We're in Nanning

We are in Nanning! Our flight left bright and early from Beijing at 7:25 am so we had to leave the hotel around 6am to get to the airport on time. Once we arrived at the airport our guide, Kelly, asked us to wait while she checked us in. Interesting thing happened while we were waiting…a Chinese woman came up to our group and asked one of the darker haired ladies in our group to take her picture…with me! I guess my light hair, light colored eyes, and the fact that I’m an American were interesting enough for her to want my picture! This happened to the younger kids in our travel group earlier on, but this is the first adult “picture opportunity” that happened this trip. This woman also wanted a picture with an older gentleman in our group as well. We now have a small glimpse into what celebrities feel like on a daily basis!

Once we were checked in and got our seat assignments we realized that our seats were not together. He was in row 15 I was in row 26. Seat assignments are made at the check in counter so there aren’t many selections to make, you basically get what you are given. The flight was uneventful except for the fact that I was seated in between two Chinese gentlemen in a row of 3 seats. One of these men fell asleep on the plan and almost had his head on my shoulder at one point. Like I’ve mentioned previously, personal space is not a “thing” here, so we need to be flexible.

The airport was clean and pretty nice looking and I had my first experience on waiting for a western toilet in the ladies room. There were 3 stalls, 2 Chinese (squat) and 1 Western (toilet)…I waited for what I was used to using and all was good. The city is pretty lush with a lot of tropical trees, but it is still a poor area. Our bus driver hit all the potholes in the road on the way to the hotel…it was an interesting and bumpy bus ride to the hotel.

This afternoon we meet Jenna for the first time. It will be quite an emotional experience and we hope to capture a bit of it on film for you to see in a later post. Jenna is in foster care and we believe that she will be taken from her foster family today and driven up to Nanning to be given to us. She will be terrified of everything that happens. My heart aches for the pain she will experience today, but we hope she will rebound quickly and be able to attach to both of us soon.