Chen Family's Temple

We all went to the Chen Family Temple in the morning. It was interesting. I wish we could have spent more time there. I really didn't get to see everything. I find Chinese history fascinating and would have loved spending more time looking at each exhibit. Ray and I really enjoyed watching a man paint scenery with his hands. I don't mean his hands holding a paintbrush; he used the side of his hand, his fingertips and his nails to put ink on to the paper. It was amazing and the pictures are beautiful. Ray chose bought three of the paintings as well as frames for them. There was also a woman there who painted your name on grains of rice and then put them in a little vial for a necklace. Zhao Lei gets frustrated at our shopping or spending more than a few minutes in one place. Unless we have our ipa*d or ito*ch, of course. Then she is fine for a long time. After we spent an hour or so at the temple, we headed back to the medical clinic to have the tb test checked for the older children. There are three older children in our group; one little girl that just turned two, one girl who is three and a half and Zhao Lei. They were all fine. We stayed on the island to have lunch with another couple and their two daughters. They had found a place that they really liked, so we went there. It is in a resteraunt in the building that the store Jordan's is in. If you ask Jordan, he will call upstairs to see if they are open before you climb up to the fifth floor. It is worth the climb (which actually isn't hard). The food was excellent! The best we have had since we arrived in China. Also, we ate a lot and the bill was only 150 yuan, so about $24. We will be going back again soon. I wanted to stay on the island for longer, but we had to go back to meet our group to go to buy pearls.

Sunday, September 25 2011

Today we got up and went to Yuntai park. It is a pretty local park. Only four families went to the park and walked around. It has a lot of colorful statues and figurines in the park as well as a lot of pretty flowers and waterfalls. Zhao Lei, Sofia and Kyle ran around and had fun. It started raining pretty hard while we were there and we all had to cram together under shelter. We took a quick trip to Carefoux (sure I am misspelling that)
to buy some groceries. Zhao Lei chose some noodle soups and a few drinks. I had read in a blog that a woman had ordered dried squid from Amazon for her daughter that they had recently adopted from China. I found some and brought it to Zhao Lei and she said yes right away. She also chose some other dried stuff afterwards. Ray ran out of clean clothes a couple of days ago and so he was on a mission to buy a couple of shirts. It was interesting to see what types of food is offered at their stores. I had heard that this store was a lot like our Walm^rts, but I didn't think it was. I had been hoping to find coloring books and a jacket for Zhao Lei. It was more like a big grocery store with a couple of other stores connected to it. We returned to the hotel and Ray and two other dads headed out to pick up their laundry from Shaiman Island. Zhao Lei and I stayed in the room and relaxed. We did have to go to Michael's room for a few minutes to get him some paperwork, but otherwise it was nice to relax. When Ray got back it was my turn to escape. I wanted to go to Shaiman Island to shop again. I would have liked to bring Lei, but she really doesn't like shopping. She constantly pulls at me and says, "Let's go." She was a little upset, because she had wanted me to bring her to the hot tub. I asked her again if she wanted to go and she said she didn't. I asked Ray to bring her out somewhere so she wouldn't be bored and he said he would. I headed out to the island and loved it. Loved the cab ride over looking at all of the apartment buildings, loved walking around the White Swan Hotel, loved walking around the island, and loved looking around in the stores. My plan was to get an idea of what I wanted and then look at several stores to make sure I was getting exactly what I liked. I did find two stores I liked and got an idea of what I wanted to buy. My plan is to bring Ray back to do the haggling for the bigger items. It was so peaceful walking around the island. A lot of people were out exercising, walking, playing card games, fishing, or doing martial arts. There were several couples getting their wedding pictures taken or photographers shooting pictures of models for advertisements. So far, the island is my favorite part of China. Luckily it is close by and only costs 20 Yuan by taxi (about $3 dollars).
That evening we went back to the island with two other couples for dinner. We walked through the White Swan Hotel because they hadn't seen it yet. It is so pretty with the waterfall, koi pond, and beautiful pieces of art. We took pictures of our kids on a red couch. Not in their outfits and not on THE couch. Maybe tomorrow. Then we all ate dinner and headed back. Zhao Lei got a little too wound up a couple of times today. She gets really excited to be with the other two kids when we spend time with them. It is a little hard trying to figure out the balance here, so we are letting a lot of things go. Not that she is hard by any means. But it has been tricky when she chooses not to listen right away. We know that all of this has been really hard for her, so we are letting little things go. The truth is that she is being really easygoing and incredibly brave for all that she has gone through in the last week. She asked me to buy her this beaded hair piece this evening and then wore it home. She has a great sense of style and it will be fun to see what she chooses to wear after we get home. Right now she is stuck wearing clothes I brought for her. She has told me a couple of times that she wants to grow out her hair.

