank would only let us exchange $2000 per person, since it was Sunday. I gave money to our guide and to Tara so that we could get all the money we needed for tomorrow’s appointments. The banks aren’t usually open on Sunday but since they were closed all week for the National Holiday, they had to open on Sunday. After our errands, we came back to the hotel to do some paperwork. Tate cried some more. Tara and our guide, Cindy, went to the local super market to get various sundry items like water and milk for Tate. Tate cried while they were gone and finally quit when Tara returned with milk. He was very hungry and had missed nap and was introduced to the world outside the orphanage and white people at the same time. I would have cried too.

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and he ate more than I thought would fit. As I write this, he is filling his diaper with something stinky. So I guess I won’t be going into much more detail on this post. I got some cute grins at dinner when I played peek-a-boo. Good ole standby.