And it was all going so well...

First, let me start off by saying that today, before we flew to Guangzhou, we visited Jinci Temple. It was beautiful, magnificent even. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Taiyuan. Make sure you have a guide who knows his/her stuff and you will be good to go.

Now, on with the day...

So, we checked out of our hotel at noon and we were taken to Jinci Temple. The pollution, which turned my white fleece a horrible gray color over the last 5 days, had not really bothered me until today. My head hurt, my nostrils burned, and I just felt exhausted. Anyway, after we were done touring we had about 6 hours until our flight. We told our guide that we needed some water and food. She told the driver to take us to the most expensive shopping mall in Taiyuan (it is above the Walmart if anyone knows the area)! WHAT! She let us out of the van, told us there was a pizza hut there, and told us to meet her back there in about 3 hours. First of all, she KNOWS I cannot eat at pizza hut because of the gluten. Second, WHAT- 3 hours??? Well, we walked around and realized that all of the restaurants were closed because we were in between lunch and dinner. I was starving and feeling horrible and I was about to freak out. To make matters worse, this weird guy was following us around wherever we went. Now, Chinese people will follow you around trying to get a glimpse of you or your baby. But, this guy did NOT have good intentions. He was creepy and we were definitely weirded out by him.

Anyway, the only place that was open was an ice cream shop that was empty... this should have been our clue. Well, they had really comfy couches to sit on so we thought, what the heck, we have 3 hours to kill we might as well be comfortable. Without looking at the prices, we ordered 2 ice cream sundaes and 2 coffees. It was $30!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kid you not!!!! AND, I did not even get to finish mine before it melted because Ben decided to pick that time to have his first official melt down. It lasted over an hour and it was FUN! He was screaming, flailing about, and trying to hit us or throw something (whatever we did not have properly defended at the time). He also refused to eat anything and we knew he had to be hungry. (Jay wants me to clarify here that it was Ben Bad, not Regular Bad... he is so mild mannered that even his fits are pretty weak!) So, at the end of the time, we were broke, still hungry and thirsty (they did not sell bottled water there), tired of fighting our baby, and headed to the airport.

The airport was fairly non-eventful. I did have the pleasure, AGAIN, of walking into a bathroom and finding an old woman doing her business in the potty without the door shut. What is with these people????? This is something that has happened over and over again. I was not expecting this and I will NEVER get used to it. I mean, come on!

So, we get on the plane and I make Ben's bottle. It is 8:00pm so we are thinking that he will drink his bottle and fall asleep. WRONG! He played and looked around the whole time. Who needs sleep when there are all kinds of cool things to look at??? The best part of the whole thing was the 2 seconds I handed him over to Jay. Ben got a little watery look in his eyes and started grunting. You know what that means! I grabbed him off of Jay's lap since I was on the aisle and we headed to the bathroom. We get there to find that there is no changing table so I have to kind of pay him over the toilet seat. YUCK! I pull his pants down to find that this is no regular poop. This is, if I may be descriptive, explosive diarrhea! It was running down his legs into his shoes. I am alone in the bathroom with him with no change of clothes. I have only a package of wipes and a clean diaper so I get to work. The shoes are too far gone so I throw them away and the pants are now longer wearable by any stretch. I try to clean off the shirt as best I can (he has to wear something) and I rinse the top of his socks and kind of fold them down so that the wet is not touching his skin. About 20 minutes later I emerge with a pantless, sockless child and a stinky bag (thanks to a very friendly and helpful flight attendant). Now, we were 2 of three westerners on the plane so we were very noticeable. And, those of you who have been here know how seriously the Chinese people take baby clothes. If they are not covered head to toe and sweating to death then there are problems. Needless to say, EVERYONE took notice of my underdressed child and looked at me disapprovingly. I had to hold my head up high and make the walk of shame back up the aisle of the plane to my seat. It was BAD!

He finally feel asleep as we were coming in for our landing (is he an Ingersoll child or what???) and slept in the van all the way to the hotel. When we got to the hotel, our guide went to the counter to check us in. She talked to the front desk people and then came back to us and said, "You are in an executive room so you need to check in on the executive floor." I almost had to change Jay's pants this time!!!! As I was the one who made the reservations, all Jay could do was look at me and shake his head. He seemed to feel a little better when they told him that he could have free cocktails in the executive lounge but I still think he is a little woozy.

We found our room and we waited about 40 minutes to get a crib. We didn't want to give Ben a bath until we would be able to put him down to sleep somewhere but he was, afterall, sleeping pantless, wrapped in my fleece, still covered in S@%&! We finally got the crib, woke him up to give him a bath (yeah- that went well!!!), and put him down to sleep. Maybe he will think it was all a bad dream and not hold it against us!

Tomorrow has to be better...