Medical Appointments

We had a wonderful breakfast and then went to Shamien Island for their medicals. I had heard about it and pictures of it in all of the blogs. It really is like a cattle call. I dreaded the tb test, but Zhao Lei was great about all of it. It helped that there were older kids in our group for her to be with, Kyle and Sophia. We also had the visa pictures taken and then were free to do whatever we wanted. Several of us went exploring on the island. We went to Jordan's, of course, and to several other shops. Zhao Lei had been asking to go swimming since the night before and asked all morning. She had even asked the doctor at the medical office teach her to say "Swimming in the afternoon?" After we had lunch at Lucy's and then let the kids play in a park right behind it, we were ready to go. We went to the pool for a little while, but the water was a little cold. Zhao Lei and I went to the women's area and sat in the hot tub for a while, which was great. We went and hung out in the room for a little while then went back to the island to get Ray's laundry that he had dropped off earlier. By the time we got to the island, the laundry place was closed. We did manage to buy Zhao Lei a pair of shoes she liked and then we had dinner at Lucy's. We wanted to go to two other places, but the lines were a little long and we were hungry. Zhao Lei was not in a very good mood since she had wanted to stay in the hotel room. She perked up after we ate and was in a good mood again. It is really hard when she is quiet. We don't know what to do to make her feel better, so I feel awful and helpless. We went back to the hotel and she played with a couple of toys we had bought today and then it was bedtime.

Leaving for Guangzhou

We ate a quick dinner at the airport and then got on the plane. It was a great flight. Zhao Lei watched a movie and I read on my ip*d. We were excited to arrive in Guangzhou because we all know it is the next step to going home. When we pulled up at our hotel we were shocked. THIS HOTEL IS AMAZING! It is the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at and we are thrilled. What a great place to spend our last week in China!

