Jack did not want to leave my side. I must admit it felt good that he stuck to
me. I told dad not to be offended that
Jack only wanted to be in my arms. We
went downstairs for breakfast two mornings and by the second, Jack wanted up
and down and I couldn't eat in peace.
Dad would kindly take him out to the lobby and walk around with him
while I took a few moments to eat peacefully!
On the Wednesday, our guide took us to a history museum of the Xinjiang
province. It was interesting but I'm not much of a history person to begin
with and with a 21 month old who wouldn't leave my arms I REALLY wasn't
interested! And oh the building was SO
hot and we all had our coats on. I was
exhausted and HOT! However, the ride
home was worth it...as we drove by the hotel I saw a "supermarket"
literally at the end of the hotel building.
After Jack's nap, we walked over and we were able to load up on bags of
chips, Pepsi. Yoghurt for Jack and lollipops!
There weren't any restaurants we were willing to go to, so Jack wasn't
really eating "well"...but yoghurt was a big hit for him and
Cheerios. It was nice to finally be able
to buy Pepsi and keep them cold in the hotel room. We wouldn't eat in the hotel restaurant as it
was VERY expensive (except breakfast since that was included).
Dad and I were starting to get pretty
hungry since we weren't eating much for lunch or supper. Finally we decided to
order room service. GREAT idea! The spaghetti was delicious and nice big
portions. The price wasn't too bad
either. We also found a fast food
chicken joint around the corner. We ate
there once. Dad didn't think his chicken
was cooked properly so we stopped eating.
The fries were great though...and Jack devoured those. Anything that would get him to eat made me
happy. We ordered 2 chicken burger trios
with an extra fry...it cost ~$8.00! That
would have cost twice the price in Montreal!
Being cooped up in a small hotel room was
getting hard. No where to go. We didn't venture out with the guide since it
was just too hard to travel with Jack in my arms and he didn't do well in taxi
rides. The hotel hallways were circular,
so Jack and I would walk around and around and around...and around. My body can't handle circular motions anymore...and
by the 5th time around I was feeling dizzy and nauseated! But it gave us something to do!!! The 3 of us did take a walk outside, just to the corner and back. Again, I had to carry Jack and I don't think we felt very safe in the area. The area reminded me a lot of DaNang in Vietnam and we sure didn't feel safe there...and almost no one speaks English so the language barrier can be quite scary.
I kept asking our guide to find us a mall. A friend who had visited Urumqi to meet her son, gave me the address of a mall she had visited and it had a playzone so I thought that would be something for us to do. I hadn't brought many toys, thinking I'd get them "cheap" in Urumqi. HA! My purpose for wanting a mall was a) find a grocery store so I could buy some baby food b) find some toys c) go to the playzone. The toys were so expensive, but I just grabbed a few things I thought would be fun and had dad pay for them because I didn't want to know the cost. The playzone had closed down :-( so that was disappointing. We did find a grocery store and I was able to get the baby food, diapers, and wipes. It's so intimidating shopping there because the employees are on top of you shoving things in your face. It's hard to look at things while thinking of the currency conversion. But at least I had baby food!!!
Our tour guide got everything done for us concerning Jack's passport. We never really saw him again until it was time to head to Beijing on the Saturday. He travelled back with us which was nice since he took care of our boarding passes and luggage. By the time we got to the gate, I was EXHAUSTED. We had to walk so far and I did this with Jack in my arms and some carry-on bags. I was SO thirsty and not one bottle of water, coke or juice in sight. *sigh* There was quite a wait between boarding and taking off. Jack was not impressed being confined to my lap. Thankfully there was a space between myself and the person closest to the window. This gave me a little wiggle room. He was not exactly thrilled about having a kid sitting in his row! Jack had a bag of chips and he got very frustrated and he just threw the bag...chips were everywhere. Not the greatest moment! He cried and cried and cried. No, he screamed and screamed and screamed. Everyone was looking at us and offering Jack candy etc... this was NOT helping! Finally he settled down at take off and slept for maybe one hour. I always get so emotional at take off when we leave our child's "home province". Jack wasn't living in Xinjiang, but that's where his life began and that is so emotional for me.
It was a long 4 hours but it could have been worst! I sang patty-cake with Jack for a good 30 minutes towards the end of the flight. It was keeping him entertained and laughing. We were so happy to be in Beijing. Again it felt like the day we landed in Hanoi. There were delis, cafes etc...at the airport and cold drinks!!! We had a very nice, comfortable van to take us to the hotel. The driving is very civilized in Beijing. We were worried about pollution since when dad and I landed a week prior in Beijing, getting to our connecting flight to Urumqi, we could just smell the pollution. But our drive to the hotel was very nice and the air quality was really good. Our guide was shocked how clear the sky was. But oh.the.traffic! The drive should have taken us ~45 min and it took almost 2 hours. We pulled up to the hotel and to my GREAT satisfaction there was a mall literally across the street! Thank you Lord.
