Day 14: Final day

Let's call this one it, and if I have an update when we land in Minneapolis it'll just be gravy. Sad to report no pictures to share. It's been a busy day of scrambling to get ready to go home and buy gifts and fulfill special requests.

Breakfast, ah how I'll miss it (I rarely eat it at home). This morning I said my thanks for the great food and juice. I think I'll miss the juice the most. Yesterday I had black currant, today was mango and pomelo. The grapefruit and pineapple juices had been good to me in Xi'an. I kinda feel like Dorothy (sans pigtails, cute blue dress and ruby slippers) saying my goodbyes. And scarecrow...err fresh tropical juices, I think I'll miss you most of all.

We had one hiccup today. When I called Northworst Airlines to book Isabel's ticket I specifically told the guy that her last name is An, and her first/middle is Tong Shu. I made the mistake of telling him though that the Chinese say the last name first, so it's An Tong Shu. He insisted that Shu go in the last name field on his computer screen or else we would have problems. Turns out, he was wrong. So I called NWA to check what, if anything, to do I was told to go the the local NWA office to have them change it. He said tomorrow it will be too late, because the Guangzhou airport doesn't have a Northwest ticket counter. So he gave me the address and I took Isabel's Chinese passport and her misprinted ticket with me. This was my first solo cab venture. The first few minutes in the cab gave me a sensation I remember from being four or five while shopping with my Mom. I recall trying to see how long out of site I could get from Mom while she browsed the clothing racks. Mostly I'd just hide in the round rack of cloths she was looking at, but sometimes I'd get more daring. I'd experience a buildup endorphine like nervousness in the pit of my stomach the farther away and longer I was out of site . Once I couldn't take it anymore I'd run back to her. All I had given the cabbie an address, and I wasn't sure how long and how far he was taking me.

Well the cab ride was only 13 minutes and cost $2.45. Once there I was confident I'd accomplish my mission and make it back in one piece. I navigated my way through this office building to the NWA office on the fifth floor. I had to wait several minutes as there was only one guy working there and he was in what was clearly an argument with the woman he was currently assisting. This was another moment I wish I understood the language, because it was HEATED. Two women who worked there walked in shortly after me and helped him put out the fire. One women finished the other customer's transaction and he helped me. He said he sees the name mistake all of the time and that it wasn't a big deal to fix, although he did ask me to pay an 80Y fee for changing it. I pushed pack gently saying it was really the fault of the NWA agent who booked it, and he easily agreed to not charge me. I was soon back in the cab. There must've been less traffic back to the hotel because it only cost $2.05. I really don't understand how they're even covering the cost of gas, but I'm not complaining.

This paragraph was added after the initial post. I had forgotten about the incident, but just retold the story to Leslie and she got a kick out of it, so I thought I'd add it late.

When I got into our hotel elevator after my NWA run, I saw a man milling around nervously. He stepped onto the elevator with me just before the doors closed. In our hotel, they require you put your key onto a magnetic reader before you can select your floor, and only your floor. So this guy gets on after I push 4, and he starts pushing 3, but it isn't lighting up. So he pushes it about nine times and looks at me perplexed. This guy didn't speak or understand a lick of English, and still didn't seem to comprehend when I waved my key against the key reader. So of course, he gets off with me on floor 4 and follows me around the corner repeating something in Chinese. It sounded like Yao Lama. He doesn't realize quickly enough that I don't understand him, but once he gets it he squats, puts a finger under his bottom and then makes a fist motioning away from his rear. Turns out, Yao La Ma means "Go Poo Poo". Apparently he wandered in from off the street hoping to use a public toilet. I shrugged my shoulders as I walked away because I wasn't about to invite him to our bathroom to drop a deuce. Anyway, I have added him to several interesting characters in this amazing journey.

While I was gone Leslie and Isabel napped. When I returned we decided to try and hit a toy market we'd heard about. So I called our host Molly to ask how to get there. I could hear her asking someone if they wanted to go to the toy market and came back to me and said, "I'll take you there. I'm with another family right now and they'd like to go too!". So Molly met us at our hotel 10 minutes later with a woman and her baby. Ironically this woman lives 4 miles from us in Minnesota, and it turns out I drive right past her block at least twice a week. So we went to the toy market area and it was a bit of a disappointment. I was hoping to find unique gifts but it was mostly crap. We spent an obligatory ten bucks for a few small toys to at least make the trip somewhat fruitful.

When the cab pulled up back at our hotel I asked Molly and Michelle (her baby is Mia) if they'd like to join us for our last dinner. They sort of looked at each other with unsure faces and then said they had dinner plans, but with hesitation Molly invited us to go along. I quickly discovered the hesitation as she explained that the restaurant was on the fifth floor of a building about two blocks away and it wasn't a typical eatery. When she said it was authentic Chinese dining I knew I was in. She warned us, "It's not as clean as other restaurants." That worried me a bit, but then she continued, "We should go early because it gets crowded fast." That sold me again. If the Chinese think its clean enough to crowd up the place then I'll all for it. When we arrived we had to climb five flights since there was no elevator. At the top, we walked into what can best be described as a breakroom at the office, but without the vending machines. There was a table with a microwave, a vertical cooler full of soft drinks and beer, and a hot pot of boiling water. The kitchen was around the corner in a very cramped room. We had Molly order for us and she got a plate of pan fried green beans, a spicy beef dish, soft scrambled eggs for the children, a huge bowl of noodle soup, and a fish dish. To drink we all spit two huge bottles of beer. We all ate family style, and I have to say that hands down, this was my favorite meal in China. I momentarily felt like Anthony Bourdain from the Travel Channel. He's always traveling the world eating at very authentic and off beat places. If you haven't seen it, check it out. His show is called No Reservations. So after such a delicious meal, and to thank Molly for being an awesome host, I decided to pick up the tab for dinner. When we got the bill I wished even more that we had discovered this place earlier. I paid $10.50 for all of our food and drink that easily fed four adults and two children.

So now we're finishing our packing job. I need to figure out how pack this snake wine in our checked luggage so no snake juice soaking our clothes. Coming back from Mexico in 2001 we lost a great bottle of Tequila to breakage. I remember how our clothes smelled then, so I'm really hoping to avoid a similar circumstance.

Leslie and I want to extend a loving thanks to those of you that followed our ups and downs. A couple of you out there have compared following our journey to your favorite Soaps. We're excited to get home, but sad to say that this is our series finale. Thank you, thank you, thank you all. We can't wait to continue this journey live with you back home.

Damn…now I’ve got tears rolling down my face like the night of the series finale of Cheers. Gosh, I still miss that show.

Day 13: US Consulate day

I didn't take a single picture today, but I do have some to share. These are the photos from the disposable camera we sent over two months ago. She has more in common with her big brother than we knew. In a few photos she's getting a nebulizer treatment. Based on the pictures it doesn't appear that she cares for it, so Jackson will have to teach her how to love it like he does.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.8iuiii53&x=0&y=aff74d

This morning was our first crack at the Victory Hotel's breakfast buffet. It was all edible, but no dumplings or tots. I say who cares if the breakfast isn't as good as long as we're saving 50% vs. the White Swan and have a comfortable bed. After breakfast we began to head to our hotel's main location a few blocks away to change some US dollars into Yuan. Leslie had just assumed that since we're staying in the annex building that they wouldn't have a cashier to exchange currency.

We made it just around the corner when we ran into the other family in our group with the two boys. Brad (dad), Erik (11), and Benjamin (9) were playing hacky-birdie in the park. We went over to say hello and the boy's chided me to join in the game. A little back-story...when this new game was revealed to us Brad joked to his boys that I was a professional hacky player. I went with it, and never joined them in playing saying I was retired and as such I wasn't allowed to play anymore. The boys questioned this lie by asking who'd know if I played in China? So this guise went on for several days, until today. After several chants of "Ha-cky, ha-cky, ha-cky" I joined in (with cheers from the boys). While I surprised myself with my newly discovered skills, it was clear I wasn't a pro. I think they're smarter than they look. They must've known it was all a yarn, because they didn't seem a bit surprised that I wasn't awesome. I think we played for close to 40 minutes. When we finished I had to wipe my brow more than once. It's more exerting than it looks.

We said see-ya-later to them and made our way over to our other (but same) hotel. I asked to change money and he said the exchange rate was 7.0 Yuan per dollar. Everywhere else it was between 7.3 and 7.4. I told him to take a hike and we walked out. I guess we were the ones who took the hike. Later Leslie guessed that since we appeared to walk in from off the street (even though we were staying at their hotel) he offered a crappy rate. Maybe, but we'll never know now. So by this time it was around noon-30. We walked to a small cafe and had lunch. While we ate we were discussed our money changing options when who walked up, but Brad and his family who I had played hacky with an hour earlier. The cafe was right next to the White Swan where Brad was staying, so I asked if he'd change $200 for us. Thankfully he did and I saved 5% since the rate was what I had expected. Thanks Brad!

Today was our final step in the process to bring Isabel home. We had to go to the US Consulate and take an oath swearing that all of the information that we've provided during our adoption process is true to the best of our knowledge. We met at the White Swan where we boarded a tour bus. This thing was big and there were three of them, almost all full except ours. I think in total about sixty families were heading to the Consulate as well. Unfortunately the Consulate until recently was next to the White Swan hotel, which is why I think it remains such a popular hotel for adopting families. Now it's about 40 minutes by bus in stop and go traffic. When we arrived I felt a little sick from the ride, but recovered quickly. To enter the Consulate we all had to show our US passports and go through airport like security and couldn't bring any liquids or electronics with us. We gathered in a large room where a guy made an announcement to tell us what to do when we land in the US. We then took the oath with our right hand raised, everyone cheered, and then we all got a mysterious brown envelope. One of our instructions is to NOT open the envelope. We need to go through the non-US citizen line when we land in Minneapolis and give the envelope to the immigration officials. Once through immigration Isabel is officially a citizen of the U.S.!

