Thursday, November 9, 2006

Ni Hao from Guangzhou!

It’s been a quiet day so far. Breakfast was fun because Katie was able to sit for the entire meal in a highchair instead of on Mom’s lap. She also experimented with some solids, including oat porridge, noodles and croissant.

We broke down and purchased a stroller today. It turns out Katie does weigh 20 pounds (and believe me, I felt every ounce in my shoulders and arms after carrying her around yesterday!). vvvvvvv (Katie can type, too!)

Today we go back to the Civil Affairs office and apply for Katie’s passport. It sure would be nice to double up on some of the appointments we need to do there, as it’s getting old already making that trip each day.

We’re anxious for Karen, Joe and Toby to return from Chengdu. It’s a weird feeling, knowing that your children are traveling in a foreign country without you…I’m sure they’re in good hands with Aunt Karen.

Passport applied for: check. Then we did some shopping at a Women’s and Children’s store, on a pedestrian mall in Guangzhou. Our group garnered a fair amount of stares from the locals (oh, and there were three McDonalds and a KFC in one city block – the McD fries in China taste the same as at home). Big news, we got our first smiles and giggles out of Katie today.

So, as you’ll read in a minute, our intrepid travelers got back safely (even early, as they took an early flight), and the trip was a huge success.

Kelly is so trusting! Aunt Karen here. We made it back from our whirlwind overnight stay in Chengdu. We managed to pack a lot of stuff into two afternoons. We met Keely (pronounced Kelly) at the airport, and after the first of many harrowing drives, we went to a large city park. Enroute, we learned that Chengdu has a population of 10,000,000 in the downtown core and that their focus is leisure. Probably because they are so stressed out after getting from point A to B. Traffic in Chengdu is a constant game of ‘chicken’!!! Pedestrians, bicylists, motorcyclists, cars, taxies, busses, ad trucks all ignore lane markings and traffic control signs/signals. It is every person for himself. I am surprised the city has any population at all!!! Anyway, after we arrived (safely, even) at the park, we saw several groups playing MahJong, dancing, drawing, exercising, and just hanging out. There were also some elementary school groups there. We saw a very energetic game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and the children were very eager to let us know they were learning English by calling out “Hello” to us everytime they saw us.

From the park we went to the first of three temples we visited. There was a stooped little woman who was impressed with Joe’s height and Toby’s curly, blonde hair. She asked Keely several questions about the boys. I then asked if she would let us take her photo with the boys. Keely asked and her face just beamed. She drew herself up to her full height of (maybe) 4’7 and posed between the boys.

After the temple, lunch, then another temple and then the hotel. We met up with Keely again at 6pm and went to dinner at a hot-pot restaurant. They have a bowl of boiling hot soup in the center of the table and bring out plates of several different ingredients that you put into the soup and cook, right there at the table. After dinner we headed for the opera. Sichuan province is famous for it’s Face Changing artists. According to Keely, the secret of the face changing is the Sichuan government’s number one secret. It takes the actors approximately 3 years to learn the techniques and they face severe punishment from the government if they divulge the secret. After the opera, we greatfully stumbled into our beds at the hotel.

This morning we headed off to the Chengdu Research and Panda Breeding Center. It was an awesome time. We trekked around the grounds and saw pandas in their areas. Most of the adults were eating or sleeping. At one enclosure, the panda wasn’t doing anything and everyone walked away. As soon as we were the only ones there, the panda got up and started eating. It was funny how he tried to expend as little energy as possible to reach the food.