Well, it's been a couple of days of sightseeing and more to come. Why are we still in CQ, you ask? Well, we have to wait until the notaries are finished making multiple copies of several important booklets that we need to bring to Guangzhou in order to complete the adoption. The notary books will include the official birth certificate, adoption certificate and finally the certificate of abandonment, which certifies that an attempt was made to find the birth parents (we were given a copy of the ad that was in the newspaper).
As far as the Chinese government is concerned, the adoption was full and final as of Tuesday afternoon when we signed several forms and got our official adoption certificate (yay!). This is different from last time in that we received JieJie and did all the provincial paperwork all at once. This time, we received MeiMei at the Civil Affairs Office and returned the second day to do the paperwork. So Tuesday there we all were again in the "delivery room" where families are born, and this time the mood was much calmer. Each of the nine families had an official photo taken. Then we signed statements affirming that we intend to make our daughters permanent members of our family, that we would never abuse or mistreat them, and that we promise to provide the best education possible. If we were Chinese people, we would have a chop (like a stamp made of stone) to use for our signature, but since we didn't have that, we each dipped our thumbs in red ink and put our thumbprints over our signatures to make things official. MeiMei's index finger is also stamped on the document (her first attempt got a little smeared so it's on there twice just to be sure).
We gave a small gift to the notaries (some parents started this tradition years ago and now it's considered de rigeur), two nice pens with American flags on them, and they gave MeiMei a glass sculpture that says "Hometown Chongqing" on it. Then we got our leather-bound adoption certificate and we were on our way to do some more sightseeing. We went down to the Chaotianmen docks where the Jialing River meets the Yangtze River. We'll be there again Sunday night because Richard has planned for us to take a dinner cruise.
John told you where we were yesterday - the shopping here is so much fun. The exchange rate makes it even more enjoyable! The plan for today is to visit a traditional village to see small town Chinese life. We were going to go to Dazu today but all of us agree it's just too far (2 hours each way) with the little ones, so we're taking it a little easy. Tomorrow I don't think there's anything special on the itinerary for the group, but we're looking forward to dinner with our friend Can Deng's parents. Can (say "Tsan") is a JMU graduate who came to play with JieJie once a week, only in Chinese, for over a year and we are very fond of her. When she graduated from JMU her parents came, we met them and they said tolook them up if we were near Chengdu, Sichuan where they live. That's about 3 hours from here. They're going to meet us for dinner here and Richard agreed to translate - above and beyond his responsibilities, so we are very thankful. Saturday we go to Liangping to visit the orphanage. Sunday night is the dinner cruise, Monday we leave, Tuesday medical exam, Wednesday consulate appointment, Thursday get MeiMei's visa, Friday we leave. It's going so fast and I know I'm not going to want to leave China.
Well the big news this morning is that MeiMei did not cry when John went to get her out of her crib - YAAAAAYYYY! She let him give her a bottle and just seems a lot more comfortable around him. Our photos show her crying when he holds her until the last photo taken this morning of her in his lap having someformula. She is such a wonderful little girl. She's very alert, has a sweet disposition, very easy going, is good on the bus rides (a new experience for us) and likes to snuggle. She's made up a game where she says "Ba" and we say "Ba" and we go back and forth like that for a long time. She thinks it's great that she can get us to respond. She is also right on the cusp of walking. She tried this morning to walk from Daddy to me and fell down but got up again, no tears. She is determined. She's a good sleeper, sleeps through the night. We want her to drink more water/juice but that'll come. The other eight families are doing very well too - all of the babies were so healthy, nobody got sick this time around. Some of the babies have taken longer to warm up to one or both parents but there's nothing truly worrisome going on, and experience tells us it will get better every day.
Well, better go - can't wait to tell you about our trip today - by the way,two years ago we got a lot more stares when we were out in public,by ourselves or with the baby. It seems there have been many more foreigners visiting since then, and we are not such a big deal. Liangping will probably be another story. For background, read themessage from our last trip about Hechuan. Have a great day, Mom hug JieJie for me! Louise
Thursday, November 02, 2006
News from Chongqing
A post from the proud papa:
We've had MeiMei for about 48 hours now and are beginning to see what a sweet little girl she is. Her personality appears to be a perfect complement to JieJie's. MeiMei is very easy going, and even tempered. She loves to say "ba, ba" to us and have us return the "ba ba" so we spent much of our morning alternately talking baba with her. She is becoming very attached to her mom, and while she occasionally cries when her dad walks into the room, she seems to like him pretty well most of the time. (To add insult to injury,when we called JieJie this morning, I said "good evening" and JieJie's reply was "Where's mommy? I want to talk to mommy.")
MeiMei has a good appetite and seems willing to eat most anything we offer her. She also was a very good sport during her bath this morning, but looked puzzled when we pulled the plug and the water ran out of the tub. Today is a pretty lazy day, drizzly and cool. We took a short shopping trip downtown and picked up a few items for the girls (it still feels funny to say that), but returned at 1 with nothing else on the day's agenda. MeiMei is upstairs sleeping and Louise was headed in that direction when I came down to type this message.
Tonight we'll again visit the restaurant across the street. It is reputed to be one of the finest in Chongqing, its parking area lined with luxury cars each night. And since a really terrific meal only costs about $3.50 in US currency, the price is tough to beat too. Tomorrow we'll have a brief tour of a traditional village about 30 minutes away. It should be interesting and quite a contrast from Chongqing, most of which is breathtakingly modern.
We've had MeiMei for about 48 hours now and are beginning to see what a sweet little girl she is. Her personality appears to be a perfect complement to JieJie's. MeiMei is very easy going, and even tempered. She loves to say "ba, ba" to us and have us return the "ba ba" so we spent much of our morning alternately talking baba with her. She is becoming very attached to her mom, and while she occasionally cries when her dad walks into the room, she seems to like him pretty well most of the time. (To add insult to injury,when we called JieJie this morning, I said "good evening" and JieJie's reply was "Where's mommy? I want to talk to mommy.")
MeiMei has a good appetite and seems willing to eat most anything we offer her. She also was a very good sport during her bath this morning, but looked puzzled when we pulled the plug and the water ran out of the tub. Today is a pretty lazy day, drizzly and cool. We took a short shopping trip downtown and picked up a few items for the girls (it still feels funny to say that), but returned at 1 with nothing else on the day's agenda. MeiMei is upstairs sleeping and Louise was headed in that direction when I came down to type this message.
Tonight we'll again visit the restaurant across the street. It is reputed to be one of the finest in Chongqing, its parking area lined with luxury cars each night. And since a really terrific meal only costs about $3.50 in US currency, the price is tough to beat too. Tomorrow we'll have a brief tour of a traditional village about 30 minutes away. It should be interesting and quite a contrast from Chongqing, most of which is breathtakingly modern.
She is Here!!!
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Wow. Did I say wow? We have been blessed for the second time with a perfectly beautiful, awe-inspiring little girl and what a day it has been. After breakfast today, several families took taxis to a downtown CQ shopping district. We found a "Goodbaby" store and an OshKosh store where we found some outfits (all pink) and then we found a great children's book/clothing/toy/etc. store not far away where we scoped out a few ideas for big sister presents and I got some barettes. Some of the other families found a traditional market and bought beautiful dolls, shoes and clothing for their babies. We were all so excited for this afternoon but knew that we needed to do something to stay busy or we would go nuts. After a midday rest, we met in the lobby of our hotel and boarded a bus with our facilitator Richard. There are nine families in our group, all such nice people, and many of them have brought friends, children, or grandparents to share this amazing experience.
On the way to our first stop (shopping for essentials) Richard gave us a briefing of sorts. He reminded us that we are not here as tourists and to make sure we always take care of our own and our baby's health first rather than try to do too much sightseeing or be too adventurous. He also reminded us that from our baby's perspective, today might be a little scary. New faces, new smells and sounds, and the loss of everything they have known up to this point...for the parents, it's so happy and such a dream come true - he just wanted to prepare people for a tougher adjustment if that's how things turned out. He then taught us a saying that I'd like to share with you. Chinese people say "When you go to Beijing, you know you are not powerful. When you go to Guangzhou, you know you are not rich. When you go to Chongqing, you know you got married too early." Richard says girls from this region are known as the most beautiful in all of China (we hardly disagree!).
We did our shopping at a Carrefour store, which is a French chain of department stores. It looked kind of like Wal-Mart on speed. Busy, colorful, crowded, full of people checking out the latest whatever. We bought matching big sister-little sister outfits, and then our facilitator Richard helped us find the right diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, etc. so we had some supplies to get started with. We went back on the bus and drove a short distance to the Civil Affairs Bureau, which says "Bureau of Sino-American Marriage and Adoption" on the front. Several of us who've done this before recognized the building and the excitement was building as the bus stopped in the parking space.
I felt so calm though - kept waiting to feel what I felt last time but I felt so much less overwhelmed by the whole experience. TodayI found myself interested in not only what we were doing but what all the families were going through, to really get a feel for the whole event and not just our small part of it. We took a picture ofourselves as we waited for the elevator to come and take us to the 4th floor. Last time we were at this point we were practically vibrating with anxiety, and last time we got off the elevator and immediately saw our daughter JieJie in the Civil Affairs office. How would it be this time?
When we got off the elevator, we walked into the big room with traditional red decorations, a long counter for paperwork processing and several notary officials. Families who had just completed the paperwork for adoptions from Fuling (JieJie's hometown) were filing out with their new babies, and then who should come out but DirectorYang from Fuling! I had heard she would be there and brought photos of JieJie to give to her. We talked through our facilitator for a moment to say how glad we were to see her and promised that when JieJie was older we'd certainly visit Fuling again. We got her on video saying "Ni Hao, Fu De Quan!" (Hello, JieJie!)
We were told that the babies from Liangping (that's MeiMei's orphanage) were still en route. Some of the first-time moms were already crying from the overwhelming feelings swirling around in the room...excitement, fear, the unknown...you name it. Then just a few minutes later in came nine babies, carried by seven caregivers. The babies were all dressed in identical bright pink outfits of quilted fleece, festooned with ribbon roses and little doll-like things on the jacket pockets. John picked MeiMei out immediately. I didn't think it was her - I honestly was looking from baby to baby trying to figure out which one was ours because I didn't see any that looked the way I was picturing MeiMei. Soon Richard called our name, and there we were, just shy of two years after we went through this the first time, in the same room, receiving a beautiful baby. A man placed her in my arms as John filmed with the videocamera. (For the rest of my life, she will have that to hang over my head, that I didn't know her when she was brought in!!) [actually, later viewings of the video show that we were both wrong].
John soon put down the camera so we could check out this little one. She is so healthy, no congestion, no rash, a full head of soft black hair, very alert and calm. She didn't cry when we held her, only when the flashbulb went off on a family photo. Within minutes, she leaned her cheek against mine and really seemed to hug me, grabbing my upper arm with one hand and putting her other arm around my neck. She goes to John easily too. Other families in the room were going through a variety of reactions, as every baby deals with things differently. Some tears, some almost nonreactions...we know from last time that all of these babies will seem like different people a week from today. Until then, though, there are some challenging days ahead for all of us.
Maybe that's why I didn't cry or get emotional today...I am waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. We had a chance to ask some questions of the orphanage officials (if we forget anything, we have another chance to talk with them tomorrow and also Saturday when we go to Liangping). We asked her nickname, what the nannies called her, and it is indeed "You-You"! We then asked about potty logistics and were told that she's used to diapers. Finally I asked whether anything special would have been done on MeiMei's first birthday, which was last June 29th. They said they don't have a party or anything (not that I thought they would) but they would give her extra attention that day, tell her it was her special day, maybe give her special food or extra food. Before we knew it it was time to go back on the bus and get back to the hotel. We ordered room service dinner (steak, fries, veggies) and fed MeiMei some strained peas which she liked, though she had to consider it for a moment first. She didn't want the bottle we made -will have to try again tomorrow to make the right mix of rice cereal, formula and right temperature of water to please her. Then we spent about an hour just playing. She took a set of plastic keys and just sort of banged it on different things, listening to the sounds. She crawled. She got herself standing up and then plopped down on her butt on the floor again. She pulled herself up on the cabinets and pulled herself along them. She's not walking independently yet but we're thinking it's going to be any day now because everything's in place, she just needs to get the hang of it. She played peekaboo with me and John, smiled so many times, cracked herself up and laughed the cutest little laugh. She is (so far) really mellow and agreeable. This will work well with JieJie's take-charge nature!! Better that than two alpha females in the same house...this is looking very workable. Time will tell.
