Good Morning Shanghai!!

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Geo: 31.23, 121.47

Good Morning! It is almost 9am here in Shanghai China! We've been up since before 6am. Showered and ate good, big western-style breakfast today. Here in a bit we are off to see the bizarre and spend the rest of our Yuan ~ use it or lose it!! Nothing like a little bit of last minute bargaining.

Today is Saturday for us and today will be the longest day of my life. (Kamie's too) This afternoon we will check-out of our hotel at 2pm and our tour guide will say goodbye to us at the Shanghai airport. From there we will fly to Beijing at 5pm. We will have a 2 hour layover and we will leave Beijing International Airport at 9pm China time. We will fly 12 hours to Los Angeles and actually arrive in Los Angeles on the same day, Saturday, at 5pm. We go back in time and our day is a 33 hour day. Crazy, eh?

We will spend one night in Los Angeles and then the next morning we have a 5:30am flight back to St Louis however we have a long layover in Denver so we won't actually be back at our home in Missouri until sometime around 10pm Sunday night if all goes well. That is a lot of traveling!!

We have been so blessed to be able to take this trip. It has changed my opinion about China and how the we view China. What we see is only 9% of the people. The other 91% are barely living above the poverty level, if at all. Communism is subtle but the oppression is in the air, like the smog that is always there but only sometimes clearly visible. This trip has been wonderful. I am so glad we stuck with it and got over our irrational fears and we were able to see this country. I feel as though I could travel anywhere without hesitation now (well, almost). No other country in all of our travels has made me more thankful to be an American which is something I never thought I would say about China. We were able to see the authentic China, we had a wonderful tour guide, and we would highly recommend our tour company - Gate 1 Travel. We plan to use them again for a trip to Iceland in a couple of years. Overall, we have been treated wonderfully, given excellent hotels, and we have seen a slice of every level of China - from the "first tier" areas to what our guide calls "second, third, and even fourth tier" areas. I could write all day about my thoughts and our overall experiences but I just want to say I am so glad we were able to visit this country. This has been an experience I will remember forever.

I was a bit homesick last night for my family, my friends, and my pets but today I'm excited because we'll be home soon. I miss my Simon and I know grandma and grandpa have taken great care of him so mom and dad.. tell Simo that mommy is coming home soon!

Hope you have enjoyed reading our adventures. Wish us well on our four flights home!!

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Comments

[Paula]

I'm going to Iceland with you.