We're jealous of the two other families we traveled with as they get to leave tomorrow morning. We opted to stay an extra day in order to save some major dough on the flight. So tomorrow we'll finish up shopping and pack. Then it's back home on Friday morning. We can't wait!

Day 12: Sleep, Play & Shop

Photos:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.3jn9ivyv&x=0&y=-lat1wm

Finally, a morning that doesn't begin with breakfast. We (Isabel and I) slept in until 10, and we didn't get ready in time for last call at the breakfast buffet at our hotel. Leslie decided to hit the Starbucks next door to our hotel, and then walk with our coffee until we found a place suitable to eat. Lucy's (as in "I Love"; surely not officially licensed) has a fairly Americanized menu. We walked by at 10:50 and they wouldn't open until 11, so we wandered the streets for a bit until we found something better. We didn't, so it was back to Lucy's for brunch. Leslie had the "American breakfast", the standard bacon, eggs, and toast. I opted for the grilled cheese and fries, while Isabel had the chicken congee. Congee is rice porridge that is popular here in China. I'm not sure if adults eat it as I've only seen it on the kid's menu. Leslie said it tasted like salty chicken noodle soup (it's very liquidy).

Lucy's outdoor patio is on the edge of a park that sits on the Pearl River. While we dined we enjoyed watching over 100 locals, split in groups of 4 or 5, play a game we've termed "hacky birdie". It's hacky sack, but with a badmitton-esque birdie instead of a bean bag sack. The main difference is this birdie has several real feathers going into two spring loaded rubber discs, but it sounds exactly like a hacky sack when kicked. When I think of hacky sack in the US, patchouli smelling stoners hanging out at a Grateful Dead show comes to mind. Here the participants ranged from late teens to mid-sixties, and the groups weren't gender or age divided. It was relaxing entertainment while we ate, and they didn't smell like patchouli.

After Lucy's we walked through the park and along the river. Most of my photos of the days were taken here. Isabel had some stacking cups that we take everywhere to entertain her. I suggested we take a seat by a big rock sculpture. Isabel walks for us plenty around the room, but when we're out in public and we set her down on her feet, she mostly just stands in place. If I try and hold her hand and gently pull, she goes to noodle legs. At the park today she was really interested in playing with her cups while in the stroller. So I had a bright idea to toss them about 5 feet away, and then set her on her feet. She immediately went to retrieve her cups. She brought them back to me and I threw them 10 feet. This continued until she was at least 30 or 40 feet away, and she was comfortable. While I realize she's not a dog, she loves to play fetch. She started throwing the cups herself (one photo has a cup in mid-air), and a little boy a few months younger than Isabel picked one up, then two. Isabel immediately went over to him to see what was going on. Thankfully she shared nicely and played with him until his mom forced the cups from his grasp to return them, then they left. Just watching Isabel play in the park was one of our most relaxing times with her.

Our first "shopping" stop was at a photo store where we had the visa picture taken yesterday. I failed to mention that at that visit I dropped of a disposable camera to be developed. It was a camera, among other items, that we sent to Xi'an with Laurette, who adopted a few months ago from the same orphanage. The a'yis (orphanage nannies, if you haven't been following each day) took all 27 pictures on various days and set the camera aside for when we picked up Isabel. So yesterday at the photo shop I paid them to develop the camera and threw in 30 extra Yuan for them to put the photos on a CD. I picked up the photos yesterday and got the CD back to the hotel. I popped it in so I could upload and share those with you as well. I was disappointed to discover that the CD was blank. So, this morning we returned to complain...very politely of course. They checked the CD and verified the problem, apologized profusely, and told me they'd have one for me tomorrow.

The remainder of the day was just shopping at store after store, negotiation after negotiation. I looked at some knock-off Oakley sunglasses. I wasn't really interested, but I asked how much just for fun. She said 230 ($31)!!! After saying no to half of her subsequent prices I began to walk away. She was yelling "50! 50! 50!" at me as I was heading away. It's the same way at every store. I've found the most effective way to get the initial price to drop the fastest is to laugh at it, and loudly. If you don't, or give a sheepish "no", then they think they're in the park and you're close to playing ball. The key is to really spend the first day scouting the goods at each store. All of the stores stock virtually the same exact goods. During the scout visit you need to be firm on saying "no" all the while trying to get their best price. Doing this store to store gives you a baseline for where to start the negotiations. I have found though that the Chinese don't seem to agree to the concept of bulk discount as is common in the US. I negotiated a price of 25 Yuan with one merchant for a single item. I said I'd buy 8 of them for 180 and she let us walk out of the store with "no deal". Sometimes I think they kick themselves for allowing such a thing to happen. Their margins are huge. I'm sure at 100 for 8 they'd make a profit. Since then I think I've got the reason why. Most merchants ask when you're leaving (to head back to the U.S.). We've been honest to this point, but now I think that they're gauging how much more free time shopping you'll have on this small island. If you aren't leaving anytime soon they assume you'll be back (or scouting as I originally said was a great strategy).

For dinner we went to a Thai restaurant around the corner where we ate last night. I ordered Leslie's dish from last night and she mine. We enjoyed chatting with a Chinese (descent) woman from Portland who was in town adopting. Her husband stayed back with their two children while she traveled with a friend from high school. After she left and her table was cleaned, a nice couple (Hubert and Lee) from Greenville, SC sat down. They had been logged in to China's adoption system since 12/05 and had just met their 10 month old the day before. It made me grateful for the choice to switch to the special needs program (WIC). We were logged in on 12/31/06 and had we not switched to WIC we probably wouldn't have traveled until early to mid-2009. Isabel is so precious. I couldn't imagine anyone else as my little princess.

Tomorrow we go to the US Consulate to finalize the adoption on the US side. It's a big day...after that we're finished here. We could have traveled home on Thursday, but the airline tickets were about $700 more apiece, so we decided to stay another day. Anyway, with Thursday being a free day I think we're going to buy another suitcase to bring gifts & requested purchases back. This offer makes me nervous, but if any of you have requests for specific (or general) items let us know and we'll do our best to accommodate.

Until tomorrow...

Day 11: Medical check, walking tour

Sunday's late photos:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.1s2nm5fr&x=0&y=-eto9mu

Today's photos:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.apwhlcjr&x=0&y=-j3km0e

We had to get up early today to meet Molly at 8:30am in order to go get Isabel's visa photo taken and then head to get her a medical exam. Despite sleeping at the Victory Hotel, we headed to breakfast at the White Swan since we paid for the night and thus had breakfast vouchers. Those tots...can't say enough about them. Also the dumplings were excellent, and both were dripping in the excess syrup from my french toast. I really recommend you try food with syrup that normally isn't paired with it. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. It brought me back to 2001 when Les and I worked in California. When I'd fly down to L.A. to see her we'd go eat at a chain called Roscoe's. They served a great combo...fried chicken and waffles. Syrup on fried chicken is goooood.

So we got the visa photo taken and Isabel didn't want to get off of the stool to let the other kids get their turn. She wanted to be Miss Diva and model for the camera. We had to pull her away, but she didn't fuss. We then walked about six blocks to a small medical clinic. This was much nicer and cleaner than the Children's Hospital in Xi'an. We went to a back waiting area which was just for medical checks for adopted children. We just took turns with the two other couples we were with. There were three steps. General medical health, ENT, and height & weight. Isabel weighs 22 pounds. All the kid's passed their exam, which is just another step in getting them home!

Directly from the exam we walked off of Shaiman Island (where we're staying) into downtown to the Qing Ping market. There are storefronts after storefronts of people selling anything from pharmaceuticals to pets. There were some very interesting aromas along our stroll through the market. Within ten steps the smells would change between good, bad, horrifying, and just plain interesting. No one in our group bought anything from the market, but I was tempted to buy a pet scorpion, although I doubt it would get through customs. This guy just had tubs filled with scorpions...some tiny and some huge. Molly said they're used to make scorpion soup, but she says she's never tried it. I think neither will we.

We veered off to a pedestrian mall and headed down to a small indoor mall where we were introduced to a pearl shop...my favorite. Leslie bought a few pearls, and then we headed to the DVD store. They had all sorts of DVDs for about $2.25. I ended up buying eight. Most are movies that aren't out yet on DVD in the U.S. I'm sure this was all perfectly legal.

On the walk back to our hotel we passed a place that sold various remedies. I noticed the snake wine in a huge gallon jug, and it was full of snakes. This was the same stuff I bought yesterday, only mine was one snake in a small bottle. While we were checking out the snakes Patrick, another Dad in our group, pointed out the wine next to the "plain" snake wine. It was labeled "Red Spotted Lizard, Snake And Snake Penis Wine". I just need to ask, who came up with this, and who had the stones to be the first one to try it? I'd love to meet him (or her).

The final thing we did tonight was gather at the White Swan to take pictures of the kids on the famous red couch. Apparently there is more than one red couch in the hotel lobby, and maybe there is one in particular that is more well known than the others, but we just picked one and began taking photos. The lighting was poor, so many of the pictures came out blury, but a few turned out great.

I know this was a weak blog compared to the others and I apologize. It's getting very late again, but I was able to sort and upload pictures from Sunday and today. As you'll see from the photos, Isabel is doing great and smiling a lot! We can't wait to get her home. Only 96 hours until we land in Minneapolis!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we have no set plans, just a free day for us while Molly works on the logistics behind the scenes. She said if there is a problem she'll call us, but no news is good news.

Good night/afternoon!

Day 10: We moved!