We tried to put her down to sleep in her crib but she cried pretty hard (mouth open wide, eyes closed, no sound came out) so we scooped her up and laid down with her on the bed. She had her head on my tummy. Heavy sigh, a rub of the eyes, and her eyes fluttered closed. It's indescribable how perfectly beautiful she was, lying there, rosy-cheeked and sleeping peacefully. I had been waiting for screams and fighting, but this unexpected peace surprised me and I heard a little "tap" as a big fat tear hit the down comforter on our bed. John picked her up, she woke up briefly, but he laid her down in the crib and she fell asleep again.
And then BOOM! A blast of dynamite from the construction site next to the hotel. Don't worry, she didn't wake up. Good thing, because all around the hotel, all around the city, people are building, building, building, 24 hours aday, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, pounding, blasting, welding, pouring concrete...I can't think of anywhere in North America you could go to see such a building boom. Guess you'll just have to see China for yourself. Well, it's 10:20pm Monday night in Chongqing (9:20am where you are unless you're my friend Helen in Australia or our friends in The Netherlands) so I'd better stop now and go to sleep. We are just so thankful.
On the way to our first stop (shopping for essentials) Richard gave us a briefing of sorts. He reminded us that we are not here as tourists and to make sure we always take care of our own and our baby's health first rather than try to do too much sightseeing or be too adventurous. He also reminded us that from our baby's perspective, today might be a little scary. New faces, new smells and sounds, and the loss of everything they have known up to this point...for the parents, it's so happy and such a dream come true - he just wanted to prepare people for a tougher adjustment if that's how things turned out. He then taught us a saying that I'd like to share with you. Chinese people say "When you go to Beijing, you know you are not powerful. When you go to Guangzhou, you know you are not rich. When you go to Chongqing, you know you got married too early." Richard says girls from this region are known as the most beautiful in all of China (we hardly disagree!).
We did our shopping at a Carrefour store, which is a French chain of department stores. It looked kind of like Wal-Mart on speed. Busy, colorful, crowded, full of people checking out the latest whatever. We bought matching big sister-little sister outfits, and then our facilitator Richard helped us find the right diapers, wipes, formula, baby food, etc. so we had some supplies to get started with. We went back on the bus and drove a short distance to the Civil Affairs Bureau, which says "Bureau of Sino-American Marriage and Adoption" on the front. Several of us who've done this before recognized the building and the excitement was building as the bus stopped in the parking space.
I felt so calm though - kept waiting to feel what I felt last time but I felt so much less overwhelmed by the whole experience. TodayI found myself interested in not only what we were doing but what all the families were going through, to really get a feel for the whole event and not just our small part of it. We took a picture ofourselves as we waited for the elevator to come and take us to the 4th floor. Last time we were at this point we were practically vibrating with anxiety, and last time we got off the elevator and immediately saw our daughter JieJie in the Civil Affairs office. How would it be this time?
When we got off the elevator, we walked into the big room with traditional red decorations, a long counter for paperwork processing and several notary officials. Families who had just completed the paperwork for adoptions from Fuling (JieJie's hometown) were filing out with their new babies, and then who should come out but DirectorYang from Fuling! I had heard she would be there and brought photos of JieJie to give to her. We talked through our facilitator for a moment to say how glad we were to see her and promised that when JieJie was older we'd certainly visit Fuling again. We got her on video saying "Ni Hao, Fu De Quan!" (Hello, JieJie!)
We were told that the babies from Liangping (that's MeiMei's orphanage) were still en route. Some of the first-time moms were already crying from the overwhelming feelings swirling around in the room...excitement, fear, the unknown...you name it. Then just a few minutes later in came nine babies, carried by seven caregivers. The babies were all dressed in identical bright pink outfits of quilted fleece, festooned with ribbon roses and little doll-like things on the jacket pockets. John picked MeiMei out immediately. I didn't think it was her - I honestly was looking from baby to baby trying to figure out which one was ours because I didn't see any that looked the way I was picturing MeiMei. Soon Richard called our name, and there we were, just shy of two years after we went through this the first time, in the same room, receiving a beautiful baby. A man placed her in my arms as John filmed with the videocamera. (For the rest of my life, she will have that to hang over my head, that I didn't know her when she was brought in!!) [actually, later viewings of the video show that we were both wrong].
John soon put down the camera so we could check out this little one. She is so healthy, no congestion, no rash, a full head of soft black hair, very alert and calm. She didn't cry when we held her, only when the flashbulb went off on a family photo. Within minutes, she leaned her cheek against mine and really seemed to hug me, grabbing my upper arm with one hand and putting her other arm around my neck. She goes to John easily too. Other families in the room were going through a variety of reactions, as every baby deals with things differently. Some tears, some almost nonreactions...we know from last time that all of these babies will seem like different people a week from today. Until then, though, there are some challenging days ahead for all of us.
Maybe that's why I didn't cry or get emotional today...I am waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. We had a chance to ask some questions of the orphanage officials (if we forget anything, we have another chance to talk with them tomorrow and also Saturday when we go to Liangping). We asked her nickname, what the nannies called her, and it is indeed "You-You"! We then asked about potty logistics and were told that she's used to diapers. Finally I asked whether anything special would have been done on MeiMei's first birthday, which was last June 29th. They said they don't have a party or anything (not that I thought they would) but they would give her extra attention that day, tell her it was her special day, maybe give her special food or extra food. Before we knew it it was time to go back on the bus and get back to the hotel. We ordered room service dinner (steak, fries, veggies) and fed MeiMei some strained peas which she liked, though she had to consider it for a moment first. She didn't want the bottle we made -will have to try again tomorrow to make the right mix of rice cereal, formula and right temperature of water to please her. Then we spent about an hour just playing. She took a set of plastic keys and just sort of banged it on different things, listening to the sounds. She crawled. She got herself standing up and then plopped down on her butt on the floor again. She pulled herself up on the cabinets and pulled herself along them. She's not walking independently yet but we're thinking it's going to be any day now because everything's in place, she just needs to get the hang of it. She played peekaboo with me and John, smiled so many times, cracked herself up and laughed the cutest little laugh. She is (so far) really mellow and agreeable. This will work well with JieJie's take-charge nature!! Better that than two alpha females in the same house...this is looking very workable. Time will tell.
We tried to put her down to sleep in her crib but she cried pretty hard (mouth open wide, eyes closed, no sound came out) so we scooped her up and laid down with her on the bed. She had her head on my tummy. Heavy sigh, a rub of the eyes, and her eyes fluttered closed. It's indescribable how perfectly beautiful she was, lying there, rosy-cheeked and sleeping peacefully. I had been waiting for screams and fighting, but this unexpected peace surprised me and I heard a little "tap" as a big fat tear hit the down comforter on our bed. John picked her up, she woke up briefly, but he laid her down in the crib and she fell asleep again.
And then BOOM! A blast of dynamite from the construction site next to the hotel. Don't worry, she didn't wake up. Good thing, because all around the hotel, all around the city, people are building, building, building, 24 hours aday, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, pounding, blasting, welding, pouring concrete...I can't think of anywhere in North America you could go to see such a building boom. Guess you'll just have to see China for yourself. Well, it's 10:20pm Monday night in Chongqing (9:20am where you are unless you're my friend Helen in Australia or our friends in The Netherlands) so I'd better stop now and go to sleep. We are just so thankful.
Today's the Day!
Well, today is it. Our group will gather at 2, do some shopping and then be off to the Civil Affairs Office to meet MeiMei. This is sure to be an emotional scene, as it is such an important event in our lives, and is also the same place where JieJie joined our family two years ago. We can't wait.
We had aninteresting day yesterday. Having visited Chongqing before,we felt a bit more adventuresome this time and made our way to the Joe Stilwell Museum and the Red Cliffs Village Museum about 1 1/2miles away. The Stilwell Museum is primarily for US visitors and designed to highlight the good will and relations between China and the US. The Red Cliffs Village attracts a local clientele. It is a spectacular monument to the Chinese Communists of the region with special attention to Zhou Enlai, who spent considerable time living in Red Cliffs during the Second World War.
Every bit as interesting was our cab ride. Because of traffic, our cabbie had to take the long way home (he wasn't soaking us for a fare, it really was impossible to get to the main bridge across the Yangtze due to traffic and construction.) It took us past the new retractable dome Olympic stadium and arena which are due to open any day. All is hustle and bustle here--literally hundreds of high rise cranes working round the clock (the high rise construction site outside of our hotel was using dynamite at 4 this morning!).
Despite having been here 2 years ago, much of the skyline has changed. As one of our group observed last night "Boy, this is a lot bigger than LA." We had a group dinner last evening. This is a wonderful group and we are looking forward to spending the next couple of weeks with them. The highlight of our day was our evening conversation with JieJie. She was very excited to talk with us, wanting us to know if we'd gotten MeiMei yet, when we were coming home, and that 'Kip had given her candy at the football game. (Thanks 'Kip.) We are off to do some shopping this morning to pick up a few odds and ends. And then this afternoon the big event. Stay tuned.
We had aninteresting day yesterday. Having visited Chongqing before,we felt a bit more adventuresome this time and made our way to the Joe Stilwell Museum and the Red Cliffs Village Museum about 1 1/2miles away. The Stilwell Museum is primarily for US visitors and designed to highlight the good will and relations between China and the US. The Red Cliffs Village attracts a local clientele. It is a spectacular monument to the Chinese Communists of the region with special attention to Zhou Enlai, who spent considerable time living in Red Cliffs during the Second World War.
Every bit as interesting was our cab ride. Because of traffic, our cabbie had to take the long way home (he wasn't soaking us for a fare, it really was impossible to get to the main bridge across the Yangtze due to traffic and construction.) It took us past the new retractable dome Olympic stadium and arena which are due to open any day. All is hustle and bustle here--literally hundreds of high rise cranes working round the clock (the high rise construction site outside of our hotel was using dynamite at 4 this morning!).
Despite having been here 2 years ago, much of the skyline has changed. As one of our group observed last night "Boy, this is a lot bigger than LA." We had a group dinner last evening. This is a wonderful group and we are looking forward to spending the next couple of weeks with them. The highlight of our day was our evening conversation with JieJie. She was very excited to talk with us, wanting us to know if we'd gotten MeiMei yet, when we were coming home, and that 'Kip had given her candy at the football game. (Thanks 'Kip.) We are off to do some shopping this morning to pick up a few odds and ends. And then this afternoon the big event. Stay tuned.
Saxophones and Trombones
Good morning from Chongqing. I am in the business center of the hotel where we will spend the next week or so, the Holiday Inn Yangtze Chongqing. We arrived at the Chongqing airport yesterday about 4pm, no illness aboard the plane, no problems with the flight whatsoever. A car was waiting to take us to the hotel. We arrived around 5pm. We were stunned to see how things have changed even in the two years since we were here last. The skyline is different, they are demolishing the tunnel we came through from the Yangtze bridge to our hotel last time, and there are buildings everywhere with cranes on top, in the process of being built. The air is also much cleaner. There has been a major initiative to improve the environment in anticipation of an upcoming World Expo in Shanghai and also of course for the 2008 Olympics, which should bring a lot of tourists to many parts of China. Yes, it's still too polluted, but our eyes didn't sting and our throats didn't burn - did we bring our cough drops for nothing?
