Vanessa was very well rested for the 10+ hour flight, which meant she was full tilt, running around the airplane. For 9 hours. It took me, Daddio, Granny and our dear friend "Auntie" Gerri to keep her entertained and moderately corralled. Gerri has been a flight attendant with Northwest Airlines for 25 years, and she managed to get on our flight. What an angel of mercy she was! We felt we were getting First Class service. "Auntie" Gerri even thought to have 6 or 8 wrapped gifts from the 100 Yen Store for Nanners to open and play with to help keep her occupied. We landed in Tokyo and felt exhausted for our next flight, a 4 hour jobbie to Beijing. Van slept on that plane.
We arrived in Beijing and were immediately surrounded by smiling Chinese people who cooed and pawed at our little mop headed wonder child. They took photos. They spoke in hushed and excited tones about her. Little did we realize, in our sleep deprivation and concern for getting to our hotel, that Vanessa would prove to be a bit of a sensation our entire trip.
We paid way too much to have a mini van take us to our hotel, but, after the equivalent of an all-nighter, we felt it was a priceless ride to get to a bed. I think Daddio stood outside the aeropuerto with our pile of luggage, the mini van, a map of Beijing, our hotel information printed in English and Mandarin, a cell phone, and the taxi driver for 45 minutes, trying to figure out how to get us to the hotel. We landed at 9:30 p.m. Beijing time (6:30 a.m. California time), got to our hotel at 11 p.m. and into bed at midnight. The staff at our hotel were very busy with guests from around the world - Australia, Germany, China - so it took awhile and a lot of shouting at each other before we got to our room. In the middle of it all, they paused as a group to speak softly to each other, then one said, in English, "Your daughter is very lovely." They took some pictures.
I looked around our hotel, which is really a hostel, and thought, "What have I done to my mother in law?" It was slightly smelly and dark. We saw a man jumping through a window to get to his room - we think it didn't have a door. When the staff let us into our rooms - we had our own rooms with bathrooms and a shower - they asked it if was suitable. The room smelled of sour cabbage and there were tiny dead flies on one of the beds. The air conditioning I was so careful to ensure we'd have did not work. I wanted to run screaming to the nearest Holiday Inn, but, before I responded, Daddio said, "It's great. Thanks." As usual, Mary the budget travel maven felt she could not stay at the place she booked. "The price is right. We're staying," Daddio said. I obeyed. The shower was a hand-held shower wand attached to the tiled wall by the toilet - the whole bathroom served as a shower stall with a drain in the middle of the floor and no curtain. The beds were hard, like box springs (but I liked that).
So, it's midnight and we've flown across the country with a squirming, kicking, screeching little dervish of a toddler, and we've not had sleep for way too many hours. But guess who has gotten in quite a goodly nap? Yes, Vanessa was ready to party when we turned off our lights. She sang and cried and wiggled all over as I lay there in the dark, unable to lift an eyelid. After an hour of this I said in the dark to Daddio, "This is like a nightmare." We started to giggle then couldn't stop laughing. Why did we think we could bring a 20 month old to the Orient?
DAY 1 - SATURDAY
The next day, our first day in Beijing, I was awake at 3 a.m.. Jack got up by 4:30 a.m. and we headed out at 5:30 a.m. to hunt down some breakfast. It was Saturday morning, but the people of Beijing are industrious, early morning risers, so we were not alone.
Granny and Vanessa followed us around our neighborhood - a decidedly non-touristy part of town - looking for coffee and eggs. First we found a hole in the wall breakfast grill - walk up only - that served up grilled eggs on grilled biscuits or sauteed eggs in a Chinese burrito type thing. We opted for this over the sit down breakfast soup and deep fried bread place. Nobody seemed to offer coffee. We ordered six breakfast sandwiches - two each for the adults - and it came to just under $2 USD.