*** TODAY'S TISSUE FACTOR (TTF) , 2 out of 10 ***

I'm happy to say this blog is coming to you from the Guangdong Victory Hotel, on their complementary in-room PC none-the-less!

Last night I contacted our Guangzhou host Molly and told her of the terrible room and that we'd like to move to the hotel that we originally asked to stay. She told me she'd get back to me. So I tossed and turned all night trying to get comfortable on this ROCK HARD bed. It was way harder than the one in Beijing, and the pillows were equally bad (hard and super thin) which made matters worse. I think I ended up with about an hour of total sleep and the rest was time spent thinking how ticked I was that we weren't originally able to stay (according to our travel coordinator at the agency) at the Victory hotel.

So Molly got back to me this morning and said it is okay to switch, but the White Swan requires a 24 hour cancellation notice so we'd have to pay for Sunday night too. I was a little peeved since we told her the day before that we wanted to get the heck out of dodge, but I really didn't want to tick off our host, so we'll leave it at that. So now we had a choice. Stay at the hotel that sucks since we've paid $130 for the night, or for the first time in our lives, get two hotel rooms for the same night and not sleep in one of them. We opted for the latter. Our White Swan experience was so bad that if they'd offered to comp our room for our entire stay we still would've moved. That said, I'm now trying to calculate how much they could've offered to pay us to keep our room in that crap hotel. I would've said yes for $90 a night, taken the $90 over to the Victory and rented a room, and then left the lights on and our water running at the White Swan. Our unused room tonight is room 1134. I hope it doesn't "rain" in 1034...hee hee hee. Really I'm just kidding. Al Gore told me to turn off the water and lights, so of course we did. The point is, our room now is great. While we'd love to not have wasted $130, it was worth the double booking for tonight.

Okay...that's it on the room situation. Onto the rest of the day, because there was an interesting cast of characters to say the least. This morning was the usual. No toast today, but the breakfast was fantastic. They had tater tots. We love the tots. We hated our room. You already know how that turns out. Since we're paying for tonight's room, we're going back for our $130 breakfast in the morning. Ireland may experience another potato famine because I'm going to try and eat my money's worth of tots.

At 9:00am we met our host and the other two families that we had met in Beijing last weekend. They had traveled to Inner Mongolia to pick up their children. Anyway, Molly took us on a tour of sites in the city. We went to a famous Buddhist temple. I'm not a Buddha fan, other than to mention in college I had a plaster cast statue of what the Chinese refer to as the "Ha ha (funny) Buddha". A side story about him; when we moved to Austin in 2000, Buddha was tied to the back bumper of our Uhaul by someone who shall remain nameless. After we hit our first bump in the road Buddha blended into the pavement quite nicely. I digress. I learned in my catechism in second grade that "I am the Lord thy God; Thou shall not have strange god's before me". So, of course, I'll go to H-E double hockey sticks if I pray to this strange god (and boy is he strange). But we did go into the temple and have the Buddhist monk say a blessing and sprinkled holy water on us. It didn't burn. WHEW! I will say though that while I didn't believe or understand for that matter what the monk was saying or doing, I still had an amazingly powerful feeling come over me while it was happening. I can't really explain it other than to say it was somewhat similar to that feeling I got after finals every semester in high school and college, or when the final bell rang before Christmas and Spring break. The feeling was both weird and fleeting. My final story of this experience was that during this "sacred" blessing the monk's sleeves hiked up slightly to reveal a Rolex on his wrist. It made me hesitant to donate 10 Yuan to the red box on the alter after the ceremony, but I did anyway because I'm confident the watch was as real as Pamela Anderson's twins, since I perused Rolex watches today on the street by our hotel(s). They're running about $30...maybe $20 with a hard bargain.

After the temple we went to a park. It was pretty, boring...in that order. Then we were taken to a "shopping plaza" as Molly put it. We pulled up and there were two dealerships I had never seen before, a Rolls and Lamborghini dealership. We were taken upstairs from the dealerships to a knick-knack store. I ended up buying a bottle of "wine" at the there. It's called snake wine. Now you've heard of the Tequila (actually Mezcal) that has the worm in the bottle. Yeah, I was an idiot in college and ate the worm after downing close to a half a bottle, but again I digress. So this snake wine was pretty interesting. Guess what was inside of this bottle of booze? Yep...and it's tongue was sticking out too. May I fix you a Snake & Tonic? How about a Snake-tini? Twenty bucks to the first person who takes a legit (1 1/2 ounce) shot of this stuff; straight; no nose holding.

When we got back to the hotel we went to the room, gathered our dirty laundry (I had to chase my jeans down the hall), and brought it to a souvenir shop just outside of the hotel. These types of shops are about every 30 feet apart on every road around the hotel and almost all offer laundry service. I think we had 30 pieces of laundry between the three of us and they said they'd have it finished in 6 hours and it'd be $25. Sold! Cleaning those jeans may have been worth $25 alone for pain and suffering. This store also lends out strollers for free! I picked one up in the morning and all I had to do was give them my room number and tell them when I'd have it back. Incidentally, Isabel loved the stroller. When we'd stop to check something out she'd start to kick her legs as if to say "Giddie up!".

In the early afternoon we found a little cafe a few doors down from the hotel where we grabbed some lunch. Leslie found a table outside while I went in to grab our food. A yogurt, coke, two beers, and a HUGE pig-in-a-blanket was $4. I was heading to our table proudly thinking about our bargain lunch, when I noticed a guy talking to (hitting on?) Leslie. I approached and he said he was an American and asked if he could join us as he was craving a conversation in English. I didn't really care...I thought it'd make a nice story, so I asked him to sit. He was eccentric, and that's an understatement. They guy said he's been teaching English in China, but didn't seem to offer any more description of when & where. I asked him how long he'd been in China and he said since about 2001. He hadn't been back to the states since then and implied that he's basically wandering around southeast Asia with no real place to call home. He didn't look or act homeless...just weird. Almost the entire time I was trying to memorize his face thinking I'd seen him on some Interpol posting or the FBI's most wanted list. He was intentionally vague in his conversation, but fairly pleasant overall. When I mentioned we had to head back to the hotel, he got up, politely said "thank you", and disappeared down the street. He said his name was Ed and he was 56 and from California, and he used to coach high school football. That's about all I know about him. So if he matches a "most wanted" description, he's in Guangzhou. Oh, and he slightly resembled a grey haired Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster) without as high of a forehead, about 7" shorter, not as green (as Herman), and not as dead (as Fred). If you recognize him on a most wanted list, please contact your local FBI office.

As for the "Noodle" as we affectionately call her, she's getting better everyday. If you had told me 7 days ago that we'd be where we are today I would've bet some cold hard cash against it. She's such a little diva and she's becoming more and more expressive by the minute. We wandered through a grocery store and I caught her singing some song I didn't know. Heck, it may not have even been a song, but at least there was sound coming out of her mouth. Later in the room I flipped her upside down, face down and up, backwards, and every which way onto the bed. She giggled and giggled and signed "more, more". She's signing "more" and "please" very consistently now. She also loves to do "high five" and "oh, my!" where she puts her hands on either cheek. There's a great little person inside of her and we love watching her personality emerge. At dinner tonight she was wearing a hooded sweater. The hood would've covered my head and then some, so when I pulled it up and over hers, it came down to below her chin in the front. She started belly laughing. It was so hysterical that I repeated the hood maneuver; she laughed and laughed harder and harder. It lasted about 10 minutes and was joyful to hear. She's also really warming up to her ma-ma. There were multiple times today when she didn't want to let go of Leslie to come to me. As a result, the joy in Leslie's expression is infectious. It feels so great to see her quickly and comfortably slipping into the role of Noodle's mommy.

After dinner I had to pick up our laundry, but it wasn't ready. They said 30 more minutes. So we took Isabel back to the room and put her to bed after a quick bath. I was then back out to retrieve our clean laundry. About half way down the block a woman in a doorway reached out to hand me a card. At first I tried to ignore her, but she basically put it in my hand. Annoyed, I said, "What's this?" She said, "You need massage. A sexy massage, back in your hotel room." WHAT!?!? This was a first. I've only heard about the happy ending...but it's never been offered! Of course I declined and continued to the laundry place. Back in our room with our laundry I shared my encounter with Leslie, and I mistakenly joked about that vacant room we're paying for in the White Swan hotel. I got slap-pushed across the room for that one.

Everyone is fast asleep (it’s 1:40am here). I got a late start on the blog tonight, so I'm going to disappoint some by not posting pictures again for the second day in a row. This time I do have plenty of photos to share, but after an hour of sleep last night I hope you can understand if they're a day late. Goodnight from Southeast China. Enjoy your lunch.

Day 9: Pack & Travel day

Sorry, no photos today. It was tiring one, but fine otherwise. Isabel sat in a high chair at breakfast; I think the lap child may be a thing of the past. I finally got my toast right. Now I'm sure to deal with a little trial and error(s) with a new fangled toaster at the next hotel.

Minnie picked us up at 1:00pm to head to the airport. A family from west Illinois with all 5 of their kids (2 adopted, one this trip, one last year) and grandma was staying at our hotel and we've gotten to know them a bit. They were off to the airport at the same time and took a flight to Guangzhou 20 minutes before ours. The security at the airport was quick and easy. Our only challenge was finding a place to change a stinky diaper. Women design public restrooms in the states, men design them here. They don't offer changing tables in the Men's rooms, so I was off the hook. The only problem was the first restroom Leslie tried didn't have a working changing table, and the one she did find she described as a "very scary shelf that looked like it could fall down at any second". She changed Isabel with one knee up in the air helping to support the shelf. At least we didn't have to do it on the floor in the passenger waiting area.