Still, when we got to the hotel, John said "it's as though we never left". We recognized the neighborhood and knew where we were before we could see the hotel. It was so odd in a way to feel so at home here when on our last trip everything was so new. Our room is SO nice. We splurged on a two-room suite and it's a corner room, with windows that take up two walls of the bedroom from halfway up the wall all the way to the ceiling. The view? Downtown Chongqing and the Yangtze River, which is absolutely spectacular at night, all neon and spotlights. It's like having a view of Manhattan across the Hudson, only more impressive. The bedroom has a crib in it already - Mom, please tell JieJie that the little cat she picked out for MeiMei is in the crib waiting for a hug. The sitting room has a sectional-style couch, tv, fridge, dining table and long buffet-style cabinet/counter.Yesterday when we arrived, as we stepped off the elevator we waded into a sea of parents and babies/toddlers. Turns out they were a group from The Netherlands. I recognized a pair of pink pajamas that one little girl was wearing- they were the same pj's our Dutch friends sent to JieJie two years ago.
Last night around dinnertime we wandered down to the lobby and met the K's, from South Carolina. They are in our travel group and(small world) they know the H1's, a family we were here with two years ago! Then we met the H2's who are here from Hong Kong with a 3-year-old daughter and grandparents to lend helping hands.
The H2's wereplanning to go to dinner so we joined them. Wild taxi ride (if someone's in the lane ahead and the driver wants to pass, they just drive on the wrong side of the road for a while) down to a neon-lit strip by the river. We sat outside and had a delicious dinner of soups, stir-fried dishes and noodles, ate our fill for 140RMB for all six of us--that's about $3/person. During dinner a lot of strolling musicians came by and wanted us to pay them to serenade us. One guy had a Kenny G style soprano sax and he played really loudly right by our table and then said "Saxophone!" Mr. H2 said "yes, apparently!" Then we started talking about the English words that are put onto clothing for decoration, much in the way we put Chinese characters onto things to make them look cool, never mind what theymight mean or whether it's even grammatical. I saw a man on one of our flights whose jacket said "Kids Whenever Original Jacket" on the back, and on the front pocket it said "Authentic Trombone". We got back to the hotel, talked briefly with JieJie and my mom by phone before falling fast asleep.
JieJie is fine - mom says she understands "the deal" and is being very cooperative and upbeat. Today John and I will take a taxi to the General Stillwell Museum here in Chongqing. It's the headquarters of American General "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell. Should be interesting. We may also see Red Cliff Village - more about that after we've seen it. Tonight I guess we'll go for a group dinner on Gotcha Eve. Hoping to go to downtown CQ and the huge pedestrian area that's lit up like Times Square at night. Tomorrow we go shopping for diapers and all that stuff, and then at 4:30 we are scheduled to go to the Civil Affairs Office and meet our little MeiMei for the first time. We are really excited, as you might guess!Have a great day, Mom give JieJie hugs and kisses from us,
Louise & John
Still, when we got to the hotel, John said "it's as though we never left". We recognized the neighborhood and knew where we were before we could see the hotel. It was so odd in a way to feel so at home here when on our last trip everything was so new. Our room is SO nice. We splurged on a two-room suite and it's a corner room, with windows that take up two walls of the bedroom from halfway up the wall all the way to the ceiling. The view? Downtown Chongqing and the Yangtze River, which is absolutely spectacular at night, all neon and spotlights. It's like having a view of Manhattan across the Hudson, only more impressive. The bedroom has a crib in it already - Mom, please tell JieJie that the little cat she picked out for MeiMei is in the crib waiting for a hug. The sitting room has a sectional-style couch, tv, fridge, dining table and long buffet-style cabinet/counter.Yesterday when we arrived, as we stepped off the elevator we waded into a sea of parents and babies/toddlers. Turns out they were a group from The Netherlands. I recognized a pair of pink pajamas that one little girl was wearing- they were the same pj's our Dutch friends sent to JieJie two years ago.
Last night around dinnertime we wandered down to the lobby and met the K's, from South Carolina. They are in our travel group and(small world) they know the H1's, a family we were here with two years ago! Then we met the H2's who are here from Hong Kong with a 3-year-old daughter and grandparents to lend helping hands.
The H2's wereplanning to go to dinner so we joined them. Wild taxi ride (if someone's in the lane ahead and the driver wants to pass, they just drive on the wrong side of the road for a while) down to a neon-lit strip by the river. We sat outside and had a delicious dinner of soups, stir-fried dishes and noodles, ate our fill for 140RMB for all six of us--that's about $3/person. During dinner a lot of strolling musicians came by and wanted us to pay them to serenade us. One guy had a Kenny G style soprano sax and he played really loudly right by our table and then said "Saxophone!" Mr. H2 said "yes, apparently!" Then we started talking about the English words that are put onto clothing for decoration, much in the way we put Chinese characters onto things to make them look cool, never mind what theymight mean or whether it's even grammatical. I saw a man on one of our flights whose jacket said "Kids Whenever Original Jacket" on the back, and on the front pocket it said "Authentic Trombone". We got back to the hotel, talked briefly with JieJie and my mom by phone before falling fast asleep.
JieJie is fine - mom says she understands "the deal" and is being very cooperative and upbeat. Today John and I will take a taxi to the General Stillwell Museum here in Chongqing. It's the headquarters of American General "Vinegar Joe" Stillwell. Should be interesting. We may also see Red Cliff Village - more about that after we've seen it. Tonight I guess we'll go for a group dinner on Gotcha Eve. Hoping to go to downtown CQ and the huge pedestrian area that's lit up like Times Square at night. Tomorrow we go shopping for diapers and all that stuff, and then at 4:30 we are scheduled to go to the Civil Affairs Office and meet our little MeiMei for the first time. We are really excited, as you might guess!Have a great day, Mom give JieJie hugs and kisses from us,
Louise & John
Unwind Yourself Now
We made it! I am writing to you on FREE internet access from the Blenz coffee shop on Shamian Island, Guangzhou, China. What a trip over we had! The events thus far: Thanks to our friend David for driving us up to the Amerisuites Chantilly where we stayed the night before our early flight out of Washington-Dulles Airport. JieJie was surprisingly okay when we left. After weeks of hypervigilant behavior that culminated in a week of checking our room at 3am to make sure we were still there, she didn't even cry when we hugged her goodbye and put her in her grandparents' arms. She saw our suitcases, looked at us questioningly, and I said "it's time for Mommy and Daddy to go get MeiMei." We packed the little yellow cat that JieJie is giving to MeiMei into the suitcase, kissed and hugged, and left, and Mom said last time we talked that it's going fine. What a relief! Because JieJie would have been in a tiny little straitjacket by now if she'd experienced the last 36 hours with us. Read on.
Flight from Dulles to Detroit left a bit late, otherwise smooth sailing. Layover at Detroit, lunch. Left on Northwest Airlines Detroit-Tokyo a bit late. Huge plane - 747-400, two aisles, 3-4-3 seating. Coach is tight!! I quickly realized I was not going to get any sleep on the 12+ hour flight. John catnapped here and there, probably got 2 hours total. Movies were "Raising Helen"(skip it), "Spiderman 2" (eye candy and noise) and "The Notebook"(see it soon w/a huge box of tissues at the ready--SO good and heartwarming!) Funny - last trip one of the movies was "Spiderman 1". About "The Notebook" - this was one of the times John was sleeping. At the end of the movie, I was totally bawling and I looked over at the elderly Korean man next to John, and he was wiping his eyes about once a minute for the whole end of the movie.
Layover at Tokyo-Narita was SHORT - just enough time to take a bus to the terminal, go through security and run to our gate for the next flight. Got on the next plane for the 4+ hour flight to Guangzhou, and just as we were beginning to taxi toward the runway, a man signaled that his (father?) seatmate was sick, that he had high blood pressure. Hard to know what happened, whether the man passed out or what, but soon there were flight attendants with oxygen tanks helping the man come to, and then he used several airsick bags (eww). We were glad he was ok but the flight crew chief called an ambulance and wanted to get the man some medical attention.
While we were waiting for that ambulance to arrive, people were quiet and patient. All of a sudden in the row right behind us, it sounded like these people were arguing or something. Then they started getting louder and more frantic. I turned around and thought I saw a man pushing his wife. It took me a moment to realize that he had collapsed against her and was having what looked to be a heart attack or a stroke. His eyes were rolling back into his head, his lips and fingernails were turning blue, and he was drooling and bleeding from his mouth. The whole right side of his face was straining back toward his right ear. His wife was crying and screaming. We immediately signaled to the flight crew for help -they seemed confused but soon more oxygen masks arrived and the man started coming around thank goodness. There was a doctor on the flight, I think she was Japanese, and she took the man's blood pressure. Both John and I had thought we were going to witness the worst. The man's son came back from his seat at the front of the plane and dropped to his knees at the sight of his father in trouble. It took forever for the ambulance to get there, and while the flight crew saved the man's life with their quick thinking, the paramedics might as well have been the Keystone Kops. They started this extensive conversation with the doctor and the flight crew instead of getting the poor passengers off the plane and to the hospital. 45 minutes later the captain came back and said "we need to get these people off the plane now so they can get help and we can go." The paramedics were (understandably) confused that there were two different people in need of help, and they had a long conversation about which one should get off the plane first. It started to become almost comical (or perhaps we just needed something to release the adrenaline) to the point that when the sick passengers were finally off the plane, there was scattered laughter all over the plane. I wouldn't swear to it but I thought I detected some Chinese-speaking passengers making jokes about the Japanese ambulance workers and there was much laughter all around the plane. John wanted me to put in the message that the paramedics' lack of decisiveness was like "watching two monkeys try to f*** a football". I added a new phrase to my Chinese vocabulary: ke ren, or sick person [actually "guest"].
So two hours after our scheduled departure time (hoping and prayingthat both sick passengers would be ok) we took off for GZ. Both of us got about two hours' sleep on that flight. Got to the airport, sped through customs and quarantine (you have to promise, among other things, that you are not psychotic) and a Mercedes Benz from the White Swan Hotel was waiting for us, with three smartly dressed porters to handle our two small carry-on bags. The airport at Guangzhou is brand new and absolutely beautiful, a cathedral of glass and girders. How different from the old airport, which was like several interconnected train or bus depots. The highway from the airport to central GZ is brand new too, signs in Chinese and English. Got to the White Swan Hotel, checked into our room, ate the chocolates they leave by the bed, and were soon sleeping horizontally for the first time in about 30 hours. Woke up on our own this morning at 7am, tired but NO JET LAG - what a miracle! Had a nice buffet breakfast of fruit, yogurt, steamed pork buns, steamed shrimp buns, smoked salmon, noodles, french toast...there's so much good food on that buffet, you just have to use JieJie's phrase "I have this one tomodow" which is what she says whenever she wants something but can't have it right away.
It was so peaceful sitting there by the Pearl River, watching boats go by, watching a few people swimming in the river for morning exercise. After breakfast, I headed out to find cheap internet access and John went to get a neck and head massage at the hotel fitness center. On the way to the fitness center is a sign for the hotel's lounge/game room that says "Unwind Yourself Now." I am only too happy to oblige, after all the racing around we've done for the past two months to get ready for this trip! Of course, this being the White Swan, there are families with babies everywhere and it's making us pretty excited for Monday. In the meantime however, it's like a second honeymoon for us. We are going to enjoy having a few days all to ourselves. We check out of White Swan in about 45 minutes, take the shuttle out to the airport and get on a 2pm flight to Chongqing, henceforth to be referred to as CQ.
Flight from Dulles to Detroit left a bit late, otherwise smooth sailing. Layover at Detroit, lunch. Left on Northwest Airlines Detroit-Tokyo a bit late. Huge plane - 747-400, two aisles, 3-4-3 seating. Coach is tight!! I quickly realized I was not going to get any sleep on the 12+ hour flight. John catnapped here and there, probably got 2 hours total. Movies were "Raising Helen"(skip it), "Spiderman 2" (eye candy and noise) and "The Notebook"(see it soon w/a huge box of tissues at the ready--SO good and heartwarming!) Funny - last trip one of the movies was "Spiderman 1". About "The Notebook" - this was one of the times John was sleeping. At the end of the movie, I was totally bawling and I looked over at the elderly Korean man next to John, and he was wiping his eyes about once a minute for the whole end of the movie.
