Bear Necessity Collectibles

Today was mostly about moving to the province where Lily lives and getting ready to pick her up tomorrow.

We got up at 6:30 – which is not a problem because I am still falling asleep at 9pm. We ate breakfast and met our guide and the remaining group members at 7:30. There were less families because some had to leave at 5am for earlier flights. We got to the airport and went to check in. Julia and I were lucky because our flight was on time. However, everyone else in the group was traveling to Henan – not to be confused with Hunan where we are, when they found out their flight had been cancelled. They were left scrambling to find other flights to get their kids tomorrow.

Julia and I were on the plane seated next to a 20 something Chinese boy who decided to help Julia with her word search game on the iPad. She was fairly annoyed because he would find them and highlight them with his finger before she even started looking for that word. Eventually, she turned the game off. Then he offered her the in flight magazine and pointed to the map inside to find out where we were from. Nothing like making new friends.

Actually we were something of a spectacle as the only white people on the plane. The flight was quick and we arrived a half hour ahead of schedule. Our guide was waiting for us and took us to the hotel. He also explained that Changsha is the Hollywood of China and is full of Chinese stars. Apparently our hotel is the best in town and where they all stay. Our guide, Sam warned us that white folk are unusual here and that we should be prepared for complete strangers to approach us and want to talk to us to practice their English.

We got to our room and unpacked to get ready for tomorrow. About 15 minutes later there was a knock on the door and the hotel’s hospitality rep was there with a gift for Lily. She said she wanted to make sure the room was ok, but really spent 20 minutes conversing with us on a variety of subjects. In the end she told us the last guest had complained about her and said her English was poor and wanted to know if I felt the same. I assured her that her English was good and she should not take one bad review to heart. She smiled and asked if she could come back and visit Julia and I during our stay and I said she could. She left beaming.

We went downstairs to one of the hotel restaurants who was having a western style buffet. However, as we looked at the buffet and discovered oysters, sushi, crab, snake, eel, snails and a variety of other foods we couldn’t identify we decided to order from the menu. We ended up with a burger and fries that tasted more like tofu then beef. Oh well. Where is McDonalds when you need it?

Well tomorrow we pick Lily up at 10am and the excitement begins, so stay tuned. TA TA for now.