Isabel sat on our lap during the flight. She played with an animal puzzle given to us by the flight attendant and with a couple of animal "action figures" that we brought. When those got old we busted out the food. She loves the dried Gerber fruit pieces and those kept her busy for quite a while. We've been working on some basic sign language with her. She's already caught onto the sign for "more". Les would dump out a few fruit pieces, Isabel would scarf them down like popcorn at a movie (multiple pieces at a time), and then sign for more. It was so adorable and exciting to see her communicate with us that she got more, and more, and more, and...a tummy ache we think! We finally landed in Guangzhou and Leslie and I looked at each other and almost simultaneously said that she couldn't have been a better child to fly with. Jackson is a great traveler, but Isabel didn't whine or make a peep once during the 2 1/2 hour flight.

Outside of baggage claim a guy with a "Mr. Keith Vesper" sign was waiting for me, err, us. He put us on a shuttle bus, but surprisingly didn't get on. Our fate was in the hands of a non-English speaking driver and we hoped he knew where to take us. The ride to the hotel was about 45 minutes, and about half way there on the highway I looked over and saw the Toyota "Coaster", which was the same type of shuttle bus we used to tour Beijing. To my surprise, inside the shuttle bus was that family from Illinois who had been staying at our hotel in Xi'an. I waved to their middle daughter, who politely waved back not knowing who in the heck I was presumably because the windows were slightly tinted on both of our vehicles. Once she realized we could see her alerting the rest of her crew and they all waved hysterically. As we passed their bus I kinda felt like I was on "The Amazing Race". In my head I could hear Phil saying, "Teams must now take a shuttle bus to their hotel, the pit stop for this leg of the race. The last team to arrive may be eliminated."

We drove down a beautiful road right on the Pearl River just before we arrived at the White Swan Hotel. It was a great view and I began to have a feeling that this final leg of our trip would be our favorite. We pulled up to the hotel which overlooks the river and entered the lobby. I began to feel really excited...this was a NICE hotel. Apparently a "six star hotel" by the Chinese rating. The lobby felt like it too. I can just compare it to how nice a lobby is in a Vegas hotel (one of the nice ones, not the Tropicana!). We went up to our room, opened the door, and BOOM...our day was crushed. I told Les that the most disappointing part of our trip to this point was spending six hours in that place they called a children's hospital in Xi'an. Our room at the White Swan was a close second. Before I begin my room description I'd like to first say that my wonderful grandma kept a very clean home and had impeccable taste in decor in the mid 1970s. This description isn't a knock in the least against her, but if her home hadn't changed for thirty years I would've been living in it tonight. It was a flashback to grandma's guest bedroom room circa 1977. Add two chairs and a side table from her patio set. Then throw in grandpa's high tech nightstand that controls the television (19") and all of the lights in the room, including the "picture" light which shines a museum-esque light onto the bad art on the wall, and you had our room. The carpet was probably from 1977, and the bedspreads (two double beds) look so outdated that it's wigging me out thinking about their history. Yuck, yuck, and triple yuck is the only way to end this description.

We quickly got prepared and headed down to dinner which was uneventful and expensive. We dropped about fifty bucks for two sandwiches and a pitcher of an undisclosed draft beer. The food was great, just not worth the price.

After dinner we decided to stroll the streets by the hotel. The best comparison I can make to this area is the French Quarter in N'awlins. The temp out was very comfortable 70 degrees, and if there had been bars and frozen drink stands all along the street you wouldn't have been able to convince me that we weren't in the Big Easy.

We happened by a nice looking hotel lobby a few blocks away with a "V" on the front door. This turned out to be the Victory hotel where Leslie had wanted to stay, but our agency's travel coordinator nixed it. We walked in and asked the receptionist if a) there were any rooms available, and b) if we could tour a few. She wrote down 3 rooms with their prices and gave it to the bellhop who showed us each room. WOW! These rooms were nice with a capital N, I, C, and E compared to the White Swan, and a business suite with sitting area was only $90 compared to the $128 where we are currently. We put our name in for a reservation and told them we'd let them know in the morning if we could switch.

Back at the room I called our Guangzhou host Molly. She asked how our travels were and I politely said they were great. I did mention that our room was terrible and we'd like to switch to the Victory hotel. She told me she wasn't authorized to make the switch, but would contact our main travel guy and check with him. I just have to say, we may switch anyway and take it up with the agency later...it's THAT bad. So here we are tonight in a terrible room with overpriced internet. I only paid for an hour's worth of time and I have 9:39 left now, so I'm going to wrap it up. Hopefully tomorrow there will be pictures and more details on this city. I also hope to blog tomorrow from a comfortable room at the Victory hotel.

Day 8: Walking hand in hand

Day 8 photos all have captions. The album is titled "Out and about in Xi'an": http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.bzit3mwn&x=0&y=-ds4q1y

*** ALERT *** No tissues needed! (I think?)

Today was relatively uneventful...thank goodness! We went to breakfast in the hotel per usual and I burnt my toast for the fifth straight day. I get one final shot to get it right tomorrow. Isabel did hurl while I was getting my plate. There was a little mess on the floor next to our table and the waitress staff pretended like they couldn't see it. Other guests saw it, especially the ones who were being seated at the table closest to it. They chose to go to another table. Leslie cleaned it up, and Isabel was fine. She ate well and was active all day.

She's playing in the room now...no more bump on a log. She opens drawers and walks around with a picture album of the family that we brought. Her favorite thing is the television remote control. Somehow she seems to know how to use it, almost always landing on CNBC. Not only did we adopt an adorable little girl, but we got a stock broker too boot! Her mama was proud when she changed the station to the Fashion Channel (yes, 24 hours of catwalk all day long).

We soon bundled up to get ready for a family outing to a department store around the corner. Isabel was ready to go and I put out my hand and opened the door to our room to leave. She walked over and grabbed my finger. I said "grabbed" Dad, not "pulled"...geez. We walked hand in hand out the door, down the hall, into and out of the elevator. What a great feeling it was. Up until now she's only walked at the orphanage and in our room. The experience was short lived as we ended up with noodle legs as soon as we got to the door to the street. My arms are getting tired. I woke this morning and felt like I had gone water skiing for the first time in years. These are muscles that I use periodically with Jackson, but this is getting ridiculous. We're going to pick up a stroller in Guangzhou and hope she'll sit in it. Anyway, the department store was much like what you'd find in the US. Most products were familiar and the prices were equal to or more expensive than the States. There were no bargains to be found. We bought a two handled sippy cup for $3.50 and left.

Isabel went down for a nap when we got back to the room and I decided to go explore the city and take some pictures. It's very interesting to experience being a minority for the first time in my life. While I've said the stares don't bother me I may have lied slightly. I'm not bothered by the reasons that they're staring, but there's just a smidgen of an uncomfortable feeling that I get when it's happening. So I decided to go incognito on my picture taking excursion. See the first photo and it'll be crystal clear. I put on my knit hat and pulled it down to the top of my sunglasses. I laughed on my way out the door because I guessed I stuck out even more now! Not many people here wear sunglasses because it's perpetually smoggy, and the hat...forget about it, I haven't seen one remotely similar in China. Pleasantly, I was able to avoid about 90% of the looks and enjoy the people and scenery. I just wandered and shot what I found interesting and/or meaningful. I aimlessly stumbled upon a Starbucks as well as the Wal-Mart Leslie went to the other day. It was nice to enjoy the familiar taste of latte. At one point on my walk back I found myself stuck in between lanes of traffic. A bus gave me a close shave, and a cab nearly missed my rear. I had my camera out and just pointed and shot from the hip to capture the moment. I made it back to the room in one piece, then Leslie got some alone time and hit the treadmill at the hotel gym, while Isabel and I colored Dora and watched her favorite..."Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo"

During my wanderings today I found another familiar restaurant, Pizza Hut. I reported back to Leslie and she gasped and said definitely, "We're going for dinner." So we did. It was about a half mile walk. Oh my poor arms. Part of me wants to get into a street fight in a few weeks to test these puppies out. Pizza hut was inside the entrance to the mall and the wait for a table was 20 minutes so we walked around for a bit. This mall was NICE...maybe top 3 nicest I've ever been in (don't ask me the other two). It was 6 stories high with not a speck of dirt on the floors or anywhere for that matter, and it even had it's own indoor ice rink. Now coming from the land of the Mall of America and indoor amusement parks I shouldn't impress easily, but I didn't know Xi'an even existed before we were matched with Isabel, and my preconceived notions have been blown out the window. Anyway, back to the mall. Something the Chinese seem to do that we don't do in the US is to group stores by type. Earlier on my walk on a street where a mob surrounded a police car (see photo) every single business on that block sold cell phones. On the first floor of the mall almost every store sold luxury timepieces (Rolex, Bulgari, etc.). Just an observation. I think I've arrived again at one of my trivial explanations.

Back at Pizza Hut we were seated and Isabel was on my lap. We began feeding her Gerber dried fruit pieces. Since we were at a 4 person table I slid her food over in front of the seat next to me and slyly slid her onto it. She didn't miss a beat. It was the first time out to eat where she was sitting on her own rear. It was nice. The waitress soon brought a high chair and I was able to move her into that without a fuss. Leslie wondered out loud if she'd ever had pizza before. That just made me chuckle. I joked that I'm sure they had pizza parties in the orphanage every now and then. After seeing what those kids were eating yesterday, I'd say with some confidence they may not even know what traditional Chinese cuisine tastes like, let alone Italian pie. Isabel is our little garbage disposer. She'll eat anything we put in front of her, except pineapple, which found its way onto our Supreme pizza. She loved every bite. There came a point when she was clearly finished and began to play with her food. I said "Boo" (not sure of the Chinese spelling) which means "no". She stopped for a moment, stared at me, and slowly resumed the "bad" behavior with a growing grin on her little face. She was testing us again and all three of us found it amusing. I think I've touted how nice certain things are in this city. You'd think I worked for the Chamber of Commerce. But I need to mention that had we not known this place was a Pizza Hut, we would've expected a 4 star meal based solely on the decor. There was chandelier lighting, marble and colorfully tiled flooring, and frosted glass and bamboo decorating the dividers between the tables. Oh, and the pizza was great. It tasted just like it does back home, and was much needed on day 8. We went down to Starbucks after dinner and Les got a latte. It was as close to feeling home that we could get.