Layover at Tokyo-Narita was SHORT - just enough time to take a bus to the terminal, go through security and run to our gate for the next flight. Got on the next plane for the 4+ hour flight to Guangzhou, and just as we were beginning to taxi toward the runway, a man signaled that his (father?) seatmate was sick, that he had high blood pressure. Hard to know what happened, whether the man passed out or what, but soon there were flight attendants with oxygen tanks helping the man come to, and then he used several airsick bags (eww). We were glad he was ok but the flight crew chief called an ambulance and wanted to get the man some medical attention.
While we were waiting for that ambulance to arrive, people were quiet and patient. All of a sudden in the row right behind us, it sounded like these people were arguing or something. Then they started getting louder and more frantic. I turned around and thought I saw a man pushing his wife. It took me a moment to realize that he had collapsed against her and was having what looked to be a heart attack or a stroke. His eyes were rolling back into his head, his lips and fingernails were turning blue, and he was drooling and bleeding from his mouth. The whole right side of his face was straining back toward his right ear. His wife was crying and screaming. We immediately signaled to the flight crew for help -they seemed confused but soon more oxygen masks arrived and the man started coming around thank goodness. There was a doctor on the flight, I think she was Japanese, and she took the man's blood pressure. Both John and I had thought we were going to witness the worst. The man's son came back from his seat at the front of the plane and dropped to his knees at the sight of his father in trouble. It took forever for the ambulance to get there, and while the flight crew saved the man's life with their quick thinking, the paramedics might as well have been the Keystone Kops. They started this extensive conversation with the doctor and the flight crew instead of getting the poor passengers off the plane and to the hospital. 45 minutes later the captain came back and said "we need to get these people off the plane now so they can get help and we can go." The paramedics were (understandably) confused that there were two different people in need of help, and they had a long conversation about which one should get off the plane first. It started to become almost comical (or perhaps we just needed something to release the adrenaline) to the point that when the sick passengers were finally off the plane, there was scattered laughter all over the plane. I wouldn't swear to it but I thought I detected some Chinese-speaking passengers making jokes about the Japanese ambulance workers and there was much laughter all around the plane. John wanted me to put in the message that the paramedics' lack of decisiveness was like "watching two monkeys try to f*** a football". I added a new phrase to my Chinese vocabulary: ke ren, or sick person [actually "guest"].
So two hours after our scheduled departure time (hoping and prayingthat both sick passengers would be ok) we took off for GZ. Both of us got about two hours' sleep on that flight. Got to the airport, sped through customs and quarantine (you have to promise, among other things, that you are not psychotic) and a Mercedes Benz from the White Swan Hotel was waiting for us, with three smartly dressed porters to handle our two small carry-on bags. The airport at Guangzhou is brand new and absolutely beautiful, a cathedral of glass and girders. How different from the old airport, which was like several interconnected train or bus depots. The highway from the airport to central GZ is brand new too, signs in Chinese and English. Got to the White Swan Hotel, checked into our room, ate the chocolates they leave by the bed, and were soon sleeping horizontally for the first time in about 30 hours. Woke up on our own this morning at 7am, tired but NO JET LAG - what a miracle! Had a nice buffet breakfast of fruit, yogurt, steamed pork buns, steamed shrimp buns, smoked salmon, noodles, french toast...there's so much good food on that buffet, you just have to use JieJie's phrase "I have this one tomodow" which is what she says whenever she wants something but can't have it right away.
It was so peaceful sitting there by the Pearl River, watching boats go by, watching a few people swimming in the river for morning exercise. After breakfast, I headed out to find cheap internet access and John went to get a neck and head massage at the hotel fitness center. On the way to the fitness center is a sign for the hotel's lounge/game room that says "Unwind Yourself Now." I am only too happy to oblige, after all the racing around we've done for the past two months to get ready for this trip! Of course, this being the White Swan, there are families with babies everywhere and it's making us pretty excited for Monday. In the meantime however, it's like a second honeymoon for us. We are going to enjoy having a few days all to ourselves. We check out of White Swan in about 45 minutes, take the shuttle out to the airport and get on a 2pm flight to Chongqing, henceforth to be referred to as CQ.
2004 adoption trip part 1
*reposting details of our 2004 adoption trip on the second anniversary of our trip*
Dear family and friends,
This is the last time I'm going to post before we take off Wednesdayafternoon for the AmeriSuites Dulles. We take off on Northwest Airlines Thursday morning. I probably won't be writing again untilwe arrive in Chongqing, so check back Saturday morning for a "we made it" message from the Holiday Inn Yangtze Chongqing. I am REALLY looking forward to spending Friday night at the White Swan and even more to the World's Most Stupendous Breakfast Buffet the next morning! Our agency's travel coordinator said that arriving in China at night is great protection against jet lag because you can immediately get some sleep and wake up (hopefully) refreshed.
JieJie's Halloween was a blast! She was a kitty cat complete with ears, whiskers and a tail and even though we only went to 8 houses, by the end of the evening she had accumulated half a plastic pumpkin's worth of candy, a stuffed animal, necklace, book and "magic towel" to use in the bathtub. After trick-or-treating she helped give out candy. Not so sure about those scary kids, but she gave them candy anyway. She got so excited about giving candy away, she'd yell down the street "HEEEEYYY! We got CAAAANNNNDDDYYYYYYY HEEEEEEERRRRE!"
My parents arrived Friday afternoon (the day MeiMei turned 16mos old) and as soon as she finished dancing around and screaming "Geema! Geepa!" JieJie looked at me and John and said "buh-bye, MommyDaddy." So she knows what's up. In fact she spent a couple of nights getting up at 3am just to make sure we were still there. It'll be hard for her while we're gone but she'll be fine and so will Mom and Dad. The three of them clearly adore one another. The rest is just details, which they'll figure out. John had a lot of little projects to get squared away before we go and he seems happy with the progress he's made, so that's a little less stress to deal with. All of our classes are covered, bags are packed, mail is stopped, etc....all that's left to do now is GO.
Our travel facilitator gave us an idea of some other parts of ouritinerary: daytrips to Liangping orphanage and a tourist attraction called the Bigfoot Buddha, plus a dinner cruise on the Yangtze River. Sounds great! All contingent on health and emotional stateof the babies of course. So...here we go!
Louise & John
Dear family and friends,
This is the last time I'm going to post before we take off Wednesdayafternoon for the AmeriSuites Dulles. We take off on Northwest Airlines Thursday morning. I probably won't be writing again untilwe arrive in Chongqing, so check back Saturday morning for a "we made it" message from the Holiday Inn Yangtze Chongqing. I am REALLY looking forward to spending Friday night at the White Swan and even more to the World's Most Stupendous Breakfast Buffet the next morning! Our agency's travel coordinator said that arriving in China at night is great protection against jet lag because you can immediately get some sleep and wake up (hopefully) refreshed.
JieJie's Halloween was a blast! She was a kitty cat complete with ears, whiskers and a tail and even though we only went to 8 houses, by the end of the evening she had accumulated half a plastic pumpkin's worth of candy, a stuffed animal, necklace, book and "magic towel" to use in the bathtub. After trick-or-treating she helped give out candy. Not so sure about those scary kids, but she gave them candy anyway. She got so excited about giving candy away, she'd yell down the street "HEEEEYYY! We got CAAAANNNNDDDYYYYYYY HEEEEEEERRRRE!"
My parents arrived Friday afternoon (the day MeiMei turned 16mos old) and as soon as she finished dancing around and screaming "Geema! Geepa!" JieJie looked at me and John and said "buh-bye, MommyDaddy." So she knows what's up. In fact she spent a couple of nights getting up at 3am just to make sure we were still there. It'll be hard for her while we're gone but she'll be fine and so will Mom and Dad. The three of them clearly adore one another. The rest is just details, which they'll figure out. John had a lot of little projects to get squared away before we go and he seems happy with the progress he's made, so that's a little less stress to deal with. All of our classes are covered, bags are packed, mail is stopped, etc....all that's left to do now is GO.
Our travel facilitator gave us an idea of some other parts of ouritinerary: daytrips to Liangping orphanage and a tourist attraction called the Bigfoot Buddha, plus a dinner cruise on the Yangtze River. Sounds great! All contingent on health and emotional stateof the babies of course. So...here we go!
Louise & John
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Guangzhou 2002 redux
This is the only post from Guangzhou 2002 -- I remember having written an expansive email all about Shamian Island from the White Swan business center only to lose the entire post (still had to pay like $25 for the session...argh!)
12/4/02
Wow, can it be that we are really heading back to the US tomorrow?? I was so bummed that the message I wrote the other night got lost but I am finally at the cheapo internet place on Shamian Island -only 20RMB/hour (like $2.50). So the last time I wrote we had just gone to Dazu and had an adventure with JieJie and some 800 year old stone carvings - suffice to say we laid very low on Sunday and got her back on her schedule.
Our last night in Chongqing we returned to the restaurant that had become our usual spot. The wait staff was wonderful to the babies and very patient with all of us juggling babies and chopsticks and just-enough-to-get-by Chinese. We really enjoyed their food and it always ended up to be about $5/person to eat our fill of delicious noodles, vegetables and meats in wonderful sauces and soups. We said goodbye to the waitstaff and headed back to the Holiday Inn Yangtze Chongqing to pack. Because we had used much of the baby stuff and given many of the gifts we brought, the new things we bought didn't overfill the suitcases and our luggage was not overweight.
Monday morning we all got up early to get ready to go to the airport. Dr. Chen and Michael accompanied us to the airport and checked all 10 families in en masse (they didn't even weigh our suitcases - we've heard Dr. Chen has connections and we definitely saw evidence of it at the airport). And all of a sudden we reached the security checkpoint and realized (I was surprised actually) oh my gosh - Dr. Chen and Michael aren't coming with us and this is goodbye!!! They both went through this incredible experience with us and now we were going our separate ways. Dr. Chen got very teary-eyed and said goodbye to each baby and each parent - lots of us got weepy just seeing Dr. Chen being so emotional. After all, he was the one who placed each baby in the arms of each family and he saw us all at our most vulnerable. I hope he likes his wind chimes fromVirginia - we heard he likes to garden.
So JieJie was VERY good on the flight to Guangzhou! Encouraging!!! We had a bottle ready for the pressure change and she barely seemed to notice it. We gave her some rice from our in-flight meal, and the inside of a roll, and she behaved herself, seemed quite contented. We landed in Guangzhou after a pretty short flight and the Americans Adopting Orphans Guangzhou staff were there to meet us. Their English names are Richard and Alexa. They got us and all our luggage to the White Swan Hotel and we checked in.
The White Swan Hotel is on Shamian Island and the island itself is only maybe 20 square blocks in size. It has a central promenade where people do tai chi or scarf dances in the morning, and the other day a group of school children were running for physical education. The child in front would yell "Yi! Er! San! Si!" and the group would respond "YI ER SAN SI" just like in the military. As they rounded the corner and saw all of us Americans with babies, the leader proudly changed to English: "One! Two! Three! Four!" and the group echoed ONE TWO THREE FOUR! with much smiling and giggling as they ran. Chinese children wear uniforms but they are kind of like the warmup suits that many Americans wear, not so formal looking. And Shamian Island is also very different from many places we've been so far. Architecturally the difference is clear and immediate - this place was the only place where Westerners were allowed back when Guangzhou was called Canton and it was an official treaty port where West traded with East. The Europeans who lived here built the kinds of buildings they knew how to build and were used to seeing, so walking around here is a bit like being back in Italy or maybe The Netherlands. Except for all the signs in Chinese of course...anyway we're hoping to do a nice long walk around the place today, having opted out of the bus trip to the zoo. Can you guess why?????