Then, with what I now believe is divine intervention, it occurred to me that the American KFC on the corner of our block might serve American coffee. We were the first ones in when they opened the door at 7:00 a.m. and not only did they serve coffee, they served orange juice and had an indoor kiddie slide. Woo hoo! I ordered six coffees (two Styrofoam cups each) three juices and a milk. The milk came hot and sweetened with honey. Best Ever. We ate our grilled egg biscuits in KFC and watched Vanessa play.
So there it was, we stuck to this breakfast regime for the rest of the week. God is good.
Jack was pretty anxious to see his Olympic athlete, so that first full day he made arrangements to meet Sharon at the Athlete's village, then go to the designated practice track for a high jump practice. Granny and I manned Vanessa. We walked all over our neighborhood trying to decipher the public transportation options. People started commenting on Vanessa, even stopping us, and of course taking photos.
I asked a woman for some directions with our map and it turned out that she was a student at the college where Jack needed to meet Sharon. She was very helpful and was studying English at school. She was able to translate what some of the people were saying to us about Vanessa. Most said she was lovely or beautiful, many even said perfect. Several people offered Van gifts. One woman wanted us to know, through our translator, that she felt very lucky to have seen Vanessa and was sorry she hadn't brought a gift. She was suggesting it was like a spiritual event to see such a child. When I heard this I thought maybe I didn't totally understand. "Thank you, that's very kind," I said. Everyone was very friendly and we felt completely safe and welcome there, even in a real, working neighborhood. Our translator suggested we take a taxi, so we did.
We shared a taxi - Granny, Vanessa and I got off at the zoo for a leisurely couple hours and Daddio continued on to see Sharon. Um, the roads are crazy in Beijing. Crazy. Cars, taxis, bicycles, pedestrians, buses and trucks all share the road in what we felt was both dangerous and beautiful synchronization. In fact, after a few days of sheer fear as passengers, we learned to view the total disregard of Western traffic laws as rather philosophical. Lane lines, traffic lights, stop signs... all seemed to be merely decoration as the people of Beijing shared the road any way they saw fit. It might be a Civil Libertarian's driving dream come true, but we thought the root of the Beijing traffic scene was people having great trust in each other to behave in a predictable way. We saw people on bicycles crossing diagonally through busy intersections when the light was red. No one died. Well, Jack, the poor, self-preserving Westerner, did get hit by a bicycle when he was running along the sidewalk, but he was not part of the predictable system, was he? Anyway, we shared that first taxi and Vanessa nursed without being hampered by a car seat or seat belt, and fell asleep in my arms before we got to the zoo.
We got out, Daddio drove off, Granny got tickets, and I carried our sleeping Banana into the zoo. The front gate person directed us to the service center to what we thought was a couch to sit on while Nanners napped. When we got there we found a baby crib, so I laid our wee jet lagged traveler down and I'll be darned if she didn't have a 3 hour nap - the first time she's ever slept in a crib!
Granny and I sat next to her, perched on kiddie stools painted like zoo animals, and chatted with the police officer there. We chatted in English because he was studying English and (ahem) we only knew two things in Mandarin (hello and thank you). People came by to take photos of the sleeping white child. We had a fascinating conversation with the police man and Granny and I agreed this would be an important thing to look back on, once our trip was over. The weather was sweltering hot and quite humid, so Granny and I were not complaining
about getting to sit in air conditioning for so long. When Vanessa woke, though, we were all hungry, so we set off through the zoo in search of Chinese food. Our first real adventure began.
You see, we had not brought the stroller this day because Van doesn't usually sit in the stroller. Without Jack around, I brought the baby carrier and the monkey leash, thinking Vanessa would either walk or insist on me carrying her. Well, the little darling refused to go into the carrier and refused to walk, so my worst fears were confirmed and I had to strong arm carry all 30 lbs. of her through the zoo. It might not
have been so bad if she had held still, or if it wasn't 90 degrees and 90% humidity, or if I were well rested, well hydrated or even fed. But no. It might not have been bad if it had been a short walk to the lunch place. We walked
miles. And nothing could have prepared us for the mob scene we experienced with Chinese people flocking to see, touch, photograph and beg to hold Vanessa. It was like traveling with the Beatles.
