March 30, 2011

Today when I woke up it was very rainy outside.  One of those days when all you want to do is stay in and be cozy.  But that was not to be as there was a lot of stuff to get done today.  First the usual get up and get going.  Feed Kathryn, who by now is becoming fussier about what baby food she will and will not eat, get dressed, eat breakfast and start packing.  The hotel we are staying in is very nice, but the air conditioner in my room hasn't really been working and it is very hot and humid.  I did have a maintenance man come once but that didn't really help.  I will be happy when we move to a new hotel, maybe I will have better luck with the air. 

The group had to meet at 11:00 to fill out more adoption paperwork.  My consulate appointment is on Monday in Guangzhou, as is several of the other families and we needed to get our packets ready to make sure we had everything we were suppose to for the appointment.  Grace, our guide, picked up all of our necessary documents from the local office this morning in the rain so we are good to go.  It took about 1 and a half hours to put all of the paperwork in order.  I got all of my stuff done and then went back to my room to finish packing.  Kathryn got a little nap in while I was finishing the packing and by 3:00 I was out of our room, checked out and just waiting for the other families.  This is when the fun started.

Just as we all were about to load the bus to go to the airport to catch our bus Grace my guide came to me and told me there was something wrong with my room.  I'm thinking to myself, what could possibly be wrong.  I just left it less than 30 minutes ago and all seemed to be right.  Well apparently there were 2 cracks in my sink that I never noticed and they told me that I broke the sink.  Really, how does one break a porcelain sink?  I had never even noticed the cracks.  They told me that I must have dropped something in it.  I explained to them that all of the baby bottles and dishes were plastic, what exactly could I have possibly dropped that would have broken the sink.  They asked me if I noticed it when I checked in.  I told them that I never noticed it and with a brand new baby looking for cracks in my sink wasn't my priority.  By now, Grace my guide is getting PO'd.  She is speaking very quickly at the manager and telling them that they can not hold me responsible.  Still they are telling me that I have to pay a lot of money to pay for the sink.

So Grace tells me to get on the bus with Kathryn and for all of the families to load the bus.  The hotel manager is getting the next level manager.  So we wait, as the clock is ticking, and Grace is getting nervous about us missing our flight.  5 or so minutes go by and a new manager shows up and Grace and I get back off the bus.  One of the other families took Kathryn from me.  The hotel staff are not letting us go, the bus we are taking is the hotel bus, so we have no option but to wait.  They want me to pay for the sink, the one I am not responsible for breaking.  Grace is now basically arguing with the hotel staff in Chinese, I wish I could have understood her, telling them that I could not have possibly broken the sink.  Bottom line however is, they weren't going to let us leave until I paid something.  Originally they wanted over 200 US dollars for the sink.  Now I think we were at 100 US dollars.  They told us that we needed to wait until they could get a hold of yet another manager.  Grace is really worrying about the flight.  There are 9 adults and 4 babies that are suppose to be on the flight.  So....I paid $100 for a sink that I didn't break so we could just leave.  Grace is still trying to negotiate a refund for me....more to come.  Remember earlier in the week the bus driver ran into the wall, I wonder if the bus driver has to pay for the repair of the bus.  After this episode, I assume he does.  Poor man.

Now for those of you who followed the blog when I was in Kathmandu will recall I do have a history of breaking things, or destroying things as I was kindly reminded by my friend Kim.  But I swear, I admitted to all of those things.  So if I had broken the sink I would have admitted it.  Before it was found and delayed us all. Another great story for the record books.

After all that excitement, the rest of the evening was rather routine.  We made it to the airport and caught our flight.  It was slightly delayed due to the rain and landed in Guangzhou about 8:30 at night.  By the time we got to the hotel it was almost 9:00 our time.  I was glad to be in a new place, with an unbroken sink!!

Good night!!
Love Kathryn and Elizabeth