Oh my goodness…it’s a heat wave

We finally made it to Guangzhou no worse for the wear. Like with most travel days, it started relatively early with final packing, Mary picked us up a little after noon, we were supposed to take off at 3 but sat on the plane for an hour + waiting for “incoming Chinese New Year air traffic to clear” and we landed in Guangzhou around 7:30. Mary told us Connie would be “the fancy one waving at you” after baggage claim. She was right…no sign with our name on it…just waving…and very fashionable (fancy). I wondered at first how she knew it was us, and then I remembered out of 480 people on our plane, 478 of them were native Chinese. Multiply that by a couple of other flights and I guess we weren’t too hard to pick out of the crowd. We already miss Mary dearly…she hugged and loved on all three of us and waved with both hands until we disappeared from sight. But she has our email address and we look forward to staying in touch. Connie seems equally wonderful and we eagerly anticipate our time with her over the coming days. Maggie was an amazing little trooper on the plane…other than a few whines over the seatbelt situation she barely uttered a sound except for the occasional giggle (missing supper wasn’t an issue for her either…for me & Marcie it was awful ). God took care of her during takeoff and landing and had her knocked out cold…hoping with all our heart the 15 hour trip yet to come goes as smoothly .

Guangzhou, or at least the little tiny part of it we currently occupy (called Shamian Island), is beautiful. It doesn’t take long to circle the entire island and stroll down the 5 or so side streets that intersect the three main roads. There are numerous little shops, a Subway, a Starbucks, a 7-11 (or two), and a bunch of restaurants (Chinese, French, Western & other). We had lunch at Lucy’s (see picture)…and it was everything friends near and far said it was…definitely going back there. Palm trees and colorful gardens line most of the streets and fill the really cool park overlooking the Pearl River. It’s a balmy 55 degrees here today and people look at us like we’re crazy in our single layer outfits. For fear of retribution from the quite motherly (nosy) older Chinese women we still bundle Maggie in her pink fuzzy outfit, though. Sixty plus degree the rest of the time here…so we may be breaking out the shorts and sunscreen!

All three of us feeling a little tired for some reason…maybe 11 days on the other side of the world has kicked in…and Maggie is just worn out from all the stuff that has changed in her world in that time. Resting this afternoon (Thursday) and visiting a park with Connie and another Madison family tomorrow, then off to take a Visa photo and get a medical exam on Saturday. No comments allowed on wondering about me rolling in and out of this bed! More to come later…love to all!