Sunday in Guangzhou

The one second she's had a paci in her mouth...

We got in late yesterday afternoon. The flight wasn't super-fun. They apparently don't pressurize planes the same way in China as they do at home. I noticed this on the flight from Hong Kong to Nanchang too. My ears were completely stopped up on both flights, and it actually hurt a little on the descent. It didn't seem to bother Miss Z though. Being cooped up in a little airplane seat was another story I'm afraid. Ours was that baby who cried almost the whole flight. The flight from Hong Kong to San Francisco on Friday is going to be a lot of fun I think. If you know anyone who's going to be on that flight, you might want to give them a heads up now so they can change their reservations while there's still time. Unless they like screaming babies. Then they should definitely fly with us.

Who me?

It's so weird to be here after a week in Nanchang. We don't really even feel like we're in China. Shamian Island is very small, and very European in its architecture. Many people here seem to speak English. Also, they don't drive on the sidewalks. M & I have both said how glad we are that we got to spend time in Nanchang. We wouldn't trade a minute of it. That said, it is nice to be able to walk without fearing for your life, and it is much much cleaner here. And there's a Starbucks. Enough said.

Cutie Patootie

I'm not a big fan of the White Swan. I know, it's part of the tradition, red couches, breakfast buffet, gazillions of adoptive families, Going Home Barbie, yadda yadda yadda. But this really isn't that great a hotel. Frankly, it's rather seedy. I'm wishing I'd had the energy to change us to the Victory back before we left, but at that point in the game, one more thing on my to-do list would have put me over the edge. When "learn Chinese" is on your list of things to do in the immediate future, you know things are getting bad. We're not miserable here or anything even close to that, but this place is kind of a dump compared to our hotel in Nanchang. The rooms are tiny, and the beds are just as hard as you've heard they are -- too hard for me, and I really like a firm mattress. I woke up this morning with my hip bones aching. The pillows are pretty much rock solid too. It's like sleeping in a Flintstones bed. The worst part is that our room REEKS of cigarette smoke. I think it's coming from the ventilation system. We asked them to unlock our window so we could open it. They did, but with great reluctance and a lecture on how dangerous it was. I'm not sure if they meant it was dangerous because we might fall out, or dangerous because a baby shouldn't sleep in a room with the temperature below 80 degrees. But I'm keeping that window open as long as we're here.

Squatty potties aren't all bad...

We did a sightseeing tour with the group this morning. We went first to a Buddhist temple. It was a beautiful, peaceful place, just like you'd think a Buddhist temple should be. We had a blessing for Z by a Buddhist monk. We knelt down in front of an altar and closed our eyes. We were instructed to make a wish for our children, while the monk chanted. I wished a long, happy and healthy life for both of my children. As the monk chanted, I tried to visualize both kids going through all the stages of life. I saw them at their first day of kindergarten, playing middle school sports, going to prom, graduating from high school, getting married, bringing their own kids home for Thanksgiving dinners. By the end of the ceremony, I was bawling like a baby. Why do I do this to myself??

Blessing by a Buddhist Monk.

Six Banyans Temple - above and below:

Next stop was the Chen family academy. It was built....ummmm, I forget when, but a long time ago. All the people in China named Chen contributed money to build it. Anyone named Chen could come study here for the national exams. Now it's an art gallery, and there are some really lovely things there. Most impressive to me was the grain of rice with hundreds of Chinese characters painted on it. Seriously. You have to look at it through a magnifying glass. The building itself is beautiful too. Lots of intricate carvings in the stone, rooms built around courtyards surrounded by covered walkways. I think I could live there quite comfortably.

Last stop was a provincial artisan center, for more shopping (of course). We bought a few nice things, including a pretty little jade bracelet for Z. One other purchase from today that was notable -- a painted silk scroll in a gallery named for the artist, who shares our son's name. We're going to stop by again tomorrow to show him a picture of our B.

Daddy's little girl.

Tonight we had dinner at the Cow & Bridge, a Thai restaurant on the island. It was deeeeeeeelicious! I had vegetables in green curry. Yummmm. And a glass of wine, the first to pass my lips since the flight to Hong Kong. Also yummm. We sat with Donna & Randy from Florida. It has been so fun to finally meet them in person. We had the same LID date, and Donna and I have "known" each other (online) since way back when we first started the dossier process, almost exactly two years ago. She is just as nice in person as she is online, and they are both a lot of fun to hang out with.

Tomorrow we're off our mini-vacation and back in the full swing of the adoption process. We have to get Z's photo taken for her visa to enter the US, and she has to have a physical to make sure she's healthy before she can go home. Then there's a big round of paperwork, followed by the official Red Couch Photo. For those of you not schooled in the China adoption process, here's a quick explanation: the famous White Swan hotel has some equally famous red couches in their lobby. It is tradition to place all the children in the travel group on a couch, dressed in traditional Chinese clothing, and try to take a picture before one of the babies tips over. Generally at least one child is red-faced and screaming in these pictures. If you go into our agency's offices, they have the red couch photo of the first group of babies ever adopted from China to the U.S. They also have a follow-up photo of those same children on a White Swan red couch, ten or so years later. It's a rather sweet tradition I think. We have bought Z a lovely fuschia dress and matching shoes for her big moment.

I can almost walk.

A proud moment for Daddy.

Can someone please email this to Mountain Flyer Magazine?

Until tomorrow...