Leaving on a jet plane...

After relocating the peanut butter so our bags wouldn't be overweight, we were on our way! My mom gave us a ride to the airport and she was so excited. The highlights of our flight to Tokoyo included Oreo cookies,travel Scrabble, and the man next to me who spoke Japanese. When we arrived at our gate in Tokoyo, we heard, "Cindy!" It was my secret pal, Claudine,and her husband, John, from Kentucky. Many of our fellow travel mates had already arrived on the flight from Detroit including Nikki and David who I met a few weeks ago for dinner in Indianapolis. We also met a family from Colorado who was on their way to pick up their 12 year old daughter. They already have three girls and a little boy who were all beaming with excitement. The final flight to China is a bit of blur to me as I was sleeping. They do wake you up to feed you so we had our first meal of steamed rice.

Yesterday, we went to Tian'an Men Square and The Forbidden City. It was very chilly so we have new Olympics hats that Aaron bought trying out his Chinese. The real adventure started after we got back to our hotel. Our guide took us by taxi to buy a new nebulizer. The one that we brought along blew up when we plugged it in. Imagine two weary travelers and smoke coming out the sides of the machine. After a trip to the pharmacy, medical equipment store, computer repair store, and Wal Mart, our quest is still incomplete. We went by the hospital on our way to the pharmacy. If you need a blood transfusion, you go to one buidling and the MRI is in another. You have to travel outside as they don't have a hall or ceiling in between departments. We passed two patients on rolling beds in the court yard. We were supposed to go to the acrobat show tonight but we opted to get some pizza and sleep. Aaron is trying to rebuild my nebulizer but we can't find any tools to use. We also went to the grocery and bought some oranges. I have never been so excited about fruit. We are going to the Great Wall tomorrow and fly to Nanning on the 9th. We get to meet Lillie at 3 p.m. on the 10th!!