We walked so far, trying in vain to read our maps and get to where we thought the authentic Chinese food was (as opposed to the American food, which was a hot dog stand), I was near a nervous breakdown. When we got there, we had no idea what we were ordering. Poor Granny had to get our food ordered, paid for, and back to our table while I wrangled Vanessa and attempted to shield her from the adoring crowds.
When we sat down at the table, Van turned out to be wholeheartedly uninterested in food, but I tried to force down some of our spam meatballs and noodles nonetheless. Soon enough, well meaning people came over to touch her hair and stare closely at us and our foreign ways. That was it. I stood up and bolted outside at this point, hunger and all. Granny followed soon after, saying one woman was staring at her so intensely as she ate she lost her appetite. Granny got me a bottle of water and an ice cream and we made our way back to the gate we came in, miles away.
We stopped for a Hello Kitty balloon for Vanessa at one point and 30 people stopped with us to shoot the event and get their kids or themselves in for a pose or two. Thank God Granny was there to keep me calm. We stopped to rest on a park bench and finally I allowed Vanessa to run free with some of the Chinese kids, which she loved. In fact, she loved pretty much all the attention she got, save maybe when a stranger tried to grab her out of my arms.
I let her run around and let the crowd of parents tail her for awhile (she is in the center of the above photo, by the women in red). That worked wonders. My arms got a break and VH1 worked off some energy. Granny sat on the bench and kept her cool (and snapped the above photo). We finally got into the taxi and I said, "I can't take any more, we have to go back to the hotel," and off we went. We got back to our room and just lay quietly on our beds, stunned. That was no walk in the park, our day at the zoo. Who knew?
At 3 p.m., as planned, Jack and Sharon arrived at our hotel. They were well rested, well fed, and pretty chill, really. They had been getting the royal treatment at the Athlete's Village, eating good American food or good Chinese food - they had it all there - and hydrating so much they had bottles of water to spare. No one had mobbed them for photographs. They were a welcome sight.
With them as reinforcement, Granny and I agreed to pick ourselves up off our beds and venture out again. We went to the Pearl Market, one of the famed shopping spots in Beijing. Vanessa was very popular with the salespeople there, but I let Daddio take her around. I had a fabulous video of our taxi ride there, with Sharon in the background, describing what it was like being an athlete during the opening ceremonies, but I inadvertently deleted the whole day's pictures.
After shopping, Sharon headed back to the Village for some predictable and easily digestible food, and we headed "home" to our hostel. I was not feeling well and was fighting off another migraine, so I was thrilled to stop sightseeing. "We need some real Chinese food!" we thought, so Daddio went to the (Chinese) restaurant on our corner and ordered. They had no idea what to-go meant, so they brought out each item on a plate, then scooped into a container, like for leftovers. They appeared baffled, to say the least. Jack ordered Peking duck, noodles and pancakes. He has introduced Chinese to-go food to China. It was great.
I fell asleep at 7 p.m. It had been a very big first day in Beijing.
DAY 2 - SUNDAY
Okay, don't worry: all of our days were not as eventful as the first. Let's just say, we were hit the ground running, having a fun, rich experience, and Vanessa was both popular and surprisingly adaptable to all the change and attention. Still, I wondered what the heck we were thinking, because it was hard having a toddler there.
Sunday morning, I awoke at 3:30 a.m. so I got up to type out some travel journal notes. Daddio said the typing noise was keeping him awake, so I relocated to our sour-cabbage-smelling bathroom/shower, which had a lake of standing water over the floor. I sat on the toilet lid. I broke it - split it up the middle because it was made of thin plastic. Later that morning, after we were both up and had our breakfast biscuits and KFC coffees, we broke the toilet the "other" way, and plunging didn't help. In fact, plunging made things worse and stuff splashed out and onto our floor, getting into the big drain at the center of the floor. Just so you know, in case you were wondering, when it's 90 degrees and 90% humidity and you are walking 4 miles per day, you tend to want to shower. Oh, did I mention the water in China has been known to cause illness? So showering in cold water is a weird experience of heat relief mixed with bacteria fear. Anyway, adding fresh, raw sewage to the equation was quite nearly all I could take. I walked down the street to the South Garden Hotel, praying we could move to this 5 star hotel, found out its rates were still $550/night during the Olympics, and once again submitted to Daddio's command to stay put.
