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...