Thursday March 31, 2016

All good things must end.

Welcome to our last travel diary entry. Yes, yes, I know, it seems like only yesterday that we left our home in North Carolina for an almost three week trip across China. And based on our collective jet lag, none of us are even sure when exactly yesterday was. But we’re home anyway, trying desperately to get back to normal before we get back to the real world come Monday morning.

Our last day was essentially one long trip home. It was a pleasantly uneventful, unpleasant 24 hours of nonstop travel. But, in the end, we all made it home safe and sound. Rather than bore you with a tedious recounting of sitting on airplanes for extremely long period son time I will instead hand out some awards for the best &mdash and worst — parts of our whole trip. So without further ado: the envelopes please…

The Sacajawea Award for Excellence in Guidesmanship is awarded to: Arthur!

For the most part we had tremendous luck with just about all of our tour guides in China. That said, there was one guide who far and away was our overall family favorite. Tho one, of course, was King Arthur. He was funny, accommodating, smart, engaging, warm, pleasant, and — most importantly — actually fought for extra beer! If you ever divide to make a trip to Beijing and are in need of a guide, you would be mad to not look up the King. He rules (pun intended).
Honorable Mention: Yolanda, who went above and beyond to help us track down Olivia’s cameraman friend from the Luan TV station.

The Al Gore Rolling Over in His Grave Award for Imminent Ecological Disaster is awarded to: China’s air pollution!

While some of the cities we visited were better than others, there were times where the air was palpably thick and noxious on our trip. We did have more than a few days of semi-blue skies which was very nice, but some days, the air quality was very concerning. I don’t really care where you stand on the whole climate change issue, but if you can’t agree that it is in all of humanity’s best interest to provide universally breathable air as a right, well then, my guess would be you haven’t spent the evening after a day outdoors hocking up brown chunks of the atmosphere. This is something we need to sort out, and quickly.
Honorable Mention: Tap water you cannot drink. When both the air and the water are problematic, you’ve got some serious issues you need to deal with. Amiright Flint Michigan?

The Donald Trump™ May Not Be Fit To Be President Award for Distinction in Understatement is awarded to: Georgiana!

The line in question came after a particularly hair-raising van ride to Matthew’s orphanage in Hefei where Georgiana said — and I quote — “The traffic laws in China; the people do not take them very seriously.”
Honorable Mention: Our very good, and incredibly hospitable, friends in Nanjing who promised to “not order much food” when we told them we were simply unable to partake of another 20+ dish banquet. Sometimes the line between understatement and lying is very, very thin.

The What? No Egg-roll? Award for Brilliance in Cuisine Authenticity is awarded to: Chinese food!

We had some amazing meals in China. The kids (meaning: Matthew and Olivia — Aelex rarely deviated from a steady diet of noodles, rice, and dumplings) were troopers, at least trying most everything that they were served. Some of the highlights were our Hot Pot meal in Nanjing, Peking Duck in Beijing, BBQ’d chicken feet in Hangzhou, duck’s blood pudding in Hefei, and the Yangzhou fried rice. In addition, Dorothy’s chopstick skill level has improved tremendously over the past several weeks to the point that we didn’t even have to ask for a fork the last few days in China. All of that said, I think it’s going to be more than a few weeks before we order Chinese takeout. I’ve already eaten half my body weight in Five Guys burgers since our return. And I’m ok with that.
Honorable Mention: Chinese pizza. In a pinch, it’ll do.

The 21st Amendment Award for Superiority in Customer Service is awarded to: Free airplane alcoholic beverages!

Complimentary beer and wine on all long haul Delta intercontinental flights is AOK in my book. I’m sure it all works out in the airline’s favor in the bottom line but I don’t care. Not having to go through the credit card purchasing process every time I want an adult beverage is worth the price of admission. A fine turn of events.
Honorable Mention: Hotel lobby bars that serve their beer with bendy straws. I think this should be a new trend.

The Not Even A Little Bit Award for Quantifying Yearning After Three Weeks Away is awarded to: Work!

This was the first three week vacation I’ve ever taken since I’ve started working in real job-type-jobs out of college. While I’m not sure this trip qualifies as a “vacation” per se (relaxation wasn’t a big part of the agenda) it was glorious to divorce myself from the immersion of work for more than a week or two. The American penchant for ignoring one’s overall well being under the guise of productivity is something that we simply get wrong in our country. The rest of the world has a much more rational balance between personal and professional time. After one week, you are barely disengaged from everything you left behind. After two weeks, you are just starting to mentally recuperate. After three weeks, you are emotionally refreshed and primed to get back to it. I hope this is not the last time I decide to put the real world on hold for an extended period of time in pursuit of things that actually matter.
Honorable Mention: The Presidential Primaries, and March Madness.

The Amtrak Sucks Award for Achievement in Rail Travel is awarded to: China’s bullet trains!

As the automobile culture takes firm root across China, the impracticality of three billion people all driving around at the same time becomes more and more apparent. So, how do you combat a growing, industrialized society where mobility becomes a necessity within environmentally sound parameters? You build trains that more faster than any car safely can in order to give people superior options to getting behind the wheel of a car, creating additional chaos on the roads and spewing more pollution into the air. The sensibility of the high speed rail idea is of course apparent to most countries, save our own. Our intercity travel experiences in China were short, efficient, and yes, even remotely pleasant. How’s that for a good idea?
Honorable Mention: Any train that doesn’t crash and kill people on a regular basis really.

The Little Rascals Award for Virtuosity in Being Awesome Kids is awarded to: Aelex, Matthew, and Olivia!

Let me just finish the awards portion of our 2016 China Travel Diary by offering up some parental bragging of our three children who, in spite of many long hours of travel, sleeping in many unfamiliar hotel beds, eating many unusual culinary dishes, through a country populated by many, many, many people speaking a language they don’t understand, they never complained, not once. They performed with a resiliency and good humor that even outshone their parents for the most part. When you factor in the potentially emotional content of this trip, returning them to the country of their birth for the first time in over a decade to see where they came from and meet people who knew them within an institutional context for a brief period of time, the fact that there was not a solitary act of rebellion on their behalf fills their incredibly proud Mom and Dad with such gratitude as to be unparalleled in the annals of parenting. We are so incredibly fortunate to have these three wonderful people in our lives, and we simply could not imagine not having them as part of our family. They made our trip not only meaningful but also incredibly enjoyable. A round of applause for the three Congiusta kids if you will.
Honorable Mention: The 2 year old girl on the airplane next to Dorothy and I on the flight over who basically slept the whole way and didn’t cry once.

So that’s about it for our 2016 trip to China. All-in-all it was a tremendous adventure, and while I wouldn’t classify it as a “vacation”, it was one of the best “experiences” of our collective lives. I’ve said it before, but only time will inform our children as to how important this trip was to them. On the surface it was certainly appreciated, but whatever impact it may — or may not — have in the long term will remain to be seen.

I hope that you have enjoyed following our trip. It was my pleasure to share with you, and it was as selfish as it was generous on my behalf I assure you. That said, thanks for your messages, tweets, and emails. It is good to know that we have such kind and warm friends and family. You can now return to your regularly scheduled lives. Until the next time y’all…

Getting back to the real world…