That's all for today. Tomorrow we check out at noon and head to the airport where we'll catch a flight down to Guangzhou. It's supposed to be 75 and sunny...yeah!

Day 7: A glimpse into the future

We first want to extend a big "thank you" to Dale Holgate for keeping Grandpa Dick and Great Grandma & Grandpa Long informed of our travels! We're also so grateful to all of you following the blog. The comments and support are keeping our spirits up!

Thursday's photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.ckdc2gp3&x=0&y=umkgw

Just like most days, we met Minnie at 9:30am in the lobby and hailed a cab to head out to Xi'an CWI (Children's Welfare Institute), Isabel's orphanage. As I mentioned yesterday, we weren't 100% certain we chose the right path taking her back. All along the way I felt uneasy, thinking that maybe we were making a terrible mistake. The drive was about 30 minutes. We pulled up to an arched gate with guard shacks on either side. I'm not sure the gates open often for cars. It didn't for us. We were just let out at the edge of the driveway and Minnie checked in with the guard. At quick glance, the place looked like Disneyland. The as we walked onto the grounds there were two buildings. A pink one to our left, and a yellow one to the right. The pink building had spires and looked like a castle from a distance. The grounds were well manicured and some workers were building a new playground in a park area across from the front door. They weren't very far along, but it appears as if it'll be similar to the playgrounds we're used to back in Minnesota. Just to mention it, because I don’t later, the yellow building contains the offices for the orphanage. That’s where we delivered the 30 super crisp unmarked non-sequential Ben Franklin’s. It was a donation I’d make again.
When we entered the pink building it was fairly quiet. The foyer raised the four stories of the building, and the stairs were off to the side and semi-circular. We'd go up the semi-circle to the next floor; it was flat across the diameter, and then repeat...almost like a D. Maybe the explanation and description is minutiae anyway. I think half the stuff I describe may be as well! Anyway, we went all the way up to the fourth floor where we were greeted by the A'yis (pronounced I-Es...the nannies). We put paper slippers over our shoes and dropped off our gifts in the office. We were then taken around the corner into a long hallway and turned into one of the first rooms. The room was divided into two halves, the first with cribs around the perimeter, and the second was a play area. The divide was about a 40" wall with a gate. I began taking pictures immediately and Leslie was working the video cam. These children were adorable, every last one of them. I just broke my heart to think of these children living in this place. Don't get me wrong, these kids are well cared for, it's just their situation sucks. I wanted to take them all home, although new friends of ours in Minnesota may have something to say about that! Mel and Pete are coming in a few months to pick up Lu. He's the adorable boy in the light blue sweater in quite a few photos. I can't wait for him to get back with his forever family too, because he and Isabel are best friends. At one point we were posing for a photo with Lu, and Isabel wanted nothing to do with me holding her. She was doing her back arch and whine. Lu was such a cutie...he reached out to Isabel to comfort her. Unfortunately it didn't work, but as we say, it's the thought that counts.

We met Mel and Pete through the Xi'an yahoo discussion group. That was extremely helpful for us once we were matched with Isabel, but before we traveled. Within 10 minutes of joining the yahoo group we received a photo of Isabel from a woman in Australia! My goal when making our visit was to take as many photos as I could of all of the children so that others waiting on the yahoo group may get a peek at their little one. Unfortunately I think I may have missed a couple, but I really tried my best.

As parents we dream about what our little one will be like someday. When they're in diapers we wonder when they'll crawl. When they crawl we wonder when they'll walk. When they walk we wonder when they'll jump and run. And when they jump and run we wonder what the heck they're going to get into when we look away for a moment. These first few days with Isabel have been a crawl with a bit of standing while holding onto furniture, but today at the orphanage we got to see into the future. She was almost completely a different little girl. It was clear that she helped run the place when she was there. I could've guessed considering how sassy and manipulative she's been with us. She really shined like a rock star. We got to see her walk for the first time (literally), and did she ever...no noodle legs here. She even helped Lu and the A'yis feed snacks to the younger kids. And best of all, she smiled like it was her job. This glimpse, if only for an hour, was well worth the visit. She got to say goodbye to her friends and A'yis, she even blew them all kisses as we took the last walk down the hallway to her future.

Back at the hotel she certainly digressed in the hour since we left the CWI. She was back to noodle legs and staring into space with her sad face. I soon put her down for a nap and Leslie hit the streets to explore and to try and find a department store. While she was gone I worked on uploading the near 100 pictures from today, and then I heard a whiny cry. I wondered if Isabel would be out of the crib again when I opened the bedroom doors. She sure was, and not only was she standing in the middle of the room staring and whimpering in my general direction, she was holding the pink pair of shoes she was wearing the day we met. These shoes were nearly out of reach on top of the safe in our closet, and she found them in the darkened room. My heart broke for the umpteenth time in the past four days. I turned on the lights, opened the curtains, and just let her play with those shoes for as long as she wanted. It was a precious moment I'll not soon forget.

When Les returned from her street adventure, I took a stroll down to my favorite little grocery store. My English speaking friend was sadly not working. I stocked up plenty until we depart on Saturday, so I don't think I'll ever see him again. Godspeed young pudgy dude, I truly hope your life is fantastic.

I was only gone for twenty minutes, and experienced deja vu when I got back to the room. Isabel was walking for Leslie! They were having another grand old time like they did on Tuesday. They had out crayons, stickers, and stacking cups...it was AWESOME! I can only believe that our visit today was an essential piece for her to move forward. If we had lived Monday on the South Pole, we were damn near Santa today. Isn't life amazing?

Day 6: Terracotta Warriors

Today's photos:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.50ukmgyv&x=0&y=-jpx91

We met our host Minnie at 9:30 this morning to head out to the Terracotta Warriors. These life sized warriors were discovered in March of 1974 by four farmers digging a well for water. It's considered one of the greatest archeological finds of the 20th century.

more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army

We were told the ride to the warriors would take about an hour. After 20 minutes we came to a sudden stop with police cars blocking the entrance to the highway. The fog (combined with smog) was dangerously thick, so they shut down the road. While anxious to get there I was able to appreciate our wait. If something traffic related required police intervention in this city then I could only assume it was very serious. So we waited a half an hour just stopped, and when the policeman removed the cones blocking our way I felt like we just got a green flag in a NASCAR race. All of the cars around us floored it, and we were right there with them. Something had to give because the entrance ramp narrowed to one lane, but just as every other traffic experience, it all works itself out...within inches.

At the site of Qin's (pronounced Chin's) army, we began our tour in a gift show while we waited for the next showing of a 360 degree film on the history of the site. During our wait our host Minnie pointed out an 80 something year old man sitting at a table. He was one of two farmers still living who were among the four who discovered the Terracotta Warriors. We purchased a book on the history of the site, and the old farmer signed & dated it for us.

The tour, unlike the film, was very interesting. Surreal is a word that's come up repeatedly during our trip, but when you stand in front of 2,200 year old terracotta warriors created on such a grand scale it's really the only word that describes the experience. Getting photos was a bit tough. They don't allow flash photography or the use of tripods and the place isn't lighted well for it's size. With the low lighting came slow shutter speeds, and with my early onset Parkinson’s (not diagnosed by a doctor) many of the shots came out blurry. I'll post what I've got.

When we were heading back to our car we were accosted by guy selling souvenirs. I actually was half interested in the mini set of five terracotta warriors he was trying to pawn. He began following us with this box of warriors in a nice open display case, and asked me how much I'd pay. I ignored him. He then said "230" as in Yuan, which is about $31. I laughed. He said "200" and I ignored him. Then "180" which he repeated three times. I said "no, no, no". Any interaction is a mistake, because they take it as a glimmer of hope of making a sale and continue the harassment. I didn't mind terribly because I half enjoyed this game and was unassumingly interested in his product. Eventually he made the sale. He would have hit the lottery had I said yes at $31. Final negotiated price: 20 Yuan ($2.75). So I bought two sets. We're not really into knickknacks, but I've realized that as Isabel gets older it'll be nice to have these trinkets to help tell the story.

We came back to the hotel and napped for a bit then headed to dinner at 7:00pm. Room service had been fine the past three nights, but we wanted to get out. A block and a half from our hotel is, what we've been told, the "most famous" restaurant inside the Xi'an walls. If I hadn't mentioned it, Xi'an is a walled city. Anyway, the restaurant was very elegent and crowded, and the menu had pictures and descriptions in English! The offerings were diverse and expansive...page after page of stuff I'd be willing to try (Leslie wouldn't), but never order. Chicken feet, intestine in hot broth, fish mouths...it went on and on. Les settled on a beef dish, and the picture and description of the chicken I chose looked safe. Our food came and it looked fantastic. Mine was a lightly breaded chicken with scallions, ginger, onion, and hot peppers. The issue became that apparently in China they use all of the chicken before they bread and fry it. Every single piece had either bone and/or cartilage. I tried to tough through it (no pun intended). I finally gave up after my fourth bite of crunching and chewing. I briefly digressed to ages 4-14 when food would sometimes end up in my napkin. Thankfully Leslie had more than enough beef for the two of us. Her dish was very flavorful and quite spicy. Had we been in the states I would've sent my dish back, but since we're in China I happily paid for my mistake. Since this was the most famous restaurant in town I had grabbed 400 Yuan ($52) on the way out of our hotel door. On our walk to the place I guessed we'd spend 250Y. I was wrong...for two entrees and two large bottles of beer our grand total was 101Y, or $14. I said the other day that I didn't think $10 per plate for room service was unreasonable...now I do! We're going back to that restaurant and next time maybe I'll order the fish mouths....can't be worse than lightly breaded and fried chicken bone.

