Quick Notes from our Trip

As I posted earlier, we made it to Dehli! For whatever odd reason, I couldn't connect well in London, so here are some quick notes from home to here:

The night before leaving, I took Lilly to the trainer's house. As part of her new learning environment, she is crated when she is not on a leash. She hates this, and expressed herself at length. The trainer finally asked me if she was going to keep this up, and I told her yes. During our chat, I emphasized that Lilly is evil and manipulative, but she doesn't seem to get it. I finally convinced her to call Robin for helpful hints. As we left, she was chirping something about how she expected to learn a lot from Lilly. Poor lady.

Mr. Maui, on the other hand, is staying with Susan. He loves Susan. His personal motto is "I'm here to help!" and he's already displaying his eagerness to please. Susan tells me that the whole family was in danger of oversleeping and missing their morning activities, but he realized this posssibility and barked until they woke up. They were well on time, thanks to Maui's 5:50am wake up call. Susan said that he seems to be prepared to assist in this way every morning, so they should all get on well!

We had no problems with our flights. We got into London at 8am, and started on an epic quest to get out of Heathrow terminal 3. There seemed to be construction everywhere, with detours and everyone seemed to be moving fater than we were. We ended up wandering by ourselves. Up stairs, through mazes, down stairs, through a tunnel. At one point we walked through a tangle of guide ropes to a UK customs officer. We were literally the only people in an empty hall. He looked at our documents and asked how long we were staying. "1 day" "Where are you going next?" "Delhi." "Why are you traveling to India?" "We're adopting." "Ah." He stamped papers, tapped on his computer, made some notes, and said, "I imagine that involves quite a bit of paperwork." That made me laugh out loud. Then we went back to following the signs. At one point we rode a subway that seemed to be a disconnected part of the London Underground. By the time we got to the hotel, I was ready for cheese.

I have to put in a good word for "London Walks." Mr. Robert and I used to go to London a lot, and we got into the habit of going on at least one walk every trip. We were never disappointed, and today was no exception. David (the owner-operator) happened to be our guide, and he instantly sized up LiJun. He made sure that she had a blast.

We finished the day off with tea at Kensington Palace (we didn't see Princess Catherine, much to LiJun's intense disappointment) and then went back to the hotel, checked out and headed over to the airport, where we had a perfect storm of trouble: 1)jet lag caught up with JJ in a big way, and she had a complete meltdown/collapse; 2) I didn't print out the trip info for our return flights; 3)JJ and I have different last names.

#2 is a problem because one of the requirements for a tourist visa to India is proof that you have concrete plans to leave. For whatever reason, our returns were not showing up in the computer system. While we were trying to straighten this out, one of the officials noticed #3 and suddenly there were airport security everywhere. I was trying to deal with the ticket agent about #2, and they wanted to take JJ somewhere else to ask her questions. I kept hold of her, which they didn't like, and she didn't either, because see #1. She yelled at me to let go of her and stop touching her, which really interested security. I told them they could NOT take her without me (that probably isn't true) and thankfully, a higher level ticket agent told mine that, if we already had tourist visas, we had convinced the Indian government that we were leaving and it was not the airline's problem. Then security took both of us to a side office and asked a lot of questions. I was able to dig out the letter that Mr. Robert wrote, giving permission for us to travel. We went back and forth about that, and I pointed out that it is notarized, which impressed them. (Go Aislinn!) What really freaked me out was that JJ was really off the charts miserable, and who knows what she would say next. She did tell them that I'm her mom, and it finally clicked that they might not let us go, which put her on my side against them.

By the time they decided all was OK, we were running really late, and still had to go through security. We did that, and came out into a duty free shop set up to force you to meander past 700 displays before you get to the concourse. We were about half way through when they announced final boarding call for our flight. Give LiJun credit, she instantly understood that I was old, fat, slow and carrying all the bags. She took the boarding passes and set off at top speed, through the duty free and straight to our gate. Then she showed the passes to the attendant and stalled until I managed, huffing and puffing, to get there. When the chips are down, she's a good girl!

The flight to Delhi was pretty empty, and the only thing "interesting" was the lady sitting in front of us. We had a little polite chat at the beginning, and then I pretty much tuned her out. I was vaguely aware that she had moved to an empty row across from us to stretch out, and that she was chatting with some other passengers. Then, suddenly, she was being helped back to her seat by a young man, and the flight attendant was standing there saying "I don't understand how she got so drunk" and she was saying "I'm not drunk! Really! I'm not!" About half an hour later, LiJun asked "What are they doing?" really loudly, and I felt obliged to ring for the attendant. "What is going on there?" I asked, pointing. "I don't know. Best not to ask." He was ready to walk away, but I pointed out that JJ was utterly fascinated, and had already asked. The flight crew supervisor finally came over and told the young man that he needed to go back to his own seat, which he wasn't real happy about. LiJun had lots of questions, and I explained to her that, if you drink alcohol, you are vulnerable to other people making decisions for you, even if it's not what you would have wanted. ( I also pointed out that one of life's basic rules is that, if you find yourseld saying "I'm not drunk! Really!" you're drunk, really.) We mutually agreed that "That's disgusting."

Once in Delhi, we had no problems at all. LiJun, naturally, fell into a dead sleep about an hour before we stared our decent, and was more walking zombie than helpful. Being tired always makes her cry about trifles, and she bitterly told me, fairly loudly, that she was never, ever, going anywhere with me again because she hates me and I'm a meanie, complete with bonus sobbing. This is because I refused to let her get a drink out of a drinking fountain. (See, Dad! I was paying attention!)

Driving to our hotel (which is actually a bed and breakfast), I was looking out the window to see how India looked. At one point we passed a building complex which is, based on the signs and what my driver said, doing triple duty as the tomb of a king of India from 1000 years ago, an Urdu language school, and an aviation training facility. That was my "yes, I'm in another culture here" moment for this trip.

Eleven (the B&B) is lovely, and the staff have been beyond wonderful. Apparently, nothing is too good for a friend of Deb's. We slept most of the day, woke up about 9pm hungry. They besought us sandwiches and fresh fruit, and Ajay, the owner, gave me a cell phone to use while I'm here. (I told him I have the India program phone from Deb, but he waved this off.) Me, to LiJun: "This is Mr. Ajay, the owner." Ajay: "You can call me Ajay, no need for Mr. What is your name?" LiJun: "LiJun. But you can call me June, like the month."

The owners are an extended family, and the kids were playing soccer in the yard. They and LiJun were excited to meet each other, although they have trouble with their respective accents in English.

It's about 2am now. LiJun is back to sleep, and I'm going to try to sleep as well. Tomorrow, I'll try to figure out why my pictures aren't showing up.