The White Swan Hotel is a fine, fine hotel. The lobby has a man-made mountain with a pagoda on top and a waterfall running down into a pool with beautiful goldfish swimming around. And because it's December, there are Christmas decorations everywhere, a huge tree and other decorations all over the place. The waitresses at thebreakfast buffet even wear little Santa's Little Helper dresses and hats. China is starting to celebrate Christmas nationwide, though certainly not in much of a religious sense. Our guides tell us it's become a time when corporations entertain clients and colleagues with elaborate office parties. It's not a family holiday. Still, Christmas music and decorations are everywhere. It's kind of nice actually. The aesthetic here is neon, neon, neon so it's already very festive!
So the reason I've barely written in Guangzhou is twofold: first, we've all gotten to like one another so much (all the families that is) that we've always got something going - dinner, an excursion of some sort...and second, we have had lots of paperwork to do here. One afternoon we filled out forms for a couple of hours. Boy, that was a blast. John estimates that this paperwork was like 10 house closings. But all you have to do is look at JieJie and know that not only was it worth it, it seems like a breeze in retrospect now that we have our little family together.
When we first had JieJie with us, we of course had no way of knowing what would be usual or normal for her because the transition from orphanage to us meant that she wouldn't really be herself for a little while. Now that we've been with her for a little over a week, we can start to see some improvement already - miraculous how resilient all these babies are. None of our families has had any problems so far. For example, JieJie used to go much deeper when she got upset, and she went much more inside herself too. Anything she cried over, if not attended to quickly, would lead to screaming, coughing, hair pulling, scratching at herself or anyone who got close, and just general inconsolability. Now she seems to be starting to trust that we will meet her needs, so when she cries it is not so general "to the universe" but more to us as communication and when we change her, feed her or hold her, she calms down and cheers up. She smiles at us frequently and is generally charming (not that we're biased...). We know that she may go through some of the same stuff when we get home to all the foreign sights, sounds and smells but perhaps because of what we've accomplished here, it won't be to the same degree.
So yesterday was hilarious...we got on the bus to go to a local tourist site, the Chen Clan Temple, a large folk arts museum. JieJie was fussing and we thought maybe she was wet. We undid the diaper and WHOOSH - pee all over John and the baby. What a scene. John decided to bag the trip but let me go on ahead with the group. I commented that I felt bad that that had happened and an experienced Dad in the group said "don't worry, she'll do it to you too." So I went on the trip, which was very nice - they also took us shopping to a Chinese department store and I picked up another outfit for the baby as well as a little feeding set for her - a teacup, rice bowl and soup spoon and her own little chopsticks. I got back and heard the rest of the saga - the hotel was doing some laundry for us and the baby was taking her morning nap (we swear she did it on purpose as soon as she realized she was on a bus!!!).
Yesterday afternoon was THE BIG DAY - our U.S. Consulate appointment. We went through rigorous security checks - no diaper bags, only a see-through ziploc bag with a diaper/wipe were allowed, and filed into a waiting room, kind of a DMV-style waiting area. It was packed with adoptive families and everyone was waiting anxiously for the big moment. And it was a very American moment. No pomp and circumstance and no long winded speeches - just the head of the visa office coming out and congratulating us on completing all that #$%& paperwork (expletives added) and making it to this moment. Then he had us raise our right hands (as a group) and swear that all the information we had provided was true. Then he wished us a good trip home and that was it! A huge cheer went up from the crowd and much applause and hugs and kisses and dancing around followed. Some people cried with relief - now there was nothing that could separate us from these babies and we were officially granted permission to bring them home for good. What a great, great feeling.
We all said "let's get champagne!" but instead some of us went to the Hard Rock Cafe Guangzhou. Originally I had turned up my nose at the thought (this was before we left) but somehow it felt like the right place to be after going through the American part of this process. I had a cheeseburger and fries (hey - I've tried snake so don't tell me I've been a wimp!). Lots of other families were celebrating too and each of us got a souvenir coloring book and a little stuffed animal.
You can't imagine how many adoptive families can be smushed into one place until you've been to Shamian Island - one agency alone has 80 families in the hotel! You literally cannot get on an elevator without seeing another adoptive family. Breakfast is wild too - at every other table there is a high chair. What a place.
Finally - we heard about this incredible wholesale pearl market in Guangzhou and I went to check it out yesterday - we're going back today for more. Incredible, incredible prices and beautiful pearls. Tomorrow we don't check out of the hotel til 5pm and our flight is at 9pm. 12 hours to LAX, then one night in a hotel there, then Saturday the 7th we take the 8am on United landing at Washington Dulles at 3:34pm. We're meeting mom and dad down by the baggage claim and if anyone from the DC area wants to come by and meet the baby, you just come right on over! We can't wait to see you and tell you all the things we've seen and done that never made it into an email. It has been so great writing to you when we can - these messages will serve as our travel diary for posterity. Well - gotta go get another carry-on for the nice souvenirs we don't want to check. It will probably cost about 60RMB (about $7!).
12/4/02
Wow, can it be that we are really heading back to the US tomorrow?? I was so bummed that the message I wrote the other night got lost but I am finally at the cheapo internet place on Shamian Island -only 20RMB/hour (like $2.50). So the last time I wrote we had just gone to Dazu and had an adventure with JieJie and some 800 year old stone carvings - suffice to say we laid very low on Sunday and got her back on her schedule.
Our last night in Chongqing we returned to the restaurant that had become our usual spot. The wait staff was wonderful to the babies and very patient with all of us juggling babies and chopsticks and just-enough-to-get-by Chinese. We really enjoyed their food and it always ended up to be about $5/person to eat our fill of delicious noodles, vegetables and meats in wonderful sauces and soups. We said goodbye to the waitstaff and headed back to the Holiday Inn Yangtze Chongqing to pack. Because we had used much of the baby stuff and given many of the gifts we brought, the new things we bought didn't overfill the suitcases and our luggage was not overweight.
Monday morning we all got up early to get ready to go to the airport. Dr. Chen and Michael accompanied us to the airport and checked all 10 families in en masse (they didn't even weigh our suitcases - we've heard Dr. Chen has connections and we definitely saw evidence of it at the airport). And all of a sudden we reached the security checkpoint and realized (I was surprised actually) oh my gosh - Dr. Chen and Michael aren't coming with us and this is goodbye!!! They both went through this incredible experience with us and now we were going our separate ways. Dr. Chen got very teary-eyed and said goodbye to each baby and each parent - lots of us got weepy just seeing Dr. Chen being so emotional. After all, he was the one who placed each baby in the arms of each family and he saw us all at our most vulnerable. I hope he likes his wind chimes fromVirginia - we heard he likes to garden.
So JieJie was VERY good on the flight to Guangzhou! Encouraging!!! We had a bottle ready for the pressure change and she barely seemed to notice it. We gave her some rice from our in-flight meal, and the inside of a roll, and she behaved herself, seemed quite contented. We landed in Guangzhou after a pretty short flight and the Americans Adopting Orphans Guangzhou staff were there to meet us. Their English names are Richard and Alexa. They got us and all our luggage to the White Swan Hotel and we checked in.
The White Swan Hotel is on Shamian Island and the island itself is only maybe 20 square blocks in size. It has a central promenade where people do tai chi or scarf dances in the morning, and the other day a group of school children were running for physical education. The child in front would yell "Yi! Er! San! Si!" and the group would respond "YI ER SAN SI" just like in the military. As they rounded the corner and saw all of us Americans with babies, the leader proudly changed to English: "One! Two! Three! Four!" and the group echoed ONE TWO THREE FOUR! with much smiling and giggling as they ran. Chinese children wear uniforms but they are kind of like the warmup suits that many Americans wear, not so formal looking. And Shamian Island is also very different from many places we've been so far. Architecturally the difference is clear and immediate - this place was the only place where Westerners were allowed back when Guangzhou was called Canton and it was an official treaty port where West traded with East. The Europeans who lived here built the kinds of buildings they knew how to build and were used to seeing, so walking around here is a bit like being back in Italy or maybe The Netherlands. Except for all the signs in Chinese of course...anyway we're hoping to do a nice long walk around the place today, having opted out of the bus trip to the zoo. Can you guess why?????
The White Swan Hotel is a fine, fine hotel. The lobby has a man-made mountain with a pagoda on top and a waterfall running down into a pool with beautiful goldfish swimming around. And because it's December, there are Christmas decorations everywhere, a huge tree and other decorations all over the place. The waitresses at thebreakfast buffet even wear little Santa's Little Helper dresses and hats. China is starting to celebrate Christmas nationwide, though certainly not in much of a religious sense. Our guides tell us it's become a time when corporations entertain clients and colleagues with elaborate office parties. It's not a family holiday. Still, Christmas music and decorations are everywhere. It's kind of nice actually. The aesthetic here is neon, neon, neon so it's already very festive!
So the reason I've barely written in Guangzhou is twofold: first, we've all gotten to like one another so much (all the families that is) that we've always got something going - dinner, an excursion of some sort...and second, we have had lots of paperwork to do here. One afternoon we filled out forms for a couple of hours. Boy, that was a blast. John estimates that this paperwork was like 10 house closings. But all you have to do is look at JieJie and know that not only was it worth it, it seems like a breeze in retrospect now that we have our little family together.
When we first had JieJie with us, we of course had no way of knowing what would be usual or normal for her because the transition from orphanage to us meant that she wouldn't really be herself for a little while. Now that we've been with her for a little over a week, we can start to see some improvement already - miraculous how resilient all these babies are. None of our families has had any problems so far. For example, JieJie used to go much deeper when she got upset, and she went much more inside herself too. Anything she cried over, if not attended to quickly, would lead to screaming, coughing, hair pulling, scratching at herself or anyone who got close, and just general inconsolability. Now she seems to be starting to trust that we will meet her needs, so when she cries it is not so general "to the universe" but more to us as communication and when we change her, feed her or hold her, she calms down and cheers up. She smiles at us frequently and is generally charming (not that we're biased...). We know that she may go through some of the same stuff when we get home to all the foreign sights, sounds and smells but perhaps because of what we've accomplished here, it won't be to the same degree.
So yesterday was hilarious...we got on the bus to go to a local tourist site, the Chen Clan Temple, a large folk arts museum. JieJie was fussing and we thought maybe she was wet. We undid the diaper and WHOOSH - pee all over John and the baby. What a scene. John decided to bag the trip but let me go on ahead with the group. I commented that I felt bad that that had happened and an experienced Dad in the group said "don't worry, she'll do it to you too." So I went on the trip, which was very nice - they also took us shopping to a Chinese department store and I picked up another outfit for the baby as well as a little feeding set for her - a teacup, rice bowl and soup spoon and her own little chopsticks. I got back and heard the rest of the saga - the hotel was doing some laundry for us and the baby was taking her morning nap (we swear she did it on purpose as soon as she realized she was on a bus!!!).
Yesterday afternoon was THE BIG DAY - our U.S. Consulate appointment. We went through rigorous security checks - no diaper bags, only a see-through ziploc bag with a diaper/wipe were allowed, and filed into a waiting room, kind of a DMV-style waiting area. It was packed with adoptive families and everyone was waiting anxiously for the big moment. And it was a very American moment. No pomp and circumstance and no long winded speeches - just the head of the visa office coming out and congratulating us on completing all that #$%& paperwork (expletives added) and making it to this moment. Then he had us raise our right hands (as a group) and swear that all the information we had provided was true. Then he wished us a good trip home and that was it! A huge cheer went up from the crowd and much applause and hugs and kisses and dancing around followed. Some people cried with relief - now there was nothing that could separate us from these babies and we were officially granted permission to bring them home for good. What a great, great feeling.
We all said "let's get champagne!" but instead some of us went to the Hard Rock Cafe Guangzhou. Originally I had turned up my nose at the thought (this was before we left) but somehow it felt like the right place to be after going through the American part of this process. I had a cheeseburger and fries (hey - I've tried snake so don't tell me I've been a wimp!). Lots of other families were celebrating too and each of us got a souvenir coloring book and a little stuffed animal.
