It was
exciting when the 2013 DPC conference venue
was chosen for Fuzhou, China. Of course, Himself was expected to attend, I was more than happy to go, then we decided to take SweetPea and The Boy
along. With school and other
constraints, the regular summer conferences usually meant a very spoiled stay
with the grandparents. Now they are young adults; they can't afford a trip like
this. We think this is the last great family
journey before they are off creating
their own histories. So it began: we had two years to pull it off.
Airfares
were going to be the biggest budget item we thought at the time. So we
hoarded every air mile we could earn.
This was helped by an unexpected trip to China last autumn. And KLM issues air mile tickets by leg of
journey. This meant it cost no more extra to fly in and out of different cities as it
would by purchased tickets. A program
change downgraded my air miles card, but Himself is still Elite, a bonus for us
all in efficiency and comfort as we would find out later.
The extra
trip in between demonstrated just how much the economy, and prices had changed
since our first trip back in 2005. Our
revised budget was going to be very
different; hotels were now raising prices, and tourist tickets were also increased. I began to fret over this to The Man
Upstairs, because nothing ruins my travels more than watching every single atom
of food, sip of drink, and curtailing adventures because of budget cuts…
And so my
frustration was heard. A second
conference was added (invited speaker’s stipends are a good thing,) colleagues in Xi ‘an and Beijing requested
seminars as we pass through their area. Those universities will accommodate all
of us, and are planning full out sightseeing programs for the family. I started
to relax a bit about funding this excursion.
Even when the car needed repair…
A former
student will get married next week. He planned his wedding so we could be there—and
has laid out a full schedule of tourism in Wuhan. He is being so generous we finally had to put
our foot down about the room and board. Gosh.
Yiming has greased the wheels of train ticket and domestic flight
tickets purchasing as well. Abundant
hospitality. We are totally in awe of
what folks will do for us.
Actually
the most complicated part of the journey was wrangling visas for our stay which
required three trips to The Hague, and the addition of extra pages in my
passport…who knew? And appropriate
clothes…it took some preparation to get here.
A check of
the climate told us that we were headed for “the sweatbox of China.” Apparently
that is something people are proud of. Huh.
Since the Dutch weather is cold
and wet most of the time, finding subtropical weight clothes in a local store
is sort of beyond hope. And so I sewed, and sewed and sewed…and will blog about
that in another place.
Our housesitter
had to cancel for dreadful personal reasons and every other avenue was a dead
end so we literally nailed things shut, and put grates on the windows. The lovely neighbors will be in and out as
will a trusted friend so we hope that the burglars will leave us alone. But
there were moments when we thought we’d have to worry about security for the
entire trip.
Writing
about it now seems like a distant memory, but I assure you July was not a calm
month. But the day finally arrived and we left.
Other than
not having printed boarding passes for
the children for the second leg of the trip in, we actually enjoyed our checkin
for the first leg of the trip. Because
Himself is Elite, we are in the fast lane for everything, just following like
little ducks along the way. We even got
through security without a hassle this time ( although SweetPea had a tiny pair
of blunt nosed scissors in her first aid kit that the Chinese guards removed)
As we were
scanned in to the departure gate, the machine binked red and Himself had a seat
change. I had worried about this a bit
because often the air mile seats are in a different section than purchased. BUT,
this time, it was that his seat was upgraded to Business class. Well, that meant to the family that uncomfortable
me was going in the front alone. Um well OK.
So then the gate ladies saw that PapaDuck had three waddlers behind and they did some magic so that suddenly all
four of us were Business class tickets. Now that was so overwhelmingly
wonderful could have kissed them all.
Turbulent
flight, terrible food, but oh those seats recline right down flat and have leg
room for six in the space of two seats. Fabulous.
Thank you, god of upgrades.
We had a
stopover in the boring early morning airport of Guangzhou –where the kids got
to eat real Chinese food for the first time- and flew on to Fuzhou. We were met and delivered to the hotel (whew-
one more thing to not worry about) called Fuzhou Lakeside- a 5 star- and the
venue for the conference. It is a decent
hotel. Pretentious lobby, good rooms,
fine plumbing ( something China is not
good at) and a whole boatload of cooks who serve hot food cold and the
scrambled eggs swim in oil. Worst food I
ever had in China. Really. Except for the bread- some of the best bread- really
tasty- and truly solid black. Literally BLACK bread. Your eyes just do not jive
with what the tongue tases.
And oh the
weather. 35 to 40 Celsius and humidity
in the 90’s. The plus side of that is
the swimming pool is 34 Celsius so I actually
will get in and stay in for more than a dip. The family was thrilled to see
mama in a swimming pool. Walking we have
decided is for very early in the morning or after dark.
But that is
for another post.
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