Friday, Sept 23 2011

Wow! The days have been racing by. I have wanted to keep this blog updated, but the internet is painfully slow at our hotel and I am having a lot of trouble uploading pictures. Also, when we are in the room, Ray always wants to be on the computer for work. Since we only have one outlet, that means I am not able to get on it. I stayed up until 4 am the other night trying to catch up. We are leaving this afternoon to catch our flight to Guangzhou. We are all so excited to stay at a nicer hotel, have access to a pool, see the other families, be a step closer to going home...many reasons. This is a great experience, but it is a lot of hanging out at the hotel. And we try to get out A LOT. Zhao Lei gets tired of walking around after awhile, so we have been spending some time in the room the last couple to days relazing. Here is an update of what we did each of the days. If I don't write it down I will forget it.
Monday afternoon-after we saw Lei's orphanage and school we drove to another child's orphanage. He and his famliy went to Guangzhou already because he has a heart condition and needs to get to the US for medical care. We convinced our guide to let us come in the orphanage with him and take pictures and video for his family. They only let us into the lobby of the orphanage, but did call his caregiver who let us take pictures and a short video of her. It is a really nice orphanage and the people there seemed very nice. After we got back to the hotel we saw Tatum's family. We all walked aound and eventually finally found a big book store. Yeah! Lei refused to chose books for us to buy, so I had to guess what she would like to read. I had heard to stock up on books because the selection is much more limited and expensive back in the US. She did let us buy (after a long time of prompting) a little English learning system. It consists of a little pen and books. You run the pen across the books and it will say a word or phrase in Mandarin and then in English. We also bought a few other books to go with it. She finally said yes to a few books we chose for her and about five DVD videos. The videos were about $7 US dollars each. All Disn*y movies that do not look pirated since they come with Disn*y advertisements in the box and the voices sound right. Only one in six of them will not work, so we are exchanging it. She pulled me away from the videos and books and wanted to leave, or I would have bought more. I know that she will want to watch them over and over again when we get home. We wound up gong back the next day and buying a few more movies and Ray is there now seeing if we missed any we should get. It costs $2 in a taxi to get there, but he is walking. I wanted to update this blog and Zhao Lei is watching one of the movies right now. Money well spent. I took a picture of the address and will put it up if anyone else goes to Hangzhou and wants to know where the store is. We came home from the store and watched a movie Wednesday night (Tangl*d) and then went to bed.
Thursday-We were supposed to go to see West Lake with Michael and the Elliott family. We got up, ate at the hotel resteraunt and skyp*d our family. It was nice. The kids were happy to see us and us to see them. Brookelyn gave us air hugs, which was cute. I am sure my mom and Colton would like us to come home now and releive them of the child care responsiblities. When we went down to meet the others to go on the tour, we found out the Thursday was no car day so we were postponing it to Friday. No cars except for taxis, buses and other public transportation were allowed to be on the road. We walked around the area by our hotel and had lunch at a Subw*y before it was time for Tatum's nap so they went back to the hotel. We walked to the bookstore again (our second trip) and bought the movies. Lei told us she was tired and wanted to go back to the hotel, so we took a taxi back. Best $2 ever spent. Lei put on her pajamas right away and watched three movies in a row. It was really nice. She watched the movies on my computer (our DVD played will not play in Mandarin, only European languages). I read a book on my ip*d. Our beds are kind of hard, but still comfortable. We met up with the Elliotts for dinner. We walked up to a Japanese resteraunt Todd had seen. I didn't love the food, but we had fun and it was a nice change from the food court upstairs at the mall. When I say foodcourt, it isn't like the ones back in the US. There aren't fast food places, but there are many choices of small resteraunts or stands with good tasting, healthy food. We walked home afterwards and got ready for bed. I asked Lei if she wanted to take a bath. I don't think she had taken one before and asked me (gestures) if I took a bath or a shower. I told her both. She seemed nervous about the bath, but got in the tub (with her cr*cs on). I put in some liquid bath soap that made bubbles. She seemed really surprised about the bubbles so I put in more, which she really liked. She wanted to wach her hair in the sink again, but then said we could wash it in the tub. I know she was nervous about that but did great. I made sure not to get any in her eyes. She asked me to wash her back. Sweet. Zhao Lei watched part of a movie before bed.
Today we got up and went up for breakfast. I always eat a friend egg, toast and tea. Zhao Lei gets different things every day, congee, rice, eggs, toast and Ray usually gets eggs. We headed over to West Lake with the Elliotts and Michael. It was very pretty and peaceful there. It has been overcast and cool since we arrived in Hangzhou, which is great since we heard it was very hot until the day before we arrived. After we walked around for a couple of hours we headed back to the hotel. Zhao Lie watched a movie, I got on the computer, Dianne and Tatum took a nap and Ray and Todd went to buy a sweatshirt we wanted and to try to buy more movies at the bookstore (one of the pictures has the address if you are in Hangzhou). As soon as the movie was over, Zhao Lei said,"Mother, let's go!" She started packing up her things and was clearly excited about going. I don't know if it was to try something new, to ride on a plane, because the new hotel had a pool...but we could not go quickly enough for her. She paced up and down the hall until it was time to go.