We grouped together and decided it was as good a day as any to start hitting the major attractions we wanted to be sure to see whilst in China. We hired a taxi to go to the Great Wall. The driver did not recognize English for "Great Wall" so I confidently stepped in to draw him a picture. He was not impressed, nor did he understand my sketch. In the end, a person on the sidewalk waiting for a bus had to help translate.
This was my favorite taxi driver. We drove out of town - the city of Beijing is the size of Belgium - and got to see some of the rural countryside and the mountains. Then the engine light came on and we got to see the side of the road for awhile.
We did get another taxi despite being in the middle of nowhere, thanks to it being the Olympics with fleets of taxis everywhere. The second driver got us to the Great Wall park entrance but there was such a traffic jam we elected to get out and walk uphill to the base. Then we had to walk uphill to the tram. Then we had a 4 minute tram ride to the Badaling part of the Great Wall.
Daddio and I had seen a travel video on the Great Wall before our Beijing trip, and I recall that they warned that it was crowded and steep. Nothing prepared me for just how crowded and just how steep the Great Wall was. I think 300 people jammed shoulder to shoulder and hip to hip made their way to a doorway big enough for a 5' 6" soldier to slip through to get onto the Wall. Not for the claustrophobic. When we got onto the Wall, 81 year old Granny shot her two arms to the heavens and announced, "I walked the Great Wall!" She promptly sat down and said, "You go on: I'll wait here."
Daddio wore Vanessa the Superstar on his chest and I wore our two cameras. He handled the crowds who were clearly as excited to see Vanessa as they were to see one of the world's man-made wonders. When I wasn't frightened out of my mind that I'd slip and fall down the stone pathway on my slippery walking sandals I took pictures. For those of you who don't know, Auntie Anne and I share the same fears and nightmares: we are afraid not of heights but of steep ascents, so we have dreams of driving up roads that are like driving up the face of a drawn draw bridge. On the Great Wall, with the crowds of Van fans, Daddio would shout out to me, "Let me take your hand! It's not so bad," to which I'd shoot back, eyes locked on the ground in front of me, "Don't touch me! Don't touch me!" as I imagined one slip of my shoe would result in my taking out hundreds of unsuspecting Chinese tourists on the slope behind me, head injuries galore.
Daddio stopped for many photo op's with VanNanna, while I clung to the hand rails, sweat buckets of nervousness, and wondered with irritation why no one else was as terrified and acting accordingly. Even so, I did agree to pause with my husband and child while someone else ran our camera and got a Christmas card shot of us smiling, with the Great Wall in the background. This photo, like the ones of the previous day, was lost. Oh well.
We did get to some more level spots on the wall, and I was able to stop fearing for my life. The crowds around Vanessa were surreal. Jack finally stopped to rest against the Wall and allowed whomever wanted to stop to crowd in for pictures with the cherubic white child. Again, I had some amazing video clips of this, now lost. We did bump into some Tibetans dressed traditionally (photo lost), and a Tibetan lama with his pupil. The lama was fascinated with Vanessa, came over to touch her arms and her hair, but could not speak English.
There is a giant water slide at this location, which would surely enrage Mr. Genghis Khan, but we opted to get back on the tram for our descent. By the time we got back to the base and into a new taxi, we had surely walked 4 miles.
