I promised I would write!
Day 1 China...
Yesterday we boarded the plan for China, even though we had a 1 1/2 hour stall on the tarmack due to a satelite system failure, we knew we were going to be fine=) Just that morning we all met up at the airport, Denise Fattal of Silver Creek Valley Country Club and I, had never met Karen Casey of Karen Casey Events in GA before, but we knew we liked her though e-mail and phone=) Just as we suspected Karen has become a fast friend! From the moment we met her face-to-face we knew we just met someone near and dear to us. Karen and I, and my Husband Matt, had never met Denise's Husband Robert before either, and in knowing what a wonderful person Denise is, we also suspected great things in Robert, and we were right! We clicked with each other from the start! This was going to be a great adventure with good friends by our sides!
The flight was good, a little bumpy, but really not that bad. Long is a good way to describe it. But we took the opportunity to get to know one another much better, although it felt as if we had been friends for years. Karen and I spoke about the differences between East Coast and West Coast weddings, and I was and am still amazed at the stark differences we have. She also called me over to her window seat to look down on a frozen landscape, Russia! Wow, we flew over Russia and saw an ice-sealed ocean like the ones in movies and on TLC!
We were all so happy to land in one piece, and when we got through customs, quarantine, and baggage claim we were hoping to then find our host to pick us up. Sure enough, there was John, our host, and CFO of Chinese International Wedding Expo, with a big sign that had my name on it. He was so nice from the beginning! He showed us to the car, got our luggage loaded up, and then we were off. Robert was brave and offered to go in the car that could only fit one passenger, the driver was John's employee, but he couldn't speak any English, it was sure to be, and was a long hour long drive for Robert, thank you Robert!
John took us on a route to our hotel that allowed us to see the Olympic buildings from our car windows. We saw some amazing structures, especially the "Bird's Nest", it's so cool!
When we arrived to our hotel we got checked in, said goodbye to John for the night, planning to meet up at 8AM the next morning in the lobby to head to the Expo.
We all got settled into our new homes (rooms). Although a little smokey and hot (no smoke-free areas in China, and apparently no a/c that works in our hotel), things were good.
Now Thursday night is date night in our household, a time for Matt and I to spend time with one another, appreciate each other's company, and relax and have fun together. It just so happens to be the same night that Denise and Robert celebrate date night together! Matt and I needed to have dinner, and we invited Karen along. It was late, and we didn't feel to adventurous, so we stuck to the hotel restaurant food. We went to their Chinese Food Restaurant (yes, that's what it is called) and looked over the menu. Karen (being 3 hours ahead of us, so even more exhausted) literally felt drained and sleepy, and decided she wasn't really hungry, but more delirious, so she went back up to her room before we ordered. Matt and I ordered some pot stickers and noodles and some potatoe latka things that were really good. And beer. Matt read a lot of our Beijing travel book before leaving, and especially remembered the names of beer he wanted to try, and so we did, yummy, and a natural sleeping pill.
So, after eating we went back to our room, showered with our mouths closed tight (can't get water in your mouth), and brushed our teeth with bottled water. Then we hit the bed, man we were EXHAUSTED! Its a good thing we are jet lagged and worn down because the bed is fondly called "the Flinstones bed" by Robert, and for good reason! It's like sleeping on a board, but Matt's hoping it will help realign his neck=)
We woke up this morning, got ready, used the crazey tube-shaped in-room blow drier for my fur, and then made our way down to meet up with our host John to head to the expo. On the way to the expo John brought us to the Chinese version on McDonalds, and we had warm soy milk, and some doughnut thingys. We were brave and ate with smiles on our faces!
Then we went to the expedition center to get ready for our speeches. The expedition center is a huge regal building in the middle of a bustling Beijing (a city much like the Silicon Valley, and with some of the same companies present too). We were allowed through the red tape the gates around the expo center presented when John flashed his badge, and we headed inside. Inside we made it to the room for the speeches. We were three of less than 10 keynote speakers that day and were treated graciously with bottled waters and front row seats. Before we even spoke people were requesting photos with us! My speech was first on Trends in the US Wedding Industry, and then Denise was second with How Wedding Consultants Struture and Market their Services, and Trends In Wedding Attire, then last we went out with a bang with Karen Caseys speech on Creating A Memorable Wedding Space (design trends in the US). All speeches were well-recieved. They loved our power point presentations with tons of detailed photos, and the LOVED Karen's three or four short 3 minute films of her past weddings, they were amazing!!! Think weddings made for TV! People were so happy with the information we gave them. Karen even brough a few sample DVDs of one of the clips she played during her speech and then gave them away at the end by asking "who can say at least one sentence with 5 different English words in it?" Those who answered correctly were so excited! Those not so lucky were really sad not to get one, and they made sure to keep asking the rest of the night if we had anymore. Heheheheeh. Karen had my Husband Matt help her with the technical part of her presentation, and she introduced him as her "Tech Support", the girls in the audienced swooned and giggled, aparently they liked what they saw! Man, I'd better watch him close here!
We have an ACPWC member, Kate Magg from Hong Kong who was suppossed to meet up with us tonight for dinner, but our cell phones weren't working (and still aren't, thanks Verizon and Cingular!), and we couldn't get a hold of her. So, during our final speech, we were all up on stage fielding questions from the audience when I had a stroke of genious! "Why don't we use the microphone to ask if Kate is here?" Well, that's just what we did, we had our FABULOUS translator Luling ask the audience, and we found her way in the back waving at us! After we found her we had her sit with us for the duration of the speakers. Then we took her and her sister in law who accompanied her on the trip to the after part for the expo. It was a lot of fun! They had a great buffet, live music, free wine (pretty decent), and lots of photos! We started out with one big one as a group for eveyone in the room, and then later on that snowballed into more and more photos! People love us!
I'm sorry to have neglected the topic of our translator Luling, she's amazingly sweet, kind, and funny! I'm so happy we have her bright attitude to help guide the way for the 2nd and 3rds activities! Deborah you were right! Ann, she's the perfect future ACPWC professor for China!
I also forgot to mention that we did get to look around the expo a bit, and it was awesome! The booth sizes at their exposes are as big as a 1/8 of a ballroom here! Wayyy bigger. It was very cool to see. They had all the typical vendors. The goal of the expo was to create a safe place for Brides and Grooms to plan their entire weddings in three days, good luck with that!
Well, it's getting late, and my eyes are closing themselves. I need to go brush my teeth with boiled water and then crawl into my Flinstone's bed with Matt, whose been asleep for a long time now. Tomorrow our host John has been so gracious as to take us to the Great Wall of China, Tienaman Square, and the Forbidden City. I'm sure I'll have plenty more adventures to write to you then!
For now, shishi!(that's what thank you sounds like here),
Love,
Nicole, Matt, Karen, Denise, Robert
Well, long story short again, she LOVED her party! But it didn't end there! Melissa and I were still unsure of whether or not Lee was really going to propose, and it didn't seem like anyone else knew anything about it either. Until it was time for cake, Lee came up to me and said "c-c-can, you get everyone together? I'm going to go get the cake." I said "Sure!" and then grabbed Melissa by the arm and told her to help me. We got everyone situated around Nicole, and it was super quite, people were probably wondering why we had decided to gather everyone around her for the "cake" when they would have been fine in their seats, but they didn't know! Two guests even tried to leave early, and we stopped them "you CAN'T go" I said "I can't tell you why, but you CAN'T go!"
