Arrival in Qingdao

Sorry about the delay for our next post, we have had many difficulties accessing the Internet in China and due to government restrictions we have not had access to our blog (or any other websites). However we have found away to keep you updated :)

We landed in Qingdao (pronounced Chin Dow) and after a minor hiccup at customs where they looked like they weren't going to let mum in, we had our passports stamped and made our way to baggage collection. We were very surprised to find our luggage had actually made all the connecting flights and arrived safely with us. As we pushed our trolley (groaning with all the Paris Hilton luggage) out the gates we looked out into the sea of similar faces, many holding signs in Chinese, desperately looking for our names. Someone shouted 'Odette' and we were both overcome with relief. A friendly guy walked up and introduced himself as 'Michael 'our translator. He pushed our trolley to the van and introduced us to 'Cliff' the driver and 'Lucy” another translator.

The drive to the hospital was short. Chengyang is a relatively new district and everything has just been built or is currently under construction. It is very clean and the streets are lined with perfectly manicured weeping willows and firs, just beautiful. There are gardens everywhere and gentle music coming from, well I'm not even sure where. I couldn't think of a more beautiful or relaxing place to stay (if you have to be in hospital).

We were taken to the 8th floor and found “Odette van Straalen” and the Australian flag on the door to room 3. This is home for us for the next 5 weeks. It's not bad at all, flushing toilet (unlike the airport) shower, water cooler, fridge and microwave, couch and a cement futon each. We are able to access the Internet from our room but due to censorship we can't actually use it. Fortunately it does allow us to access emails sometimes and use Skype to contact loved ones back home (miss you my beautiful babies).

There are many other foreigners here receiving stem cells from all over the world including fellow aussies and kiwis. Many of the patients are children. Everyone is very friendly. The staff are extremely friendly and try so hard to speak English. There is a shared kitchen, dining and lounge area. Across the road is a brand new shopping complex (two or three times the size of anywhere we're used to shopping) and at night it's lit up like a Christmas tree. They have a wedding shop directly across from our window and it has huge speakers out the front that scream Whitney Houston all day.

We were given a Chinese and a Pizza menu and asked to order dinner. We ordered calamari, sweetcorn with pine nuts and spring rolls. They were delivered to our door for the small sum of $8. I opened the spring rolls expecting 4 and there were about 50 of them! Very cheap, very yummy, very easy. Not sure how well we're going to sleep on these cement futons but we're pretty stuffed!