Countdown to Mom

My mother and Bethany should be arriving in Pudong airport in about 3 hours. My apartment is mostly clean, I packed a bit for Beijing and I have a notebook filled with useful information about our trip. Soon I shall go pick them up and our fun shall begin.

I have to admit I feel a bit nervous because I will be a tour guide for China. I have been a tour guide for friends and such in Shanghai but that's a little easier. I've lived here for a while now. I know where I'm going. I haven't been in Beijing since 2006, Xi'an since 2005. I think the nervousness entered my subconscious. I had a very strange dream last night that it was my first day as a real estate agent and I had to show this posh old woman a pub she was considering buying. We were going to go in my car (which was the Sable that I usually drive when I'm home) with her riding in the passenger seat. I backed out of the parking space and everything went wrong. The brakes weren't working and I couldn't switch out of reverse. So I'm panicking and we are driving BACKWARDS around the parking lot and I can barely control the car and all I could think about was how disappointed my boss was going to be and that this old woman was never going to buy the pub now all the while trying not to hit people or cars. In the end I backed the car into a small brick wall just to get it to stop. Then I had the brilliant idea of taking the keys out. Then my dad showed up out of no where and said that someone had drained my transmission fluid and cut my brakes. I woke up still feeling nervous. Ack.

Anyway, on a completely different note I think I am going to try and bully my mother and Bethany into guest writing in my blog about their trip. I think it would be a nice change of pace and the people who read my blog would get a chance to see China through the eyes of a person who hasn't ever been before (Bethany) and someone who hasn't been in 6 years (my mom). Plus that means the pressure is off me to write for a while. Whaddya think?

Just a warning since we will be very busy traveling around a such, there might not be a post for a while. Our itinerary is three days in Beijing, two in Xi'an, a weekend in Hangzhou and then their last week in Shanghai. That's all for now.

Much love,
Stephanie