Now I know...

that traveling across the entire country of China on a 21 hour train ride isn't really for me. I will say that we did meet a very nice young couple who spoke a little English & with the use of Ben's Chinese/English dictionary, we did pretty well. They had noticed Ben & I playing checkers and UNO and came up and started watching, then we were playing with them and spending hours with them. The 2 ladies that we shared our bunk with seemed to want to sleep & then socialize with other people in our room, so we hung out in the eating car for several hours talking & playing with the young couple. They were so friendly! He came up & told us... I know "you know". This was puzzling me until I figured out he was saying, "I know UNO". So, we taught them both how to play checkers & played for a couple hours - they loved it. Then, we took a larger table & the 4 of us played UNO, but we were sternly told to stop! I guessed that there was a rule against playing cards, for fear of gambling, and our new friends said yes, that was why. But then later, at another table a group of 4 men were playing regular cards for a long time! Oh well. The biggest problem I encountered was that it was SO smoky! I couldn't escape from smokey air for 21 hours. That was really hard. I won't bore you with more details, but suffice to say, it was an experience! Here are a few pics from the train ride. We are now at The Garden in Guangzhou & I love this hotel. I stayed here last summer & it is really nice. I'm also including some pics of our hotel, our view from the 16th floor & the beautiful roses they gave us. I know there are other adoptive families who might be staying here in the future. You will not be disappointed with this hotel! We will meet Braxton at 2:30 tomorrow afternoon! I can't wait, but am nervous :)