From Mike:  We have made it to Goungzhou.  What a difference a couple of hours south makes.  Here the flowers are still in bloom and the environment is full of healthy and unpainted trees.  Even the pace is different.  The drivers use their turn signals and there is far less horn beeping.  It's like the citizens know they are living in a weather paradise compared to many of their fellow citizens, like a California to the U.S. I guess.  In fact, the van from the airport had the air conditioner on.  The drivers in Jinan all had their heaters blasting because everyone in Jinan was freezing but it had the affect of creating moving saunas for all the passengers.  Frankly, it feels great to get out of a car not dripping with sweat.

It was nice to leave Jinan.  Each morning we were awakened by a weird alarm clock.  About 5:30 a.m. there began some yelling outside along the canal below the hotel.  Depending upon who you asked, it was either someone that was cheering the start of a new day or someone that was yelling away the "bad spirits".  Whatever the reason, it was certainly different to have a human alarm clock that I was never able to turn off and that included the snooze button since about every ten minutes someone else would begin the yelling.

Eli had his first plane trip today.  He asked Jodi if we were going to America so someone must have prepped him during his time in foster care.  He did great and even created a funny story with the security personnel.  After checking the boarding pass, everyone steps on a platform and a security agent, usually a very young person waves a wand that looks like the kind you would use to make bubbles in the backyard.  They put the wand on your body and move it around.  Eli was having none of that and actually took a swing at the security agent checking us.  It was apparent from her reaction that this was not a common reaction and she didn't know how to proceed.  She called over an equally young agent to try to hold Eli up while she completed her security sweep.  By the anxious look on his face and the unhidden laughter of his superiors, this young man was obviously out of his element and kept his eyes on Eli as he had to dodge frequent swats from our annoyed child.

The plane was delayed numerous times but we packed plenty of snacks and had ample space to run him tired.  Now we are trying to calm him down for bedtime because we begin the process of trying to get him admitted to the U.S. first thing tomorrow.