So there's been very little about Isabel to this point. It's been tough to say the least. She's extremely attached to me and sometimes cries when she looks at Leslie. She clings to me almost always...and it's a rare moment when I can put her down and get her interested in something to play with. Eating out for breakfast and dinner is always with her on my lap. If I try to sit her down in any seat her body goes limp, she slides down onto her back and cries or whines until I correct the problem. I think she's really missing her "ma-ma" which is what she called her nannies in the orphanage, and can't wrap her mind around having a new ma-ma. My heart aches for Leslie. It's clearly painful for her to be shunned, and while she comprehends what Isabel is going through it's still understandably hard to accept.

We did hit a milestone today. We got our first recognizable smile(s). At dinner tonight I tossed the cap of her sippy cup onto the top of the cup. She grabbed it, placed it in my hand and I tossed it up again. This continued for about 10 more rounds and with each toss her smile grew and grew. It was thrilling to see! She and I have been playing a lot of these little games. She'll grab my fingers and squeeze them together, and as she lets go I spread them apart. She'll squeeze them together again and the process starts again. These moments are small, but big. The bond is growing...I just wish it was with Leslie as well. Their moment yesterday was great, but there hasn't been much since.

Tomorrow we're going back to Isabel's orphanage. We've been really conflicted on if we should bring her back. Part of us says we should cut her losses and let her continue this grieving process, while we would love for her to say "good-bye" to her nannies and friends. On the day we got Isabel one of the women who works in the orphanage (not a nanny) said she thought it would be good for her to come back one last time. We've received strong advice on both sides of this issue from other families who have adopted. We'll let you know how it goes.

Day 5: Finally, a ma-ma bond

Photos from Tuesday (one from Monday):
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.9burb4hj&x=0&y=-kfl1oo

Isabel's breathing is slightly better, but still strained. I wish we had brought Jackson's nebulizer and albuterol. But had we planned for every contingency we would've had 100lbs of extra baggage.

This morning we all went down to the restaurant in the hotel for breakfast. We asked for a baby seat, but Miss Isabel wanted nothing to do with it, so she sat on my lap as Leslie got a plate of food and then we switched. When I got back to the table Les was shoveling rice with scrambled eggs into Isabel. The cutest moment of the morning was when Leslie took a bite of a donut and set it down on her plate. Isabel immediately reached across the plate (past the sausage, potatoes, and other generally less appealing foods) and grabbed the donut. She wouldn't let go of it and ate the whole thing. She then sat on my lap and we shared some toast with butter and strawberry preserves. I actually think Isabel ate more for breakfast than Leslie. We were relieved, because up to this point she hasn't eaten well.

Her personality is slowly emerging. She is sassy. When she doesn't want something, she puts all of her effort into letting us know. If we try to stand her up, not only will her legs turn to noodles, but she'll fall to her back as well. If we try to hand her a toy she isn't interested in, she'll grab it and chuck it as far as she can. And if we try to feed her a food she doesn't want, she'll turn her head away, shut her lips tightly, and look up to the ceiling. She does it all in such dramatic fashion, and we love it.

We're SO glad we got the suite. We rolled her crib into the living room for her mid-morning nap. We were both then able to shower. Yesterday was dirty...it was nice to get cleaned up.

We needed some staples...bottled water, coke, beer, diapers, and powdered milk. I decided that I needed to go to the grocery. Les was nervous, as Isabel has attached more to me up to this point. She doesn't think Isabel likes her. I disagree and reassured her she'd do just fine as I walked out the door.

Wow it was nice to be out and alone for a bit. There was a slight drizzle but I didn't care. After yesterday some alone time just walking in the rain (and dodging traffic) was just what I needed. At the store I was approached by a young pudgy Chinese man with some fantastically thick glasses. He said, "Excuse me sir, what country you come from?". The most pleasant smile spanned his face. I told him "I'm from the U.S.", and I didn't believe it was possible, but his smile grew wider. I chatted for a minute about beer and asked if they carried Tsingtao. Either it doesn't translate well or he didn't know what it was, surprising either way since it's a Chinese beer. To keep our pleasant chat going I asked him what was the best beer they sold. In an amazing revelation, but equally not surprising, he pointed to the Budweiser (Bud heavy, as my mom calls it). I humored him and grabbed two (sold by the can). I thanked him and told him his English was really good. He graciously thanked me and asked me to come back soon. I think I will. He did his best to make me feel at home. It sure beat the silent stares I got from the other workers peeking at me around each aisle, not that I mind terribly.

When I came back to the room the sight upon entering was amazing. Isabel was sitting on Leslie's lap holding a Cheerios container. Leslie had her hand out full of Cheerios and Isabel was daintily picking them up one by on and dropping them back in the container. When they were all gone, they'd start again. It was very reassuring to see this first bond between mother and daughter. I got a few photos of her in the chair by herself playing with the container and cereal. Any time she spends more than 2 feet away from us is worth capturing in pictures.

Notes from Leslie:
I also had a fun solo excursion today. I was dying to hit the brand new Xi'an Wal-Mart. Well, unfortunately it wasn't as robust as a US Wal-Mart. The store was 95% fresh meat, seafood (think live, in tanks and bins) and produce and 5% everything else. Nevertheless it was fun to check it out and I'm impressed that I made it there in one piece (it was a 20 minute walk from the hotel).

It is really nice to see Isabel opening up. There is a really sweet and cute personality in there just waiting to come out. I heard her voice for the first time today - she said something to me in the cutest, daintiest voice I've ever heard. Can't wait for more of that.

While Leslie was at Wal-Mart, I put Isabel down for a nap. About 45 minutes later I heard a noise in the bedroom (the doors were slid closed), and then a non-emergency like cry. I opened the doors and Isabel was standing on the floor between her crib and her bed. How I would've loved to see her climb out of that crib...it's something Jackson never did. She was just standing there staring at me, as if to say, "I'm done with my nap...surprised I can get up myself?"

Tonight Isabel got her first bath. We weren't sure how to tackle this task. Both of us just assumed she'd hate it, and since she won't let Daddy out of her sight I was the one to bathe her. The only downside to having the nicest room in the hotel is that the tub is big and high, sandwiched between glass shower walls and glass walls surrounding the toilet along with a 12 inch edge. The only place to reach over into the tub is almost entirely blocked by the high arched faucet. So leaning over the edge to bathe her like we would at home was impossible, so I got in with her. I braced myself for the worst and was pleasantly surprised that she LOVED her bath. She played mostly with a plastic cup and loved the travel container of baby bath soap we brought. It was so nice to see her really enjoy something. She didn't fuss a bit except when I had to get out of the tub first in order to pick her up with warm towels. She was so cute all bundled up. I sat her on the bed and put baby lotion all over. She loved the pink travel container for the lotion and loved getting pampered by "ba-ba" (daddy) even more. Not only is she sassy, but she's a little diva too. She then played with the brush and lotion for twenty minutes while laying in our bed.

Before bed tonight instead of books we "read" her our photo album with pictures of us along with Jackson, Grandma & Grandpa Vesper, & the dogs, Zoe & Charlie. We went through it twice. The second time around she picked the pages and pointed to different people until I said their name. The little things are huge now...that was huge for us.

Tonight is our third round of room service. At $10 a plate it isn't such the rip-off we expected. The food is good too!

All for now. We canceled the Terracotta Warrior tour today and rescheduled for tomorrow.

Day 4: A day can't get much worse

No pictures today...you'll understand why by the end of this posting.

Isabel coughed most of the night, but otherwise seemed to sleep well. Her breathing was audibly strained and I freaked out two different times when I awoke and couldn't hear her breathe. We were both up around 6:30 and let Isabel sleep until we had to get ready to meet Minnie in the lobby at 9:00.

Minnie took us back down to the government office to get interviewed and sign the official adoption document. The best way to compare it is to think DMV with the same four or five families that were there the day before (all picking up their children). We sat for over an hour and waited in the second most uncomfortable chair I've ever sat in. The least comfortable chair ever comes later in the day. During our wait we did get to witness a wedding (the office is officially called the "Marriage Registry Office of Shaanxi Civil Affairs Bureau"). All in all, it was a fairly simple visit, although it took almost two hours, because we had to wait again for the notary to do her thing to the documents.

Based on Isabel's breathing and lethargy we decided to take her to the Xi'an Children's Hospital. We left directly from the government office, and hailed our first Xi'an cab. To put it simply without exaggeration, riding in Xi'an is very (not an overindulgent adjective) scary. I thought Beijing was bad...this place makes Beijing look like a cinch. I didn't know it was possible to change lanes nine times in a one block span going 35 miles per hour with cars, bikes, and pedestrians EVERYWHERE. We weaved in and out from lane to lane and veered more than once into what I thought was an "emergency" lane. There were even times when we found ourselves on the other side of the double yellow line heading right for oncoming traffic with presumably just as crazy drivers behind those wheels. Imagine attaching 12 inch sticks 12 inches apart extending from your car all the way around it. At the end of a day or week, parallel parking bumps excluded, how many would remain? I'd suspect they'd all still be there (my Dad is laughing at that). In Xi'an I promise that a cab would lose every single stick in a day, maybe before noon, and some would be lost due to pedestrians and bikes. Hopefully that gives you an idea of how many close-calls we had on our way to the hospital. Just appreciate the calm and safe traffic next time you find yourself in a NYC cab.