You can't imagine how many adoptive families can be smushed into one place until you've been to Shamian Island - one agency alone has 80 families in the hotel! You literally cannot get on an elevator without seeing another adoptive family. Breakfast is wild too - at every other table there is a high chair. What a place.
Finally - we heard about this incredible wholesale pearl market in Guangzhou and I went to check it out yesterday - we're going back today for more. Incredible, incredible prices and beautiful pearls. Tomorrow we don't check out of the hotel til 5pm and our flight is at 9pm. 12 hours to LAX, then one night in a hotel there, then Saturday the 7th we take the 8am on United landing at Washington Dulles at 3:34pm. We're meeting mom and dad down by the baggage claim and if anyone from the DC area wants to come by and meet the baby, you just come right on over! We can't wait to see you and tell you all the things we've seen and done that never made it into an email. It has been so great writing to you when we can - these messages will serve as our travel diary for posterity. Well - gotta go get another carry-on for the nice souvenirs we don't want to check. It will probably cost about 60RMB (about $7!).
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Chongqing 2002 Redux
Message archive from November 2002 in Chongqing--this is the part of the trip where we completed the China part of JieJie's adoption.
11/23/02
Hi everyone, First, I hope you will not be too disappointed to hear that this message is not about the baby yet. We had hoped to receive JieJie this afternoon but we have been told that because it is not a workday, we will not meet the babies (sounds like a tv show, Meet The Babies) until tomorrow. I know, aaawwwwwgggghhhh! But actually we got over our initial disappointment fairly quickly. So M, tell R&C that the baby call will not come until Monday morning and that it may be as early as 8am (sorry C but I figure you won't mind waking up early in this case).
Yesterday we woke up around 7:30, had our last breakfast in the Novotel Peace Hotel Beijing and got everything packed. The lock on the hard-sided suitcase we borrowed doesn't work (sorry Arthurs!) soI went down to the Dong An Plaza shopping mall to find something to secure it. This mall is absolutely immense - six floors of shops and several six-story department stores anchoring the corners. I didn't find a luggage store so decided to try a department store. "Luggage strap" is pretty specific vocabulary so I didn't bother to see if I could find it in a phrasebook...after some pantomime and yes/no, the salesladies and I were able to understand each other just fine.
Nancy arrived at the hotel at noon and we went back to the Sichuan Restaurant where we had eaten that first night. This time - finally - she agreed to join us for lunch. Every other meal, she and Mr. Yan went into another room where guides and drivers eat while their clients dine in the dining room. We got used to it, but it always felt kind of funny being so friendly with them and then being segregated at meals. We gave Nancy a JMU book bag, some chocolate and a red envelope with her tip. Mr. Yan also got a red envelope (the traditional way for Chinese people to give money is in a red envelope and it's done especially at Chinese New Year). Surprise - she had a gift for us too! She had gotten us a little red knotted tassel with a Chinese opera mask on it, and also a beautiful Cloissone egg and a little wooden stand to put it on.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch - John LOVED the spicy noodles we had - and left for the airport. Our luggage was a little over the weight limit so we had to pay extra but that should be the only time that happens since the heaviest things in the luggage are jars of baby food and cans of formula, things that will be used this week (yay!). We said goodbye to Nancy, hugs all around, and promised to keep in touch by email. She was so great and we hope to see her again someday. She is hoping to study abroad very soon, perhaps in New Zealand.
Our flight was fine - John and I couldn't sit together because the plane was very full and we didn't get seat assignments in time, but no matter. Behind me was Kathleen, who is in our adoption group. This was the first sign that we were entering the adoption-specific phase of the trip and leaving the tourism behind. Next, Sho came back to the back of the plane. He and his wife Harriet, both from the Seattle area, had almost missed the plane! Harriet was up in first class enjoying the star treatment (it was the only seat left but she didn't seem to mind!).
We landed at dusk in heavy fog - Chongqing is at the confluence ofthe Jialing and Yangtze Rivers and it is in a bowl-shaped area just east of some high mountain plateaus, so it has a tendency to be very foggy like San Francisco. Our luggage arrived again (3 for 3!) and the five of us exited the baggage claim and there were Dr. Chen and Michael. Dr. Chen works for Americans Adopting Orphans. He is from Chengdu, Sichuan and helps the families who adopt from this region as they go through the paperwork and their first days of parenthood. Michael is our translator. He is a senior at Sichuan International University and he immediately struck up a conversation with John because he studied American history, so those two chatted away about books and different things all the way to the Holiday Inn Chongqing. Kathleen, Harriet and I were each presented with beautiful bouquets of carnations, daisies and roses and Dr. Chen took both video and still photos of our arrival. This was another sign that something special is getting ready to happen.
So you're reading this saying "duh, why do you think you're in China,you dork? Of COURSE something special is getting ready to happen!"So I must tell you that part of me is still in denial. We have been looking forward to this for two years and I'm really good at waiting and being patient, and there's a corner of my brain that keeps saying "you know this isn't really going to happen - you don't get to be a mom - but you'll have a nice trip anyway." This is why when they told us the babies wouldn't come til tomorrow, I went "of course not, because we must wait. It's what we always do." John doesn't feel this way at all! He says we've paid our dues and it's really going to happen, and then he does the baby dance. I'm beginning to believe him. And you know, our room looks like the room of two people about to become parents. There's a crib in there with a little pillow and quilt (but you see it's empty, which supports my theory), there are bottles, cans of formula, baby clothes, diapers and wipes, and even the little chop (signature stamp) that says our daughter's name in Chinese characters. This is so JieJie can sign her Christmas cards this year. So maybe she's really coming. I'll let you know. And there were good omens everywhere in Beijing - you see, Fu, the first character in JieJie's name, means Happiness and Good Luck and it's ubiquitous on signs and names of products all over the place. When we went to the Lamaa Temple, I looked down on the stone courtyard and there was a red square of paper with a Fu on it. It must have fallen off a pillar somewhere. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. Nancy told me that Chinese people hang the Fu upside down because "upside down" in Chinese sounds like "is coming" so Fu upside down means "Happiness is coming".
Fu is coming.
JieJie is coming.
11/24/02
Yaaaaaaayyyyyy!!!!! What a day it has been. John is upstairs right now with our DAUGHTER (!) who has had most of a bottle and is fading fast. It's about 7:30pm Monday Chongqing time. So here's what happened: We got up at about 6:30am, both up as soon as the alarm went off but luckily we slept very soundly for perhaps the last time in a while (guess we'll find out more about that tonight...). We had breakfast and then went up to get everything ready - diaper bag, bottles and liners, paperwork, travelers' checks, videocamera, etc. We went down to the lobby about 9am. Michael and Dr. Chen told us that the babies would be at the hotel about 1pm and that we would spend the morning changing travelers' checks and doing some sightseeing that might be harder post-baby due to chilly weather. We were all trying to figure out what things we needed to bring. At one point they told us we might not return to the hotel because if the babies weren't ready in time (changed, dressed etc) we might just go straight to the Civil Affairs Office. So we went to get everything we'd need after meeting JieJie. But then they said on second thought we probably will be back after all, so we just brought the camcorder. We went to Bank of China and 10 families walked out of there with cash for the orphanage donation and other fees and back on the bus.
Lest you think we were absolutely crazy, let me tell you that I feel so very safe here - we walked around on our own yesterday and while people certainly stare a great deal, they are friendly andcaring and I've never felt uneasy. So we all got back on the bus. Michael announced that while the Chongqing and Hechuan babies would arrive at the hotel at 1pm, the Fuling baby (that's us) would arrive at noon. Bonus! So it was about 11am and we went to the Chaotianmen Docks. This is at the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers and it is quite a sight - something to remember after the Three Gorges Dam changes this area forever. Right now the rivers are fairly low and there are exposed mud flats you walk across to get out to the many riverboats that sail the river. So we walked around there - not too chilly but very foggy/smoggy so visibility left a lot to be desired. Also as this is a popular tourist attraction, we were back to the Hello people, this time wanting to sell maps and clean shoes, but not quite as aggressive as we saw in Beijing.
BY THE WAY - we were so spoiled in Beijing with all the English speaking!!! Chongqing is far more remote feeling and the extremes of poverty are greater. This city is undergoing a great deal of change very quickly and the ubiquitous dust that covers everything comes from thousands upon thousands of sizeable construction sites.
It was getting very close to noon so we all got back into the bus andwent back to the hotel. We were so excited, counting the minutes, wondering if JieJie were perhaps already waiting in the lobby! I had the camcorder at the ready, so aware that we need to capture that moment when we first see her in person. We got off the bus, I looked around the lobby - no babies. That's ok - we were told to go up to our rooms and wait for a phone call. Waiting - hey, I can do that! So we went up there, no tv, we couldn't concentrate enough and didn't care enough to turn it on - had a heart to heart instead. No phone ring - I heard some other families talking in the hall and went out to say "what's up" and was told that a bunch of people were waiting in the lobby. We got our stuff and went down.
Dr. Chen told Michael something and then Michael turned to us and said No Time for Babies To Come To Hotel - we should all prepare to go to the Civil Affairs Office and meet them there. Great - we got our stuff (forgot the diaper bag in our panic but no big deal - one family forgot their money!!) and got back on the bus. We drove back downtown, the bus parked, and the camcorder went on. We went in a very nondescript looking doorway to the end of a hallway where there were two elevators. All of us piled onto the two elevators and went up to the4th floor, where the office is that handles marriage and adoption certificates. Camcorder still on. Elevator doors opened and we all came out at once and into a large, nicely decorated room with some couches and chairs, red decorations, and a long counter behind which there were civil affairs officials. I assumed more waiting was to follow. Standing at the counter was a woman holding a baby who looked very familiar (the baby, not the woman!). Indeed, it was our JieJie! We recognized her immediately. I thrust the camcorder intosomeone else's hands and said "please hold this" and we rushed to JieJie. Dr. Chen held her for what seemed like an eternity (I'm sure he loves this part of his job, being the baby presenter!) and talked to her and then gave her to me and John and I were just in awe. Sheis so beautiful! She was in a really mellow mood too, which seems to be her default so far...John held her next and we were just laughing and laughing.
All around us people were receiving their babies -like a mass birth all around the room! Standing off to the side were the nannies and foster mothers who have taken care of these children for many months and to whom we are all so very grateful - we brought special gifts for them to thank them. Soon the nannies were talking with the parents through the interpreter to tell them things that would help them begin to care for their daughters. JieJie's caregiver wasn't there but we are going to Fuling Thursday so we hope to meet her then. Fu De Quan (that's our girl!) was wearing a thick pink polar-fleece material outfit with a white collar. It had bears on the jacket and the buttons say 2008, presumably for the Olympics. Lots of the babies from Chongqing orphanage had entire outfits decorated with Olympics-related logos and pictures.
JieJie was also wearing the cutest little shoes with bears and bows on the toes. She was so warm. She initially seemed more comfortable with me and fussed a little when John was holding her so we went and sat down on the couch and sort of gradually moved her from my lap to his and this time she was fine. He played with her, made her laugh, and now she lights up when he comes into view. She has smiled and laughed for both of us several times already today. We had to hang out there for a while, give our fingerprints, give the orphanage donation and pay for JieJie's Chinese passport, have our first family portrait taken, and were given a CD (don't know what's on it - it's a data CD so guess we'll find out when we get home) and a beautiful glass sculpture that says "Hometown Chongqing" on it.
Some babies were crying but JieJie was either hanging out or smiling,babbling (Ah-Da-Da-Da is her favorite thing to say so far) or looking us in the eyes. She is very social and alert. Mr. Pan, the assistant director of the Fuling orphanage was there. We met him, took some pictures and gave him a gift (some homemade chocolates from Dayton, VA). He gave us a bottle for JieJie and talked to her a little. She had a little of the bottle while we were there. I gave her a hug and a squeeze and she settled right down for a nap on my chest. She slept on me all the way back on the bus--big day for her, including a 2-hour bus ride from Fuling.
