Getting to Qingdao, China August 12, 2011

I've had trouble getting on the blog so unfortunately, I wasn't able to post until now. Our seats on the flight over were pretty good, but Cooper had thrown up at the airport and threw up more on the plane. We got the seats with the extra room at the front and finally laid him down on the ground in front of us. That worked for a few hours and then they made us pick him up. He didn't eat much on that ride. Sarah was wild at first, but ended up doing OK. I watched this in-flight movie over and over and over just trying to sleep through it. Jeff watched a movie on his computer. It wasn't too bad though. We flew up by Alaska - so crazy! We had a 2 hour lay-over before the next flight. Had to get our bags (8 checked and 6 carry-ons), go through customs, then go through security again. They stopped us at security and made us check all of Cooper's medication. I freaked out because I thought they might lose the bag. It was a big argument and then another bag dropped and fell open everyhwere - we were getting so frustrated - especially since our plane was about to leave. All of this with very little understanding of the language. I finally threw all the things they wouldn't let me bring on the plane in a bag and said check it right now and make sure it gets on the plane. Sarah and I hopped on a shuttle to take us to our gate, but they didn't have a handicap accessible version. Jeff ran with Cooper - super far - and we couldn't find our gate. Then we all started running all over the airport - no one understood English to help us. Our gate ended up being very far, but we made it. When we got there Cooper's seat was in the emergency row and they wouldn't allow that. There was confusion, but finally Cooper and I were upgraded to first class! It was nice. They were very nice and accomodating on that plane. When we arrived China looked very similar to our area at home except a lot of the roofs are blue? We went to baggage and THANK GOD all of our bags were there! The people weren't there to meet us in time so we had to call. It's SO HUMID here - even in the airport! We stood there sweaty and tired waiting for about 20 minutes standing out like a sore thumb. Finally, this super nice English-speaking guide picked us up with another driver and a van. They were very helpful and loaded all our bags. The car seat cover was a dog-skin... complete with ears (German Shephard). Our hotel is nice - they upgraded our room a little because there was a little problem checking in. We are having trouble communicating about food and stuff. They don't sell diet soda here and most of the coffee is instant. Ice is not included with drinks unless you ask. Everyone is nice and wants to help us, but just can't understand us. We plan on heading to downtown today now that we're rested up. Attached is a picture of the view from our hotel room. You can actually see the hospital in the distance :o)