Trip to China
All Days  |  Previous Day  |  Next Day

Tuesday, November 20, 2007 Ni hao (hello) from Nanchang . Per Catherine our Beijing guide, we are in a small city (only 6 million people) right now. China has 50 cities with over 1 million people. I know, you want me to get to the point… We hope everyone is doing well. We thank you all for the continued prayers and frequent messages on the website. It helps keep us going. In case you were wondering, we are now into the waiting mode until the passports are ready for the girls. That means we have a few days here in Nanchang . Today was a trip to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart here is different. For starters, it is downtown. It is not like ours with acres of parking (there is no parking here). It is three stories tall with escalators and etc… Inside it is very similar, the happy Wal-Mart face guy is everywhere. Many products are similar, others are VERY different. One thing I (Tony) enjoyed was the carts. All four wheels steer for optimum maneuverability. They are also smaller. You need that here…they cut in front of you in line, walking, etc…(just like they drive). We found the toys and purchased the girls some more toys to play with in the room. I am not sure how we will get them home, we are SOOO out of luggage space (and weight allowances). I did find a Hot Wheel that I cannot find at home. Pretty crazy that I had to come to China to find it :). Wal-Mart has a “flat” escalator. What I mean is that there are no steps, this way the carts can go from floor to floor. The food is very different at Wal-Mart. There is a row of just packaged mushrooms and other things unique to us. In Wal-Mart the girls had their first American cuisine, KFC. They seemed to enjoy the chicken and mashed potatoes. They sipped Pepsi, probably for the first time. (We do NOT plan on making that a habit). We rode back to the hotel. Thank you FTIA for providing such good drivers for us! After a few hours and a much needed nap, we ventured out again with Mary, our guide. This time we went to what she called a walking area. It is an outdoor mall with every type of store you can imagine. Above the stores are many stories of apartments. These are not high end apartments with retail below like everyone is trying to build in America, but real life living…blankets, underwear, and clothes hanging out the windows and etc… It is amazing that a high end store can be below, but the people living above could probably never afford to shop there. On the way back, we stopped at McDonald’s for dinner. This was the girls’ second fast food experience, and first French fry. They enjoyed the fries and Abby LuLa enjoyed the corn that you can get in lieu of French fries. (By the way, you can get everything from yogurt to chewy candy that is corn flavored in China .) I had a Big Mac and Rett had what I assume was a quarter pounder (the only two items on the menu made of beef). I ordered the same for both of us, but they gave us one of each…I was not going to argue. And by the way for the folks at home that know my stomach issues, Chinese McDonald’s tears up the stomach just like American McDonald’s! The girls seemed to have a pretty good day. I think the hotel room gets to them (like it does us). They continue to make us smile. They are sooo smart. They feed each other, squabble with each other and are just a blast. We gave them their first full fledged bathtub bath this morning (prior to, we gave sponge baths…we were choosing our battles carefully). It could have been much worse. But they are squeaky clean and did well. When we walk around here, people obviously stare (6 million people, and we must be the only Westerners in the whole city). People come up and touch the girls all the time. We have been told that they do this because they think it will give them good luck (because the girls are lucky to be given a new home in America ).

All of the Jiangxi girls First French Fry Happy Family No parking . . . this is the sidewalk Ready for a day on the town Wal-Mart escalator

So, when we are traveling, there are three babies (we are with Andi and her baby from our travel group, she and her cousin are wonderful!) getting looks and touches. Not sure if we should feel like movie stars or scared out of our minds. Enjoy the pictures and keep the comments coming. You will have to stop by to see what we do tomorrow (I am not even totally sure what is on the agenda at this point). Have a good day!

Website by myadoptionwebsite.com