We're back. Again.

We had yet another great summer in Canada.  I'll blog about that later with some pictures.

Thursday morning we said farewell to Nova Scotia and embarked on our 26 or so hour journey back to Shenyang.  Normally I think of this voyage as a mini-adventure but this time I wasn't particularly looking forward to it.  Perhaps it is because of recent events involving missing or shot-out-of-the-sky airplanes or just the fact that this was our eleventh time making this trip and I'm getting a little tired of it.  In any case, I got on that plane and tried to make the best of it.

Our first flight from Halifax to Toronto was pretty uneventful.  The kids were well behaved as usual and I had my iPhone to keep me busy.  When we arrived I quickly grabbed a burger for Nicholas from A&W (Ryan didn't want one) and we made the long trek to our next gate at the internationals area.  To get there you have to walk for a while, go up an escalator, show your boarding pass and passport to a lady who lets you through a locked door, walk down a long, long corridor, show your pass to another person, wait at another locked door for someone to let you through, walk or take a high speed moving sidewalk another few miles, down another escalator and finally a shorter walk to the gate.  It really is quite a hike and I had more carry-on luggage than usual (Nick couldn't help because he was carrying his food and Ryan goes too slow when he helps) so I asked for a ride from one of those little golf cart people. It was a relief but not for very long.  When she let us off at the second locked door a guy checked our passes then told us to go wait at the door for someone to let us inside the next area.  While he was checking out other people's passes we were waiting patiently when he started yelling down our way to not touch the door.  It was just us and one other man waiting and no one was going near the door so I'm not sure why he felt the need to keep yelling, but he did.  It was weird.

After getting a sub (with just cheese and mayo) for Ryan at Tim Hortons and stopping to eat, we made our way to our gate.  The timing was perfect as they were just finishing up the pre-boarding for people with kids so we squeezed our way in before the mad rush started and found our seats which, for once, weren't right beside the stinky toilets.  The 13 hour Air Canada flight went well with a few exceptions.  About halfway across the Arctic Ocean, roughly 600 miles from land, some jackass decided to go for a puff in one of the bathrooms behind us.  I perked up when I smelled smoke and so did another woman across the aisle.  Our eyes met with concerned looks and she made a motion like someone smoking, so I knew she smelled it to.  I nodded and started pressing the call button for the flight attendant over and over (they never seem to come if you only press it once) until I saw someone coming up the aisle.  She walked right past the bathroom and didn't seem to notice the smoke so I told her that we could smell it.  She went up front and sent someone else back to see me.  I told her about the smell and the other woman's husband said he could smell it coming from the bathroom.  She went back and caught the guy coming out.  He was Chinese and didn't speak any English so she had to call another attendant that did.  Eventually they had several of them back there and they had to search through the trash to make sure it didn't start a fire.  Who does that?  I would think that by now everyone, even those who have never flown, should know that you don't smoke on an airplane.  And what about those smoke detectors that are supposed to be located in every lavatory. I'd also like to know what he lit the cigarette with since you aren't allowed with matches or lighters on board.  Anyway, as far I know they didn't actually do anything to the guy.  I hoped he learned his lesson.

Aside from that incident there were only a couple minor irritations on that flight.  The family of three across the aisle let there kid watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on a laptop with no headphones so everyone around them had to listen to it, too.  When my kids were trying to sleep I offered one of our sets of headphones which they took and used for about thirty seconds.  I think it may have offended them because the man of the family stole my ear buds (I'm guessing they had fallen on the floor) and I only found them as I was getting ready to leave the plane.  He was gone but I saw the earphones sitting on his seat.  I asked his wife if they were his because I couldn't find mine.  She said they were but that they didn't work.  Then I knew they were mine for sure.  They do work, but you have to pull the cord out slightly and turn it to hear anything.  Asshole!  How rude.

When we arrived in Beijing we had to go through customs and, of course, there were huge lineups.  I hate trying to pick a line because it never fails that I pick the slowest moving line in the history of mankind.  I made a quick decision and went with the first one we came across, Line 1.  It didn't take long for me to realize that this particular line only had one agent checking passports, while the rest appeared to have two.  For some reason, the one next to us seemed to be breaking up as a new agent came on duty (you can tell because people just started running toward the customs desks) so I made a split second decision to jump into Line 2.  In no time, Line 1 started moving quicker and after a few minutes a second agent opened and that line split in two meaning that the people who had been standing behind me in Line 1 got through customs a good 8-10 minutes faster than we did.  Murphy's Law.  It never fails.  Ten minutes extra may not seem like a long time but when you're tired and not feeling well (I really wasn't) and coaxing two sleepy boys to hang in there, it's an eternity.

I was hoping that since our luggage was tagged to go right through to Shenyang that maybe I wouldn't have to pick it up in Beijing.  No such luck.  Collecting the luggage from the carousel wasn't a big deal but dropping it off at the next spot was a royal pain.  Since we already had our boarding passes, all I should have had to do was drop the three suitcases on a conveyor belt, but it couldn't be that easy.  We had to get in another line with our two luggage carts and since most Chinese people don't believe in waiting their turn, I had to fight to keep the guy behind me from muscling in to my spot.  I put the kids and our carry on luggage off to the side then stood my ground with the second cart.  When I tried to give the ticket agent our boarding passes the guy behind reached around me to hand the check in lady his pass.  I turned my head and glared at him and said in a firm voice, "No!  It's my turn, not yours!".  I'm pretty sure he only understood Chinese, but he got the drift and backed off.  I hoisted my fifty-pounds-each suitcases up onto the belt, took my passes and got out of there.

While we waited for out last flight I took the kids to a play area beside our gate.  Shortly after we got there, Nick fell asleep on the soft, carpeted floor.  While Ryan and I leaned against the wall, he played the iPad and I dozed for about a half hour. Every few minutes I would jerk my head up and smack it against the wall.  It was the best way to make sure that I didn't fall into a deep sleep and miss our flight.  We didn't and Ryan and I both slept for most of it.  I had a difficult time waking him up once we landed but there was no way I could carry him and all of our stuff.  We landed around 9:30 Friday night and were back in our apartment about an hour later.  I don't normally write this much about our journey to and from China, but this one seemed worth documenting.

Saturday we lost our water sometime around eight in the morning and didn't get it back until almost lunch time on Sunday.  Not the welcome home I was looking for.  It wasn't all of Eastern Venice or even our entire building that had a problem, just our side of our building.  Go figure.  Luckily I had felt the need for a shower soon after I got home from the airport so I didn't have to go too long feeling grubby.

The three of us have all adjusted to the time change and recovered from the jet lag quite quickly.  Good thing, too, since the boys start school tomorrow!  I must say that three days in the apartment with them was plenty.  I don't think we could have survived the eight weeks of summer here.  We're so lucky to be able to go back to beautiful Nova Scotia.

So, that's my long winded story.  Soon I will do a post about summer but most likely will have a First Day of School (for Ryan)/Back to School (for Nick) before I get to that one.  Tomorrow will be an exciting day!  We're all looking forward to it;).

Later.