That night we went to the Silk Market. Um, many of you know me to be an avid and tireless shopper, especially if it involves a hunt and a screaming deal. However, let it be known, shopping in Beijing is not for the fainthearted, nor for the exhausted, dehydrated, jet lagged mama. Each small stall you encounter in the 7 story building had a person springing out at you, saying, "You need a bag? How about a bag? You need a coat? How 'bout some shoes? Lady? Lady? Please look here." And, if you did pause for a millisecond to consider looking, they'd pounce on you, saying, "What color, this color? What size? Is this for you? How 'bout this? How 'bout that?" It was hard to determine if you wanted something, or if it was the right size - all the clothing was teeny tiny - and then, when you thought you'd like to purchase something, you had to spend 15-20 minutes negoiating the price. If you wanted to purchase two items, well, forget it. There just wasn't enough time.
I will say, though, when I was shopping and Daddio would breeze by with Vanessa and her pack of admirers, the sales people would say, "Is that your daughter? She is lovely. She is perfect." I feel certain we were regarded a little differently when they knew we were associated with such a baby. As if her pefection was somehow a reflection of us. As if.
We were stocked by a photographer with a giant lens, first me and Vanessa, then Ernestine, then Jack and Vanessa. He seemed nice enough, the photographer, but it was the first time I've ever officially been stocked.
Ernestine recognized someone at the Silk Market. Can you imagine? In Beijing? She approached him to say, "I feel certain I know you. I'm sorry, though, I just can't remember your name." The man smiled and said, "My name is Mark. You might know me as Polly Klaas's father," and sure enough, Ernie did know him. Polly had been abducted from her northern California home 15 years ago, but Ernestine has been praying for their family all that time. I have to admit, I did not take this chance meeting very lightly. It shook me up.
We headed off to the Snack Market for some weird Chinese food on a stick. Jack ate snake. Ernie ate melon. I ate corn. Everyone took pictures of Vanessa. One woman told us, through her friend, who spoke some English, "Your baby looks like Angela (an angel). She is perfect, like the baby Jesus." That pretty much is my favorite compliment ever.
Now I should mention that VH1 was in the middle of cutting 4 new molars, and she had picked up a nasty cough that I nicknamed "TB." Her lungs were so full of junk they rattled like maracas with every breath. She got the bug at daycare at Mt. Hermon, just before we left on this trip. Daddio started his cough the night we got to Granny's, just in time for our big trip to China. That night, Vanessa was restless and had trouble breathing easy. She rolled out of our bed three times. I had to put pillows and bedding around after that.
Granny and I took Van back to the hotel while Jack met Sharon for a high jump workout. It was a long workout, but it went really well. Due to her summer of competitions, Sharon had not been able to get a lot of grueling training in. This high jump practice was long and she jumped very well. Granny babysat and I ventured out to the fancy hotel, the South Garden Hotel, to see about its spa services. They were closed, so I looked around the gift shop and came home.
This night we had guest passes to go to the Bank of America House for Olympic athletes and their friends and family. We got there and felt like it was the first time we'd seen Americans since we left the San Francisco aeropuerto. No one mobbed Vanessa for photos. It felt weird.
But Vanessa zeroed in on Rylie, her about-to-turn-three soul sister. Not only did they look alike, they were clearly kindred spirits. Vanessa called her Rye-Rye as soon as we introduced her - the first time she's ever called another baby by their name or, well, by a nickname. Not only that, she said it with a smile and a giggle. Van chased Rye-Rye around trying to imitate her. Rylie didn't look thrilled at the chase at first, but, when V-Dog let up and came back to our laps, Rylie came around and said to her babysitter, "Can you ask the baby to play with me?" Van heard and let out a monkey screech, and off they went. The rest is history. Rylie is Vanessa's new BFF.
Rylie's mom is the captain of the women's soccer team. Rylie's mom has a gold medal now. You can read about them here, at celebrity-babies.com
See VH1 and Rye-Rye making use of chopsticks under the table at the dinner. Aren't they clever?
Sharon's roommate at the Athlete's Village is also a gold medalist in the discus. Stephanie Brown. WOO HOO! What an achievement! Although we didn't see Stephanie in Beijing, she and Vanessa met at the Olympic Trials in Eugene. Stephanie was the first U.S. athlete to get a gold medal in track and field this year. Daddio would love for Nanners to be 6' 4" and 220 lbs. some day, like Stephanie. In our household, it's okay to be a big girl.