We arrived at the hospital and for several seconds after exiting the cab I took myself back to May 18, 2006 at this very spot. This was the precise location where Isabel was left for a better life, and here we were to begin her new life at the same place that her family brought her. It was an eerie full circle moment.

Here's where the day turns worse. We registered at the front desk and had to pay $1.00. We then waited in a crowded hallway to see a doctor in one of four rooms along the hall. These rooms had windows out into the hallway, so there was zero privacy for anyone being seen by the doc. In fact, the next family or two in line to see that doctor would crowd into the 7'x7' room and wait during the current exam. We sat in chairs that ran the entire length down both sides of the hallway. These were the most uncomfortable chairs of all time. At first glance they looked like comfortable egg-like shaped plastic chairs. The only problem was that they were welded to the frame at a forward angle, making it impossible to sit all the way back in the chair while holding a crying 19 month old. While waiting it was interesting to take note of the "split pants" that the Chinese children wear. They are literally crotchless pants for easy access to make #1 or #2 anywhere, including the hallway floor. Some parents pulled over a small waste basket with no liner, while others just watched their little one create a slipping hazard for all who walked by. We were in a different world and felt helpless. Was it worth receiving care here for this issue? We both agreed that had Jackson's breathing reached this point (it has) that we'd take him straight to the ER. Even now, I'm not certain it was worth it. We finally saw the doctor who listened to Isabel's chest and wrote in Chinese on two prescription pads. I thought that was it...get some medicine and go back to the hotel. I was mistaken. Our host Minnie, who I should mention was with us the entire time translating for us, said the doctor had ordered chest x-rays and a blood test. So we were off to another part of the hospital to get those done, but we had to first wait in a long line to pay for those services...a total of $7.00. Once paid, we brought our receipt to the two different exam rooms to get them done. At one point I thought if they shut down this hospital and put it in an historic location in the U.S., they could open it as a museum to show how things were done in the late 1800s. Every exam room seemed bare and primitive with rusty plumbing on the outside of the walls and filth all around. I was perpetually uncomfortable in this place and couldn't wait to get out. After x-ray and blood test we had to wait 30 minutes for the results. The blood test came back negative, but we had to bring the x-ray film back to the doctor we first saw...another wait. She read the film and said Isabel needed medicine for a chest infection. Back to the "concession line" as I called it, to pay for the that. Our total was $25 for a potpourri of medication that we took it up to the second floor, which was worse than the first. On the second floor I literally watched a little boy make drop a deuce on the floor. His mom picked it up with a tissue, set it on top of a garbage can lid, and then walked away. We had to be really choosy picking a waiting room seat on the second floor because most had puddles at the base. Anyway, Isabel finally got the injection, but it wasn't "the" injection. Minnie told us that they injected a little (whatever it was) under her skin and we needed to wait 20 minutes to see if she's allergic. Twenty minutes later it was clear that she wasn't, so we went back to the nurse who injected Isabel and asked for "the" injection. She pointed to another line that looked painfully long and explained that it wasn't simply an injection, but an IV drip that would take 2 hours. Turns out, the potpourri of drugs weren't for us to take home and administer, but rather a cocktail that they put in an IV drip.

At this point, we'd been here three hours and had to be back at the office from the morning to pick up our official adoption document, then go to the "police agency" to get Isabel's passport photo taken, then drop off some documents somewhere else for more notarization. So we left the hospital, without doing the IV, to run those important errands. All in all it took about two hours then headed straight back to the hospital to get Isabel her drugs. We stood in that long line we left hours before and got our number...46. They were on 21 and called a number about every three minutes, so we waited about an hour just to get her set up with the IV. When our number was called we went to the desk where the nurse on the other side had us lay Isabel down on her back. She instructed us to hold down Isabel's arms and legs, and then she shaved a small patch off hair from the front of her head. That's where the IV was inserted, looped, taped several times, and then looped over and taped to her ear before heading up to the bottle with about 100cc's of liquid in it. We had two bottles. There were two rooms to bring the kids while the IV dripped. The IV bottles had loops on the top and there were what looked like big fish hooks hanging from the ceiling hanging over very hard and tiny beds. We laid Isabel down on a bed next to another child (everyone had to double up) and hung her IV from the hook above. In total the IVs took over an hour...then we left for the hotel. We were all exhausted and couldn't thank Minnie enough for spending her entire day with us. She was slated to be with us for about four hours...it turned out to be ten. Thank you Minnie!

Back in the room we fed Isabel some hot oatmeal...she loved it. It was nice to see her finally eat something substantial besides Cheerios. I got her ready for bed and read her a book. She was much more cooperative and interested tonight vs. last...a good sign. After putting her down we realized that neither of us had used the restroom in over 12 hours...that's how little liquid we had during this hectic day. The only thing Leslie ate was a half of banana, and I had a Nature Valley bar. Room service never tasted so good.

I'm counting my blessings knowing that tomorrow will be better, because it certainly can't get any worse.

We did cancel our scheduled visit to see the Terracotta Army tomorrow since we don't know how Isabel will feel. Hopefully we can reschedule for another day this week.

I pray your Monday goes better than ours!

-Keith

Day 3: Flight to Xi'an and "Gotcha Day"

I'm working on uploading a few photos now. As of this posting there is one photo up of Isabel and her care takers from the orphanage. A total of eight will be uploaded. The upload has begun but it's really slow and I'm headed to bed, so I'm hoping they're up soon.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.6jos9uzr&x=0&y=-mqpohq


We met in the lobby today to check out and head to the airport. In China, the front desk checks the "incidentals" for the room before you leave, so we waited for housekeeping to report back to the front desk with any miscellaneous charges to our room. After a brief exchange in Chinese with the front desk clerk, Chandler (our host) asked, "Who's in room 433?" That was our room and I said so. He said, "There is condom damage in bathroom." I asked several times for him to repeat this because I couldn't believe what my ears were interpreting. He repeated it again in a slightly different way, "There is bathroom damage from condom." I kept repeating "condom?", and he nodded. This was perplexing. Had anything having to do with condoms occurred in our room I would've loved to had something to do with it. But this made no sense to me, and I was adamant that no condoms were used in our room, nor would/could they cause any damage. Chandler exchanged words with the guy again and said, "It's okay, not a problem." I later discovered that what actually happened was water from the shower sprayed against the wall and around the curtain onto the floor and back of the toilet. Unbeknownst to me, there were "incidentals" placed on the back of the toilet by the hotel, one of which was a small box of condoms. Apparently the water from the shower ruined the packaging. I never noticed and told Chandler to call the hotel and tell them I'd be happy to pay for them. Maybe the night stand would be a more appropriate place for that particular "incidental".

We got to the airport two hours early and checking bags and going through security was twice as fast as it is in the U.S. There were shorter lines, more airline representatives, and more security lines (number, not length). Best of all we could leave our shoes on! Our flight was nice...about an hour and forty five minutes to Xi'an. A great beef noodle meal was served, a luxury non existent on a short of flight in the states. Based on this one experience I prefer flying within China!

When we landed we didn't pull up to a gate...it was old school, right down the steps on the tarmac and into a bus which took us to the terminal. The one thing that stuck out most was the inability to see more than a mile in any direction. The smog was thick and very noticeable with every breath, similar to Beijing, but worse today in Xi'an.

We met our host Minnie at baggage claim. She's very cute and she speaks English very well. She took us to the hotel and along the way she gave us a brief yet very interesting history lesson on Xi'an and the various dynasties of China. She confirmed that we would be meeting Isabel today and to meet back in the lobby at 4:45pm for a short walk to the government office where we'd pick her up at 5:00. So with three hours to "kill" we unpacked and paced around the hotel room several times. I must say that I'm thrilled we chose to get the suite. Plenty of room to pace, and the separate room for us to relax in while Isabel sleeps will be more comfortable.

We ventured out to the street at about 3:00 to look for a grocery store. I almost got flattened by traffic as the walk lights here in Xi'an give ZERO warning that they'll abruptly turn to the "not a good time to cross" signal. I was about two lanes into the crosswalk when Leslie yelled at me to get back...I turned and ran back to the curb as a car accelerated past as if I wasn't just in his path two seconds earlier. After we crossed safely we found ourselves at a grocery store where we picked up milk, water, coke, and a few other items to bring back to our room.

I was pacing again at 4:40 while getting my cameras ready to go. We met Minnie in the lobby at 4:45 and walked literally one block down the street to the "Marriage Registry Office of Shaanxi Civil Affairs Bureau" where we'd pick up Isabel. There were about four families in the small 15'x20' room. All had or were about to meet their new little ones. We didn't see Isabel so we waited at the back of the room and just observed the joy (parents) and tears (babies) around us. There was one three year old girl who INSTANTLY bonded with her Dad. She was hopping around the room with him, climbing on his back, and tossing a stuffed animal to him while she giggled. What a wonderful experience for Dad and his new little girl. About fifteen minutes passed and Les and I looked at each other with worried eyes. Where was our little girl? We were the only family in the room who hadn't met our child yet. Minnie sensed our worry and looked into the matter with a couple of phone calls as well as once when she disappeared from the room for a moment. She returned explaining that they'd be here soon. We found out later they were caught in traffic.

From the back of the room I stared intently through the glass doors 15 feet away. I saw some people getting out of a bus and then an orange hood. I knew immediately that was our Isabel. She came through the door in her nanny's arms and had a very distraught look on her face as if she knew what was going on. She began to cry as Leslie tried to hold her. She went back to her nanny and a woman who came in with her had a bag of things for us. We got a photo album, some great art that Isabel painted, as well as her file with likes/dislikes, her daily schedule, etc. There were some "official" photographers in the room who had just set up shop five minutes earlier. They had us sit down with Isabel between us for a photo. She wasn't happy at all...tears and screams. It was difficult to listen to, although we knew that it is a good sign.

