Homeward Bound!

July 29, 2008

Several days to catch up on and so little energy! Boys are ensconced in front of the TV watching The Fox and the Hound for the second time so I can get a few minutes to sit. It’s kind of a mixed blessing when they are old enough to sit through a movie! In two days we’ll be halfway home, and none too soon. We are all completely knackered and ready to be in our own home. The boys got sick on the train from Fuzhou, which was not the most pleasant train ride despite the soft seats. The train was fine, I just didn’t feel well myself nor sleep well. Now the boys have been feverish. Isaac has recovered pretty quickly but Ethan has been pretty puny but is perking up. They napped early today though and will be exhausted by bed time – we all will. And Pamela and Vincent will be coming late to say hi and bye. Still we want to see them again before we go.

The PSB just showed up at our door. Never had that happen in China before, though I wasn’t altogether surprised. So many so-called “Olympic security” people are everywhere watching everything going on. Now if only they could apply that energy to traffic and forming lines…. Anyway, he was relatively nice, even knows an old senior editor from CCTV that I used to work with. Jack has gone with him to swipe our passports. He just gave the spiel about how it’s China’s law, etc. I half expected a fine, but apparently it’s okay. Hopefully he won’t cause any trouble about all the other time we stayed here unregistered.

Meanwhile, our last couple days in Fuzhou were nice. We endured another hot morning with family in Jack’s village, where Jack’s dad showed up in what is supposed to be also Jack’s house (though he sold all the land without consulting Jack) though he didn’t say hi or join us, partly since he’s not happy with Jack and mostly because he has bad relationships with a lot of the family in the village.

We then moved into the hotel where Jack’s cousin was staying for training (the cousin who bought us the train tickets). It was pretty comfy and there was a big park with an amusement park a few minutes walk away. We enjoyed eating familiar food and food that wasn’t being forced on us in large quantity by family. Jack enjoyed the breakfast buffet, but it was all a bit too local food for me – a lot of pickled stuff and stuffed buns. The boys liked the Chinese doughnuts and watermelon though.

The train rides, besides aforementioned punyness, was nice. It was a very long train (as in many cars), with two regular soft sleeper cars (usually there is one) and one luxury soft sleeper car. We didn’t even know about that! For an extra $100 we could have had a room to ourselves with our own toilet and little couch. Not really worth it though with the kids, esp since one bed was on top. The next time we come back the boys will be big enough we will have to buy a whole four-bed soft sleeper room. The train food was decent and people relatively okay. Isaac forced an older boy to play with him, as he is wont to do (he did the same with an older boy at our hotel breakfast table).Ethan loved to just sit and watch outside (especially excited when he saw train tracks), making comments. He is quite the chatterbox these days. Even if his vocabulary probably isn’t as large as Isaac’s, his grammar is better. He says things like “Mama, wait. I coming!” and when scared says “Scares me!”. Even though they still only speak a few words of Chinese, their English has at least improved, even if I’m not sure anyone else would understand most of it!

Okay, better tend to the sickies…