Ni Hao!

Wow! I think my brain is finally starting to register all that it had been through this past week. Talk about an experience to last a lifetime. I have to admit that going into this I wasn't as excited as I could have been. My experience with people visiting from China has been on the negative side. I saw them as a whole - pushy, no sense of personal space, rude and just a bizarre people as a whole. At Disneyland as a child I remember a Chinese woman sticking her head under my stall in the bathroom to see if it truly was empty even after I'd yelled (after a loud banging on the door) that I was in there! How could I have been so wrong? There are so many reasons why they are the way they are. I truly am grateful for this past week. I have come to really love the Chinese people. Forgive me if I ramble and continue to post pictures and commentary on China for a long time. I'm going to use this as a sort of diary so I won't forget anything important. I was just so touched and amazed at how these wonderful people exist in a country that denies them so much!
Stepping off of the plane was scary. I admit that. Before we were allowed to disembark, a handful of men and women stepped onto the plane with masks on and pointed these laser guns at everyone's head to see if anyone had a fever. We were informed that if anyone did we would be quarantined! After we were all checked and given the go ahead, we went through customs where once again we were monitored by some kind of heat sensor. David took a picture of the odd device and was immediately told to erase it with the rest of his pictures scrutinized. Looking around the airport (which was ginormous) I tried to figure out what looked out of place. I finally figured out that I did not see one child there. Weird. We waited for quite awhile for our other family member's plane to arrive then headed for the hotel. We left on a Saturday afternoon and got there Sunday evening! So bizarre!
Tomorrow I'll talk about our first full day there at the Forbidden City! I'll just say that I now know how stars feel every day (stared at and so many pictures taken of us!), that squatting to use the restroom isn't quite as bad as I thought and McDonalds in China, certainly is NOT the McDonalds here in the U.S!
My face after seeing a squatting toilet for the first time. And yes, I went.
Do you notice the trash basket next to the toilet? That's where the toilet paper went! They don't flush the toilet paper!
Our first experience on the subway - squished is an understatement...
Me, David's brother Will, Will's wife Amy, David and Mom Coleman. This was right before we boarded our plane - little did I know how hellish 11 hours on a plane would be.