I'm going to end this posting here shortly as I'm so exhausted. But I'll quickly add that I carried Isabel back to the hotel with her head on my shoulder...she had finally calmed down. She is fairly sick though. Her breathing is strained with a very noticeable wheeze as well as a hard cough. Her caretakers gave us some medicine to add to water for her and told us to call if things got worse. We're really hoping she feels better in the morning. She's finally asleep in her crib next to our bed. It was a day filled with so many emotions. We have our precious little girl. Pray that she feels better soon!

-Keith

Day 2: Great Wall, jade factory, cloisonne factory, and Bird's Nest stadium

Photos from Day 2:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.atmadu9z&x=0&y=w0meny

This morning we woke and Leslie was feeling terrible...her stomach just wasn't right and she was feeling dizzy. I went to breakfast solo and when I returned she was dressed and ready to meet in the lobby at 8:00 to go the Great Wall. She is a trooper. I would've been really sad had she missed it.

On our way to the Wall (about 45 minutes north of Beijing), we stopped at a government run jade factory. We were ushered into a room where a woman explained and displayed the various types of jade. In a nutshell, hard jade is for jewelery, while the softer jade is used for carvings. We were then taken down a hallway where behind glass two craftsmen were carving jade, presumably the soft stuff. Then we were quickly taken to the "showroom" where I felt like I was forced into the world's largest and most expensive tourist trap. Swarms of people lined up as we were each unwittingly assigned a sales lady. I literally couldn't get away from this woman. Browsing wasn't an option here. If I even paused for 2 seconds to look at a display she'd bust out a tray of jade and explain various pieces ad nauseum. My head was close to exploding. Leslie on the other hand was magically feeling much better. Shopping has that effect on her, especially when she's shopping for jewelery. She scored a jade bracelet and we bought pendant jade carvings with Jackson and Isabel's Chinese Zodiac signs, a monkey and a dog, respectively. The most intriguing piece (in my opinion) was a jade ball hollowed out with several other jade balls carved inside of it. It's tough to describe but essentially there are four pieces total, all locked together in intricately carved balls, all progressively smaller and locked inside the next size up. So we bought that. All told, it was a very expensive stop that wasn't in our budget, but Leslie was feeling better.

We hopped back in the bus and made our way to the wall. We could see it up in the mountains about 15 minutes before we finally arrived to park. As we parked I felt a very surreal experience in my near future, that is until we exited the bus and twenty relentless vendors surrounded us with their wares. They shoved hats, gloves (it was COLD up there), t-shirts, postcards, books, "old money", and various other things in our face. I said "no" gently to one guy about eight times. When he wouldn't get out of my grill I was a bit more harsh in tone as well as volume. That finally did the trick.

We first climbed a short set of stairs and then had a choice...right or left. Our host Chandler suggested taking a left as it was a 45 minute walk (mostly climb) to the "end" where we could go no farther because the wall was in too much disrepair (and subsequently closed off to foot traffic). He joked if we chose to go right we may end up back in the U.S. eventually. We went left, and the climb was tough. The extent of the burn in my thighs was a feeling I hadn't had in years, which may be a commentary for another time. I took several pictures as we worked our way to the end staying fairly close to the other couples we've gotten to know over the past two days. The two boys of one couple we are with, Erik (11) and Ben (9...today was his birthday), did great. They said their legs felt fine...I told them to try it again in 25 years. The only downside to this beautiful and majestic wall were more vendors who littered it's sides. I'd guess our walk/climb was about a mile and a half - two miles tops, and along the way I'd guess we saw sixty or more vendors. Erik said something very profound at one point. He said, "I know a great way to make the vendors leave you alone", he paused briefly then continued, "just buy!" Funny and true...smart kid.

After the wall we headed to a restaurant for lunch, which just happened to be on the second floor of a cloisonne factory. Yeah, I had no clue what that was either. It's detailed wire and enamel on the outside of metal (mostly pots, erns, etc.) fired to a smooth finish. We got a brief tour of how it's made, but thankfully we weren't cornered in the showroom like the jade factory. We went upstairs to eat. It was very similar to our lunch from the previous day...nothing to really write about with one exception. Today along with lunch there were two small bottles of some unidentifiable clear Chinese booze at 112 proof. Every table had these two bottles...automatically came with lunch I suppose. Most of us were curious so we opened one and sipped little shots of it. The burn was similar to that in my legs on the Great Wall. Anyway, at the end of the lunch I inquired out loud to my fellow diners if they sold this stuff in the grocery. Without hesitation Holly grabbed the unopened bottle and said something like "Here, take this one. I think we paid for it". As I slyly put it in my jacket pocket I looked around and no one who'd gotten up from any other table had taken their unopened bottles with them. Holly then joked, "Chinese prison can't be that bad", which almost caused me to put it back.

Back on the bus we headed towards the hotel with one quick stop to see Beijing's 2008 Olympic stadium known as the "Bird's Nest". Check out the pictures and you'll see why they call it that. The architect must've been smoking dope, but it's pretty impressive none-the-less.

Nothing else eventful today other than Chandler screwed up our ticket reservations to see the Beijing acrobats (he claims it was someone else's fault). We made it all the way to the theater (20 minute drive) before he discovered the problem and the show was sold out other than some VIP tickets at 250% of the original price. Leslie was lucky she opted out of this fruitless venture and stayed back at the hotel to rest. I'm now back from the non-acrobatic waste of an hour. Les is sleeping now. I'm praying she feels better tomorrow. We head to the airport at 8:00am and fly to Xi'an. We were originally told we'd meet Isabel on Monday, although Chandler says it's tomorrow. I'm preparing myself for either...excited beyond words regardless!

Thanks for keeping up with our trip...we appreciate the support.

-Keith

Day 1: Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City & Drum Tower

We've run into something I wasn't aware of called "The Great Firewall of China". We can't access several websites, including our own. We can't view our blog or comments, although we can post to it...strange. Please comment though, because we do receive them via email.
Here's an interesting article on the firewall:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2006/tc20060112_434051.htm

I'm attempting to post 16 photos from our first full day to a Kodak gallery album (link below), although it's painfully slow and if I select too many at once it fails. There are 6 up there as of this posting...I'll try to get them all up.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=f0o3yyn.7cxvyw3b&x=0&y=-81rfse

What a day. We met our host (Chandler) and two other families adopting through CHSFS in the lobby of our hotel at 8:30. We boarded a bus (think airport shuttle bus) to take us to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Organized chaos is the only way to describe traffic here. Its apparent why so many people bike...because it's faster, but with that comes extreme risk of becoming a bug splat on the front of car or bus. I shut my eyes twice in anticipation of a crash on our ride to the Square. The square was vast with tourists everywhere. In one photo I'm standing in front of the building houses the remains of Chairman Mao Zedong. Then we were off to the Forbidden City which was a short walk from the Square. What an amazing place...there was courtyard after courtyard. At one point the cobblestone is 15 layers deep because the emperor was afraid his enemies would tunnel into the city. The architecture and colors were mesmerizing. It's too tough to describe...see it for yourself so I don't have to bore you with adjectives.

Incidentally, I thought I was almost going to get arrested entering the forbidden city. I was taking photos and lagged several people behind our group, and when I entered the city a guy (who I later learned was taking tickets) grabbed me and called for an official who spoke English since I initially ignored him and pulled away from his grasp. My first thought was that he was selling something as there are vendors everywhere. The official he beckoned approached and asked for my ticket. Luckily when I turned around I saw our host Chandler waving a fistful of tickets in the air towards her and she let me continue.

After touring the city we found our bus driver and were taken to a restaurant (Chinese, of course). The lobby of the restaurant was filled with aquarium after aquarium with some aquatic life I didn't recognize. Chandler ordered for the group and stuck with land animals as our cuisine. The food was fantastic.

After we returned to the hotel we walked to the bank to exchange some money. I was unaware that a majority of our expenses could be paid in U.S. Dollars by personal check at the end of the trip, so when I attempted to exchange $2,200 our host Chandler joked if I was intending to buy one of the famed Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an to bring it back to the U.S. Upon his advice I scaled back the transaction.

After the bank Leslie and I walked down to the Drum Tower which was a straight shot about a half mile down the street from our hotel. There are two towers, one is the Drum Tower, the other the Clock tower (behind Leslie in one of the photos). They're both about 700 years old according to the guide we hired for four bucks. The clock tower bell would ring in the a.m. to tell people to go to work, and the drums in the drum tower would sound in the evening to alert people to go home. We got a nice little drum demonstration which I caught on video. If I can upload to YouTube (I'm going to doubt it) then you can check it out.

On our walk back toward our hotel we passed a little Chinese boy about Jackson's age. He looked up at Leslie with the cutest smile and said "hello!" in the sweetest and most perfect English. We both smiled and said "hello" back. It made us miss Jackson so much! We both agreed that that will likely be the cutest thing we experience in China aside from our time with Isabel.

Before we made it back to the hotel we stopped by Wu Mart. I'm guessing it's an enormous chain started by the famous entrepreneur Sam Wuton. It was a simple grocery store where 99.5% of the products we didn't recognize. We picked up some bottled water, a six pack of beer, some soda and snacks. We were tempted by the Frito Lay products "Savory Prawn" & "Italian Meat" flavored chips, but we opted for the safe "Texas BBQ" flavor.

Now we're back in the room. I felt I've adjusted well to the time change, although Leslie is crashed out on the bed...hopefully she sleeps tonight as the Great Wall awaits in the morning.

All for now,
Keith