We got back to the hotel, went up to our rooms and started trying to figure all this parenthood stuff out, one moment at a time. John went to get formula, JieJie got hungry and I fed her more of the bottle from Mr.Pan, and all told we got about 6 more ounces in her before she had a full enough belly to want to go to sleep. I assume that's what she's doing now. She seems in very good health - a little congestion, some boogers in the nose, the usual. Other than that she is just an amazing little person. There's that word again.
Oh and by the way - I believe it now, this baby stuff. She's real, she's here, and boy are we the two happiest people I know (except forthe other 9 families - they may argue with me on that one!). Wish us luck - we'll write again probably tomorrow. As soon as it's a human hour of the evening we'll be calling the grandparents. More later -Louise and John AND JIEJIE ARNDT! (by the way, we named her little stuffed animal/beanie baby "Dou Dou" for Nancy, since it means "little bean")
11/25/02
John here. Yesterday was our first full day with JieJie . We decided to join two other couples in a visit to the orphanage at Hechuan, about an hour north of here. The visit was expedited by the fact that the new superhighway between Chongqing and Hechuan had opened this past weekend. As we made our way north through the fog shrouded countryside, about the only thing we could see were all the banners on the side of the road celebrating the opening of the highway.
Hechuan was quite a trip. As soon as we got out of the minibus in Hechuan, a crowd of locals began to gather--within a few minutes, 20 or more people, mostly elderly women, surrounded us tugging at the children and basically telling us that our children needed more clothing. The habit of dressing infants here is to dress them as if they are about to go out and shovel snow in the Yukon--and its high 50s here. After the visit at the orphanage, we went to a local hotel for a grand lunch. Several courses, fish, beef, veggies, pork, etc, some bland and some very hot. From there we went down town, and while shopping at a store, we probably attracted 100 bystanders who wanted to look at the babies, lecture us on how to dress them and stare at Westerners who are few and far between in Hechuan. I winked at a little boy, who ran away, returned with two friends, and I winked at them while they blinked back.
The trip was tiring for us, esp so for JieJie, who was a bit out of sorts last evening. I finally got her settled down after about an hour, but every time she looked at Louise she'd start crying! The Dr. told us that this is often a part of the separation process and that moms are particularly vulnerable since they are female but not the primary caregiver they became accustomed to at the orphanage. Today will be low key--we'll go to get our laundry, which was supposed to be ready yesterday, which was hanging quite prominently from the front of the laundry last evening, but which we were informed was not ready. Perhaps there is status in the local laundry business in having Western clothes out front. Tomorrow we are heading east up the Yangtze to Fuling, where JieJie was kept. When we return from what will be a very full day (the recentlyfinished superhighway to Fuling will enable us to get there in about 21/2 hours), the families here plan on a big dinner some place in town. A Happy Thanksgiving indeed!
11/28/02
First of all, Happy Thanksgiving from China! It's 3pm on Thanksgiving Day as I write this, and John is upstairs waiting for a glycerin suppository to fix JieJie's constipation. I had heard before this trip and can attest to its truth, that a big topic of conversation among the new parents is poop. When, how much, consistency, amount, pretty much anything you could want to know about poop, we can tell you about it. And we've even learned a really effective traditional Chinese remedy for baby constipation! This morning one baby was fussing and when the parents told Dr. Chen that every time she tries to "go" she screams and cries, he mashed up a banana and brought a small saucer of sesame oil to the table. He instructed the parents to alternate spoonfuls of mashed banana with a spoonful of sesame oil. An hour later, success--we called it a "pooplosion"! Ok, enough about poop.
We were very glad yesterday that we decided just to hang out and not go to the Chongqing orphanage, though all the parents who went said it was absolutely state-of-the-art, comfy, plenty of caregivers, bright, colorful, stimulating, the whole bit. That was nice to hear and many of the parents were glad to see where their babies spent that time of their lives. This morning we were up bright and early - JieJie is starting to look at us differently, really look at us. She is smiling more, playing more. Yesterday she leaned into my kisses - that was great! For awhile there she really only looked at us long enough to discern that we were "those people who won't go away" and get upset. We figure the first day (from her perspective) we could've just been nice babysitters she was visiting, but once she started to realize that this was a permanent new situation, she began what Dr. Chen so nicely called "the period of adjustment". And really, we were well prepared to deal with this and it is going about as well as can be expected.
As John told you I had a hard time of it the first day or so after she started the transition. I know this is the best thing for her but it is just hard not to be able to give her the people who did comfort her while we wait to become the people who can comfort her. She is warming up to us a little more every day and we're being pretty patient if I do say so myself. Last night she had her first bath and that went pretty well. I got in the tub with her and we kept it short and to the point. That time post-bath and pre-bed is so wonderfully mellow. We played with some toys and hung out before putting her down about 8:30 which is what she is used to. Her paperwork from the orphanage said she sleeps from 8:30-7:30 and that's exactly what has happened so far with us.
After breakfast today we all got on the bus to go to Fuling. What a great thing that even though we are the only family with a Fuling baby, everyone else wanted to come along too! In fact the only person who stayed behind was a single mom who caught a nasty flu that's starting to make the rounds - let's hope our shots worked. It took about 2 hours to get to Fuling. On the outskirts of town it looked like a combination of the aftermath of an earthquake and a huge construction site. Because that part of Fuling will soon be under water when the dam starts to flood the Three Gorges (what an awful pity to lose that whole scenic area!), everything had to be deconstructed so that ships aren't running into submerged houses. Many thousands of people are being relocated as part of the dam project, and these areas we saw are their former neighborhoods. Fuling itself is more like a mini-Chongqing and not at all like Hechuan was the other day (thank goodness - that was not an easy day). There were tons of little shops, lots of people walking around, going about their business. I have seen maybe 2 people loitering since we landed in China on the 18th - everyone is busy, busy busy and these people work very hard. They are building superhighways and overpasses with very little heavy equipment - just wheelbarrowfuls of concrete at a time, but there are plenty of people and wheelbarrows so it all gets done.
The bus parked, we got off, and there was a curious but friendly crowd this time who definitely gave us more personal space than in Hechuan. They watched with curiosity as 9 families with Chinese babies walked down the street toward the orphanage. We have film of all this so if you want the whole story I'd be glad to show you. We got to meet Madame Yang, the Fuling orphanage director. She is a wonderful woman. We also saw Mr. Pan again, the assistant director, and we got to meet JieJie's caregiver but in all the excitement we neglected to ask her name - we will have to do that via the Internet when we get home. Madame Yang thanked us for adopting Fu De Quan and asked us if we were happy (duh!!!) and asked us to please send her photos and letters as JieJie grows up. We promised. Before we left, I asked Michael the interpreter if it would be ok to hug Madame Yang, he relayed the offer and she came to me with arms outstretched. I said 'thank you' in Chinese and she said the same (xie xie, like shyeh shyeh). JieJie was not at all bothered by being there as we had feared she might be. Quite the opposite - her legs were kicking with excitement and she smiled at everyone who came up and called her name - her nickname there was Quan Quan, pronounced like 'chuenchuen'. We are so glad we went, and we took an hour of videotape forJieJie to see whenever she wants to.
Tonight for Thanksgiving...well, we're all so tired that we decided to give in and have the Thankgsiving buffet here at the hotel. It's quite expensive, about $15/person as opposed to the less-than-$5 we're accustomed to paying for a large dinner, but it will be nice to have some familiar food. We have certainly been plenty adventurous while we're here so we don't feel too guilty...and it is Thanksgiving after all. And hey, it's American Week here at the Holiday Inn Chongqing, whose proprietor is from Hamburg, Germany and which is hosting a huge conference of Japanese businessmen!! For those of you who would like to remember us in your Thanksgiving celebrations, all you have to do is go to a Chinese restaurant and get an order of steamed or fried dumplings (jaozi) and dipping sauce or perhaps some Sichuan noodles and you'll be all set. We plan to add them to our Thanksgivings in the future to remember this incredible trip. Well, better go - by the way we finally sent some photos to be developed so look for those tomorrow morning when you sign on. I'll post them before we go to bed tonight. Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!
11/30/02
Well, we are finally starting to learn a little bit about JieJie's patterns of eating, sleeping, etc. so we are able to anticipate her needs and make things go a little more smoothly. So we knew what we were getting into yesterday when we got on the bus for another day trip. In preparation, we had taken Friday off and put her back on her schedule of morning nap and afternoon nap and she was much sunnier between naps. Yesterday (Saturday) morning we got on the bus and first went to the Chongqing zoo to see the pandas and tigers. She LOVED the pandas and cried when John walked her away from their pen. When she could see the pandas she would babble away and kick her feet in the carrier, smiling so big.
JieJie has some serious lungs and when she is displeased, she is LOUD. Oddly though, when she is happy, her happy sound begins as a whisper, with wide open mouth and eyes almost closed with smiling.I'm hoping perhaps her happy sounds can soon be as free and full as her upset sounds--and hoping those might diminish as she comes to trust us and get used to a dependable routine. After the zoo we headed for Dazu in northern Chongqing municipality. It was a 2-hour bus ride through some beautiful countryside with brick farmhouses and terraced fields of radishes, cabbages, and rice of course. Every so often we would see a farmer using a water buffalo to till a new rice paddy. Many times I saw children with baskets on their backs carrying produce from the field to the house, helping out with the family business. Because Chinese people build their houses according to feng shui (wind/water), the houses follow the contours of the land so beautifully. A good location for a house is one where there are mountains at the back to block the wind and a stream at the front.
When we got to Dazu we all ate at a hotel restaurant. It was pretty good - the biggest discovery was that JieJie LOVES tapioca. What we later realized was she shouldn't be eating too much of it yet! Dazu is famous for some 800-year-old stone carvings of buddhas and other well-known figures of Chinese religious belief. We saw a grotto full of beautiful stone carvings and then walked along a bluff that had amazing sculptures cut into the rock. About halfway through the tour - MELTDOWN. Inconsolable crying, thrashing, the whole nine yards. We expected it because she had barely slept either morning or afternoon (she usually has a 2-hour nap 2x/day) but while it's happening it's still rough to deal with. On top of this, she was wet and hungry. Even after we satisfied both of those needs though, she was still just frantic.
Remember the staring and the "hello" we encounter in public, especially tourist areas? Imagine what it's like to have a crying baby as you walk down the street, everyone staring, pointing, talking about the "waiguoren" (foreigner) with the "chongguoren xiao har"(Chinese baby). I am just coming off of a 3-day bout with the flu so the patience level was not high. John put me on a van to take me back to the bus with the baby and when we got there, it was hello time. "Hello ten dollars! Hello! Hello orange! Hello onedollar!" Normally I can deal but I just made a break for the bus, finally got JieJie calmed down and she fell asleep for about an hour before waking up again in hysterics. The culprit? You guessed it - constipation. Poor baby!!! Thanks to Cathy for suggesting we bring glycerin suppositories. So suffice it to say we are learning. Slowly. Half the parents are sick with this flu and on the bus you could hear a combination of babies crying and parents coughing and moaning. What a sight we must've been! They offered another outing today but almost nobody is going. Small wonder! I don't mean to diminish the majesty of Dazu and I hope if you go to China someday you will get a chance to see these amazing sculptures. Just don't forget the suppositories!!
So today is a Mellow Day. JieJie's in a fantastic mood and giggling and laughing especially when she can see herself in the mirror. She also likes rattles so we're going to find one or two new ones today. Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou for the last leg of this trip. We have received JieJie's official notarized adoption certificate from the provincial authorities, and her Chinese passport (it's so cute!) which are the major things we need before we head to the U.S.Consulate in Guangzhou. We are very excited to see our friends from home and meet their new daughter Emily. Wow, what an adventure! I'll write next from Guangzhou - take care, Louise
11/23/02
Hi everyone, First, I hope you will not be too disappointed to hear that this message is not about the baby yet. We had hoped to receive JieJie this afternoon but we have been told that because it is not a workday, we will not meet the babies (sounds like a tv show, Meet The Babies) until tomorrow. I know, aaawwwwwgggghhhh! But actually we got over our initial disappointment fairly quickly. So M, tell R&C that the baby call will not come until Monday morning and that it may be as early as 8am (sorry C but I figure you won't mind waking up early in this case).