After a decidedly civilized dinner amongst Americans who spoke English easily, we headed off to the America House for some shopping. It was a small warehouse of official Nike Olympic gear. Prices were fixed, there was no haggling, they had big sizes.
Our day began with Jack going out to get us a sack of grilled egg bisquits to go. Today we decided to see one of the big tourist attractions, the Forbidden City. It is a remarkably well preserved walled-in neighborhood for royalty and their peeps. It was nearly bull-dozed during the Communist take-over, but someone had the good sense to bypass its destruction in favor of, perhaps, it becoming a future tourist destination.
We had been enjoying a leisurely morning, but we still got there at 8:00 a.m. which was a half hour before opening. At this point, we were quite overdue for our morning coffee. At least one of our guide books mentioned a Starbucks was here at the Forbidden City. Unfortunately, we counted on that, but failed to find it at the back entrance. Bummer. Then, in a desperate search for caffiene, Daddio spied little cans of sweetened Nescafe "coffee." You'd think we'd found the Holy Grail and it was a mug o' Joe. We drank down six of them. It was good.
I had to sit on a bench to nurse Vanessa to sleep, by the concubines' quarters of the City, outside the Hall of Protective Harmony. We were miraculously able to transfer our sleeping cherub into the stroller and wheel her along for the rest of her nap. As we traversed through the rest of the City, and the hours ticked on, we encountered more and more people, until we were again amidst hoards of tourists, mostly Chinese. They were not deterred by Vanessa's sleeping, and crowded in and snapped photos as usual. Even a guard couldn't help himself while on duty.
A major section of the Forbidden City was closed off for some reason unknown to us. But later we learned that Matt Lauer of the Today Show was allowed to bring a film crew through, so we wondered if that's what we encountered. Some sections have never been open to the public - I understand new sections are being opened up each year. A place not to be missed. In fact, I would go to China just to go back to the Forbidden City. It is magnificent.
By the time Vanessa woke up, we were in the middle of the busiest part of the Forbidden City. Many more people gathered around her. Ernestine and I had become quite hot and tired by this point. Daddio bore the brunt of the physical work of managing Vanessa. Even professional photographers hopped a ride on the Nanners train.
We exited the Forbidden City at Tiananmen Square. Zillions of people were there to greet us, I mean were there sightseeing. Vanessa collected two Chinese flags as gifts. See her here:
I so well remember the moment we arrived at our hotel, and, after Van was mobbed by the staff and many shots were taken of her, we got to our rooms, opened the door, and AHHH! it was cold. The air conditioning had magically started working! I nearly burst into tears as I jumped about the room, without caring it would make me sweaty, then flopped on my back on the bed and breathed in. Even the sour cabbage smell of our bathroom was gone. It was like a new place.
That night, Daddio met Sharon and her newly arrived family back at the Bank of America U.S.A. House for dinner. He got a cheap massage before coming home. Whilst he was out, Ernestine and I decided to order more Chinese food "to go." Vanessa and I waited in the room while she ordered what she thought would be a modest amount "for two." Instead, they thought "two" meant double, and she came back laden with food and sputtering with frustration at the enormous miscommuncation and resulting amount of food. It was delicious - spring roles (like none I've ever eaten before), eggplant, vegetables, tofu - all amazing. We ate and ate, then dropped into bed.
That night I dreamed about a party my sister-in-law threw for all the people who had attended her wedding. It ended up being a meaningful tribute to my late father and his efforts to keep the family intact, with Vanessa as the guest of honor. In a second dream, I had been given the information about the true Meaning of Life. In the dream, I was alarmed and frightened to have this information, fearing it might be too awsome for a mere mortal to carry such knowledge. But, as the dream wore on, it became clear that God was behind my knowing and that it was neither harmful nor dangerous. I cannot remember the details, except to say there was a Matrix-like connection between all people and matter, and that it was circular in shape. Such dreams! Must have been the Chinese food...