The hotel was BEAUTIFUL...the most fancy hotel I had ever stayed in! We met with all the other couples who had also met their children (we all used the same adoption agency here in Quebec). We also met our new tour guide. We checked in and met the guide down in the lobby. She was going to show us where to eat and shop. The malls were open late so we walked over and once we were in the basement, our attitudes changed...FOOD COURT! Subway, KFC, Burger King, Pizza hut, Dairy Queen, and oh so much more! The guide brought us to a GROCERY STORE in the mall! We were able to get baby food, and Pepsi and chips (the essentials, of course). Dad ended up spending a good 30 min in line, so we learned that we wouldn't all go together. Carrying Jack around while the other waited in line wasn't fun. We'd take turns going down to the grocery store while the other stayed back at the hotel with Jack. We ate at KFC -- oh was it good!!!
That mall would become our 2nd home for the next week! After much searching and being given the wrong directions many times, we discovered Starbucks in the mall. Dad was happy to enjoy his coffee. We did absolutely no shopping in that mall as it was all very expensive, brand name clothing etc... Even kids clothes were by Armani Jr. Pluhleeeze -- I love you Jack but Armani Jr, seriously??? We did find a toy store upstairs so I would take Jack there in the morning and just hang out and play with the toy stations they had set up...couldn't afford to buy anything there though. At least we had somewhere to visit.
We also discovered the pool in the hotel (a couple of days late but once we did discover it, it became our afternoon hang out every day after!) So our schedule every day until we left, looked a little like this:
Dad goes for breakfast. Brings a boiled egg back for Jack to eat in the room.
Jess goes for breakfast (did I mention how AMAZING the buffet was??? Freshly squeezed grapefruit juice...so refreshing!). Brings Jack some yoghurt.
Walk to the mall. Hang out in the toy store and if need be go to the grocery store.
Afternoon nap. Dad would walk to the mall to get us lunch to eat in the room. Jack would eat when he woke up.
Visit to the pool after nap.
Get some food for supper from the mall.
Play a little, bath, bed!
Of course, Skype in the morning and Skype at night with daddy, brothers and lolli, and sometimes Uncle Jaye and family.
By Thursday I HAD HAD ENOUGH! I was getting short with dad (sorry dad) and everything annoyed me. It was time to get home!
Some day during the week (I think it was Tuesday), we visited the Canadian Embassy. In Vietnam we did all our own paperwork. Here, the guide did it all for us. ALL the families piled on a bus and we waited and waited and waited while the guide went into the embassy to request the visas. It was a long wait. Had I known I would have gone and left dad at the hotel with Jack or vice versa. There was no real need for us to be there. Some other couples wanted to go visit something afterwards but thank goodness we took a vote and they lost! During our wait, dad was talking to one of the fathers and dad said something about our church. The father asked what church and what denomination. Amazingly, they attend a French Baptist church on the south shore, so we had lots to talk about. It was really nice talking with them and having something in common.
Later that day, we met the guide in the lobby and she took us to an international clinic. Jack was scratching like crazy and had bumps over his body. I figured it was just eczema but I didn't have access to any good cream or an antihistamine. The dr was sure it was scabies. I knew otherwise! She prescribed the treatment for scabies and an antihistamine. I took everything, but I never treated him for scabies. I had witnessed scabies firsthand in Vietnam and this was not scabies! The guide agreed with me (and she's a Dr as well). The antihistamine helped. I couldn't wait to get home and get some good cream on his body!
On Friday I had had enough of walking to the mall. I told dad, I am going out and looking for a Walmart, you can stay here or come with me, but I was going out! I looked up online the address for the closest Walmart. We asked a couple of people for directions and finally I said we're on the right street, let's just walk. And there it was...WALMART! I was giddy. BUT finding the entrance to Walmart was crazy. NO ONE could give us directions...they didn't understand "Walmart". Finally 2 people directed was to the garage...I figured 2 people knew what they were talking about so we walked through the garage and finally found the entrance to Walmart. It was your typical Walmart. I wanted to get some souvenirs considering we hadn't been anywhere to buy any, but the prices weren't that reasonable and Jack was getting antsy and my dad isn't much of a shopper so I just grabbed some toy cars for Jack, and some cookies that he loved! He pulled a fit while dad was in line paying and of course I was getting some nasty looks.
It was a really nice walk...it felt good getting out of the hotel and away from the same mall. It was a fresh day out and it just felt nice. After Jack went to bed on Friday, dad decided he wanted to treat us to a nice dinner. He ordered us room service...some ribs and potato. It was good, but we both had indigestion through the night! LOL!
That would be our final full day in Beijing...Saturday we'd be doing our last minute shopping at the mall and packing up. Friday was a nice "finale" to our trip.
