Good Bye Thailand, Hello Beijing!

Lots of bittersweet goodbyes to the wonderful staff at the Juniper Tree today. They loaded me up with yummy snacks for the trip, so many kind words, hugs, and of course photos. 

After a slightly less than four hour flight, it was wheels down in China again, this time Beijing. Such mixed feelings as we landed...smoggy skies which I don't really miss and wondering how I would feel about being back in this country that has changed quite dramatically from when I lived here, yet still holds some of my very best memories and a piece of my heart.

Once again using the wheelchair service I whisked through immigration and customs, my helper grabbed my luggage and got me into a taxi in record time. I would rather my knee was back to 100%, but I can't say I am not appreciating this.

In the taxi, I loaded AliPay on my phone with the hope that I could actually use it to pay for things, like the taxi. (Update: It's never going to happen.) Here in China, paying with phone apps was ubiquitous before the US even had tap and pay credit cards and cash is quickly becoming obsolete. After 45 minutes or so of smog and traffic, I arrived at the home of friends from the adoption community. While I got AliPay loaded and kind of set up it wouldn't give me the QR code to pay for the taxi, so I just used cash and since he didn't carry change he received a generous tip (where tipping isn't expected any tip is generous). I will keep working on the AliPay.

My friends met me at the gate to their housing complex. The last time I saw them was at their house in D.C. about five years ago. We spent the evening catching up and not eating Chinese food. Perfection. After a while I realized my words were getting sluggish, and it dawned on me that since I had stayed up until 2 am to get my ride to the Bangkok airport, didn't sleep in the car, and caught about an hour nap on the plane...I had essentially been up for 36+ hours. Definitely time for bed. 

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