{"id":857,"date":"2013-12-15T17:49:15","date_gmt":"2013-12-15T10:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=857"},"modified":"2013-12-15T21:09:29","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T14:09:29","slug":"sanya-here-we-come-121313","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/?p=857","title":{"rendered":"Sanya, here we come! 12\/13\/13"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judy has two assembly performances today.\u00a0 Every<\/span> grade level performs at the elementary assembly, and the choir performs at the secondary assembly.\u00a0 It\u2019s a full morning.\u00a0 They are great (of course).<\/p>\n

\"BISS1\"<\/a> \"BISS2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"BISS3\"<\/a> \"BISS4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"BISS5\"<\/a>

Hard at work!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"BISS7\"<\/a>

Gotta concentrate on those tone chimes!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"BISS9\"<\/a>

Ringing in the holidays!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"BISS8\"<\/a>

Reindeer Dancing<\/p><\/div>\n

\"BISS6\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a half-day, so as soon as the kids are gone, she hurriedly cleans up her room, and get\u2019s things in place for her January return.\u00a0 We both arrive back at the apartment at the same time, around 1:30.\u00a0 We finish up the final packing and grab a taxi to the airport around 3:00.\u00a0 It\u2019s a cold day.\u00a0 It was 18\u00b0<\/b>F when I walked to the train this morning.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t seem that cold because the wind wasn\u2019t blowing.<\/p>\n

We arrived at the airport around 3:45.\u00a0 I had forgotten how big this terminal is.\u00a0 It\u2019s a new terminal, and less than one year old.\u00a0 We find the Air China check-in counter, and start to get in line.\u00a0 A uniformed-looking guy with a nametag seems to be facilitating the crowd.\u00a0 He looked and acted like he worked for Air China.\u00a0 He takes our flight info, pushes up to an open counter, and starts getting us checked in.\u00a0 Then he helps get our bags checked, hands me back our passports, and walks us to the security entrance.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why we\u2019re getting the VIP treatment?\u00a0 Just before we arrive at the entrance, he turns, and in broken English, asks for 100rmb for all his help (he\u2019s still holding our boarding passes).\u00a0 He\u2019s running some kind of a scam.\u00a0 I hand him 20rmb and grab our boarding passes.\u00a0 I would have written down the name on the nametag, but I couldn\u2019t read the Chinese characters.\u00a0 It probably said \u201cWelcome to China, sucker\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

We get to the gate with 2 hours to spare, so the long wait begins.\u00a0 When we finally start the loading process, we\u2019re led to a bus, and then driven out to the plane on the tarmac.\u00a0 Since we\u2019ve been in China, we\u2019ve loaded and unloaded planes 12 times, but only twice through an elevated ramp.\u00a0 All the other times, we\u2019ve been bussed and then climbed up and down stairs to board or deplane.\u00a0 That\u2019s more times than all the rest of the flights in my entire life.\u00a0 I guess it\u2019s just the luck of the draw.\u00a0 What would someone in a wheelchair do?\u00a0 Forklift?<\/span><\/p>\n

The flight is smooth, but it\u2019s a long 4 hours.\u00a0 It\u2019s just warming us up for the 14 hours we\u2019ll spend on a plane next week coming back to the US.\u00a0 It\u2019s 73\u00b0F when we arrive.\u00a0 The humidity definitely feels like the tropics.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t looked at a map, Sanya is at the southern tip of Hainan Island, about halfway between Hong Kong and Vietnam.\u00a0 It\u2019s the southernmost point in China.\u00a0 We\u2019re staying at the Sanya Marriott Yalong Bay Hotel and Resort.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we walk out of the terminal, we are swarmed by guys who offer transportation.\u00a0 They want to barter the price.\u00a0 The line to get a regular taxi is really long.\u00a0 I had read what to expect to pay to get to our hotel, so I barter with them a little, but finally decide we don\u2019t want to take a chance on an independent driver, so we get in line for the regular taxis.\u00a0 As soon as we get a block away, the driver pulls over, switches off his meter, and hands me a calculator, asking me what I\u2019ll pay.\u00a0 I punch in my price, he nods agreement and we start driving again.\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t in the info I read.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s about a 40-minute taxi ride.\u00a0 We arrive safe and sound.\u00a0 The hotel looks beautiful.\u00a0 It\u2019s midnight, and we\u2019re ready for bed.\u00a0 We\u2019ll scout out the layout tomorrow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judy has two assembly performances today.\u00a0 Every grade level performs at the elementary assembly, and the choir performs at the secondary assembly.\u00a0 It\u2019s a full morning.\u00a0 They are great (of course). It\u2019s a half-day, so as soon as the kids … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=857"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857\/revisions\/870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gordonandjudy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}