Welcome to - China!

And there we were, however many hours later; no luggage lost; no real sleep. We were thankful that the university had sent a van and driver with the person greeting us (a student) at the airport as every taxi we saw was a sedan - and there was no way we would fit everything in fewer than 2 taxis. We then sat back and experienced our first time with chinese traffic. It was quite a feat for two control-freak personalities, with next to no sleep, to sit in the back seat and watch the van wend and wind its way through endless traffic, often swerving to miss someone else's wending and winding. Breathtaking - and not in a good way!

We checked into the hotel with a minimum of fuss and made our way into our room.














Alex and Sebastien were amazed that there was a tv.

Our greeter conveyed to us that we were invited to a staff dinner in a couple of hours as a welcome dinner - great, just enough time to catch our breath and take a shower. But first we just wanted to collapse on our beds - and I so wish that I had video of this moment - so when Brett made a kind-of swandive onto one bed, we were both astonished when he bounced like he'd dived onto the ground. No soft bounce at all. Yes, we had now become intimately acquainted with chinese beds.

And so it was that the entire family - jetlagged but freshly showered - made its way down the road to the faculty club and a private upstairs dining room for our welcome dinner. It was only a matter of minutes before Sebastien had fallen asleep so we created a bed for him by pulling together two armchairs. Alex followed him shortly thereafter. Meanwhile Brett and I were endeavoring to navigate unfamiliar food without making a faux pas. From what I remember of it it was delicious - and as expected seafood made up a large proportion of the dishes. It wasn't until a couple of months later that Brett and I worked out the finer intricacies of dining chinese style - where the host sits, who sits where, who eats and drinks when etc.

Eventually we plead tiredness and thanked the faculty and administration staff for a delightful dinner - it was terrific that they had organized this for us. Off we went to our hotel room - and our first night in China with a kid in each bed. Of course, the next night we'd worked out a better arrangement










and had Sebastien sleeping on a sheet on the floor in between the two beds - at least one adult would get a bed to themselves and (hopefully) a good night's sleep!