Sweet Home China

We had an interesting trip back from the States. Alex, Ella and I left my mom's at 5 a.m. Monday (Tim was so kind as to drive us there, get us checked in using his Eliiiiiiiiiite status and see us to the security check). Hung around the airport and had a sleepy flight to Newark. When I got onto the plane, there was a guy who was assigned the same seats as us. He had obviously booked the front-row-more-legroom seats on purpose. I just wanted to make sure I was by both my kids. Luckily the flight wasn't full and he was able to find another seat but when I offered him my front-row-more-legroom seats he was just like "I'm fine." I felt really bad because I don't need the extra legroom. At all. I wish I did because then I might reach my lifelong dream of being 5'8" but I don't. Needless to say, neither does Ella! He kept insisting he was fine but I could tell he wasn't especially happy to squeeze into a row-3-not-so-roomy seat.

When we got to Newark, we found out our flight out was delayed. Normally we would have a 6 hour layover but our plane kept getting delayed due to maintenance. Well, by the time we left Newark we had spent TEN hours at the lovely Newark airport, killing time, running after Runaway Ella, and eating junk. Yippee. No, really, can I tell you how fun it was? Nope, it wasn't. At all.

Well, we finally got onto the plane and had pretty nice seats - only 6 rows away from Business Class so we could smell their good food and hear their crystal-clear serene silence. Ah, well. Someday maybe I'll be ELIIIIIIIITE enough to get into Business Class. For now, I'll sit in the plane ghetto with my fantastic flying children (well, they can't really actually fly...but they do well on airplanes).

Because of the delay, we arrived in Hong Kong at 11 p.m., too late to take a ferry across to China. I couldn't find the driver who was supposed to be picking us up and my phone battery was dangerously low. I also was unable to call Tim to ask him about it. I can call the U.S. from China but from Hong Kong you need to dial some magic code that I have yet to learn or make work on my particular phone. I would have been stuck in Hong Kong with my kids, too late to cross the border near our house (it closes at 10:30) and just wanting a shower and my bed.

Luckily for us my lovely, talented and incredibly generous neighbor Lucy was on my flight and she checked with me just as she was going to her car with her incredibly generous husband David. David was able to perform the magic rites that puts a call through to the U.S. and called Tim TWICE from Hong Kong so I could find out that the driver was indeed not even AT the airport. So I stopped looking for him.

Lucy and David kindly took us to their waiting car and drove us home, just as a typhoon was moving into the area. They had to walk through the border (the one NOT close to our house) due to some new regulation that only lets 4 people across in a car at once. Then they had to wait on the other side in the rain for us while the customs people looked into our car, at our faces, our paperwork and our passports. It was an ordeal. FINALLY we were on our way again.

I was so happy to get home, to have fantastical neighbors like Lucy and David, and to have arrived in Hong Kong BEFORE the typhoon hit. My housekeeper was waiting with open arms for us and we got cleaned up and settled in for the night. Slept and showered - I'm a new woman. The typhoon is giving us an excuse to have Lazy Day, too.

I'm ready to face my jetlag.