Yesterday we woke up around 7:30, had our last breakfast in the Novotel Peace Hotel Beijing and got everything packed. The lock on the hard-sided suitcase we borrowed doesn't work (sorry Arthurs!) soI went down to the Dong An Plaza shopping mall to find something to secure it. This mall is absolutely immense - six floors of shops and several six-story department stores anchoring the corners. I didn't find a luggage store so decided to try a department store. "Luggage strap" is pretty specific vocabulary so I didn't bother to see if I could find it in a phrasebook...after some pantomime and yes/no, the salesladies and I were able to understand each other just fine.
Nancy arrived at the hotel at noon and we went back to the Sichuan Restaurant where we had eaten that first night. This time - finally - she agreed to join us for lunch. Every other meal, she and Mr. Yan went into another room where guides and drivers eat while their clients dine in the dining room. We got used to it, but it always felt kind of funny being so friendly with them and then being segregated at meals. We gave Nancy a JMU book bag, some chocolate and a red envelope with her tip. Mr. Yan also got a red envelope (the traditional way for Chinese people to give money is in a red envelope and it's done especially at Chinese New Year). Surprise - she had a gift for us too! She had gotten us a little red knotted tassel with a Chinese opera mask on it, and also a beautiful Cloissone egg and a little wooden stand to put it on.
We enjoyed a delicious lunch - John LOVED the spicy noodles we had - and left for the airport. Our luggage was a little over the weight limit so we had to pay extra but that should be the only time that happens since the heaviest things in the luggage are jars of baby food and cans of formula, things that will be used this week (yay!). We said goodbye to Nancy, hugs all around, and promised to keep in touch by email. She was so great and we hope to see her again someday. She is hoping to study abroad very soon, perhaps in New Zealand.
Our flight was fine - John and I couldn't sit together because the plane was very full and we didn't get seat assignments in time, but no matter. Behind me was Kathleen, who is in our adoption group. This was the first sign that we were entering the adoption-specific phase of the trip and leaving the tourism behind. Next, Sho came back to the back of the plane. He and his wife Harriet, both from the Seattle area, had almost missed the plane! Harriet was up in first class enjoying the star treatment (it was the only seat left but she didn't seem to mind!).
We landed at dusk in heavy fog - Chongqing is at the confluence ofthe Jialing and Yangtze Rivers and it is in a bowl-shaped area just east of some high mountain plateaus, so it has a tendency to be very foggy like San Francisco. Our luggage arrived again (3 for 3!) and the five of us exited the baggage claim and there were Dr. Chen and Michael. Dr. Chen works for Americans Adopting Orphans. He is from Chengdu, Sichuan and helps the families who adopt from this region as they go through the paperwork and their first days of parenthood. Michael is our translator. He is a senior at Sichuan International University and he immediately struck up a conversation with John because he studied American history, so those two chatted away about books and different things all the way to the Holiday Inn Chongqing. Kathleen, Harriet and I were each presented with beautiful bouquets of carnations, daisies and roses and Dr. Chen took both video and still photos of our arrival. This was another sign that something special is getting ready to happen.
So you're reading this saying "duh, why do you think you're in China,you dork? Of COURSE something special is getting ready to happen!"So I must tell you that part of me is still in denial. We have been looking forward to this for two years and I'm really good at waiting and being patient, and there's a corner of my brain that keeps saying "you know this isn't really going to happen - you don't get to be a mom - but you'll have a nice trip anyway." This is why when they told us the babies wouldn't come til tomorrow, I went "of course not, because we must wait. It's what we always do." John doesn't feel this way at all! He says we've paid our dues and it's really going to happen, and then he does the baby dance. I'm beginning to believe him. And you know, our room looks like the room of two people about to become parents. There's a crib in there with a little pillow and quilt (but you see it's empty, which supports my theory), there are bottles, cans of formula, baby clothes, diapers and wipes, and even the little chop (signature stamp) that says our daughter's name in Chinese characters. This is so JieJie can sign her Christmas cards this year. So maybe she's really coming. I'll let you know. And there were good omens everywhere in Beijing - you see, Fu, the first character in JieJie's name, means Happiness and Good Luck and it's ubiquitous on signs and names of products all over the place. When we went to the Lamaa Temple, I looked down on the stone courtyard and there was a red square of paper with a Fu on it. It must have fallen off a pillar somewhere. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. Nancy told me that Chinese people hang the Fu upside down because "upside down" in Chinese sounds like "is coming" so Fu upside down means "Happiness is coming".
Fu is coming.
JieJie is coming.
11/24/02
Yaaaaaaayyyyyy!!!!! What a day it has been. John is upstairs right now with our DAUGHTER (!) who has had most of a bottle and is fading fast. It's about 7:30pm Monday Chongqing time. So here's what happened: We got up at about 6:30am, both up as soon as the alarm went off but luckily we slept very soundly for perhaps the last time in a while (guess we'll find out more about that tonight...). We had breakfast and then went up to get everything ready - diaper bag, bottles and liners, paperwork, travelers' checks, videocamera, etc. We went down to the lobby about 9am. Michael and Dr. Chen told us that the babies would be at the hotel about 1pm and that we would spend the morning changing travelers' checks and doing some sightseeing that might be harder post-baby due to chilly weather. We were all trying to figure out what things we needed to bring. At one point they told us we might not return to the hotel because if the babies weren't ready in time (changed, dressed etc) we might just go straight to the Civil Affairs Office. So we went to get everything we'd need after meeting JieJie. But then they said on second thought we probably will be back after all, so we just brought the camcorder. We went to Bank of China and 10 families walked out of there with cash for the orphanage donation and other fees and back on the bus.
Lest you think we were absolutely crazy, let me tell you that I feel so very safe here - we walked around on our own yesterday and while people certainly stare a great deal, they are friendly andcaring and I've never felt uneasy. So we all got back on the bus. Michael announced that while the Chongqing and Hechuan babies would arrive at the hotel at 1pm, the Fuling baby (that's us) would arrive at noon. Bonus! So it was about 11am and we went to the Chaotianmen Docks. This is at the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers and it is quite a sight - something to remember after the Three Gorges Dam changes this area forever. Right now the rivers are fairly low and there are exposed mud flats you walk across to get out to the many riverboats that sail the river. So we walked around there - not too chilly but very foggy/smoggy so visibility left a lot to be desired. Also as this is a popular tourist attraction, we were back to the Hello people, this time wanting to sell maps and clean shoes, but not quite as aggressive as we saw in Beijing.
BY THE WAY - we were so spoiled in Beijing with all the English speaking!!! Chongqing is far more remote feeling and the extremes of poverty are greater. This city is undergoing a great deal of change very quickly and the ubiquitous dust that covers everything comes from thousands upon thousands of sizeable construction sites.
It was getting very close to noon so we all got back into the bus andwent back to the hotel. We were so excited, counting the minutes, wondering if JieJie were perhaps already waiting in the lobby! I had the camcorder at the ready, so aware that we need to capture that moment when we first see her in person. We got off the bus, I looked around the lobby - no babies. That's ok - we were told to go up to our rooms and wait for a phone call. Waiting - hey, I can do that! So we went up there, no tv, we couldn't concentrate enough and didn't care enough to turn it on - had a heart to heart instead. No phone ring - I heard some other families talking in the hall and went out to say "what's up" and was told that a bunch of people were waiting in the lobby. We got our stuff and went down.
Dr. Chen told Michael something and then Michael turned to us and said No Time for Babies To Come To Hotel - we should all prepare to go to the Civil Affairs Office and meet them there. Great - we got our stuff (forgot the diaper bag in our panic but no big deal - one family forgot their money!!) and got back on the bus. We drove back downtown, the bus parked, and the camcorder went on. We went in a very nondescript looking doorway to the end of a hallway where there were two elevators. All of us piled onto the two elevators and went up to the4th floor, where the office is that handles marriage and adoption certificates. Camcorder still on. Elevator doors opened and we all came out at once and into a large, nicely decorated room with some couches and chairs, red decorations, and a long counter behind which there were civil affairs officials. I assumed more waiting was to follow. Standing at the counter was a woman holding a baby who looked very familiar (the baby, not the woman!). Indeed, it was our JieJie! We recognized her immediately. I thrust the camcorder intosomeone else's hands and said "please hold this" and we rushed to JieJie. Dr. Chen held her for what seemed like an eternity (I'm sure he loves this part of his job, being the baby presenter!) and talked to her and then gave her to me and John and I were just in awe. Sheis so beautiful! She was in a really mellow mood too, which seems to be her default so far...John held her next and we were just laughing and laughing.
All around us people were receiving their babies -like a mass birth all around the room! Standing off to the side were the nannies and foster mothers who have taken care of these children for many months and to whom we are all so very grateful - we brought special gifts for them to thank them. Soon the nannies were talking with the parents through the interpreter to tell them things that would help them begin to care for their daughters. JieJie's caregiver wasn't there but we are going to Fuling Thursday so we hope to meet her then. Fu De Quan (that's our girl!) was wearing a thick pink polar-fleece material outfit with a white collar. It had bears on the jacket and the buttons say 2008, presumably for the Olympics. Lots of the babies from Chongqing orphanage had entire outfits decorated with Olympics-related logos and pictures.
JieJie was also wearing the cutest little shoes with bears and bows on the toes. She was so warm. She initially seemed more comfortable with me and fussed a little when John was holding her so we went and sat down on the couch and sort of gradually moved her from my lap to his and this time she was fine. He played with her, made her laugh, and now she lights up when he comes into view. She has smiled and laughed for both of us several times already today. We had to hang out there for a while, give our fingerprints, give the orphanage donation and pay for JieJie's Chinese passport, have our first family portrait taken, and were given a CD (don't know what's on it - it's a data CD so guess we'll find out when we get home) and a beautiful glass sculpture that says "Hometown Chongqing" on it.
Some babies were crying but JieJie was either hanging out or smiling,babbling (Ah-Da-Da-Da is her favorite thing to say so far) or looking us in the eyes. She is very social and alert. Mr. Pan, the assistant director of the Fuling orphanage was there. We met him, took some pictures and gave him a gift (some homemade chocolates from Dayton, VA). He gave us a bottle for JieJie and talked to her a little. She had a little of the bottle while we were there. I gave her a hug and a squeeze and she settled right down for a nap on my chest. She slept on me all the way back on the bus--big day for her, including a 2-hour bus ride from Fuling.
We got back to the hotel, went up to our rooms and started trying to figure all this parenthood stuff out, one moment at a time. John went to get formula, JieJie got hungry and I fed her more of the bottle from Mr.Pan, and all told we got about 6 more ounces in her before she had a full enough belly to want to go to sleep. I assume that's what she's doing now. She seems in very good health - a little congestion, some boogers in the nose, the usual. Other than that she is just an amazing little person. There's that word again.
Oh and by the way - I believe it now, this baby stuff. She's real, she's here, and boy are we the two happiest people I know (except forthe other 9 families - they may argue with me on that one!). Wish us luck - we'll write again probably tomorrow. As soon as it's a human hour of the evening we'll be calling the grandparents. More later -Louise and John AND JIEJIE ARNDT! (by the way, we named her little stuffed animal/beanie baby "Dou Dou" for Nancy, since it means "little bean")
11/25/02
John here. Yesterday was our first full day with JieJie . We decided to join two other couples in a visit to the orphanage at Hechuan, about an hour north of here. The visit was expedited by the fact that the new superhighway between Chongqing and Hechuan had opened this past weekend. As we made our way north through the fog shrouded countryside, about the only thing we could see were all the banners on the side of the road celebrating the opening of the highway.
Hechuan was quite a trip. As soon as we got out of the minibus in Hechuan, a crowd of locals began to gather--within a few minutes, 20 or more people, mostly elderly women, surrounded us tugging at the children and basically telling us that our children needed more clothing. The habit of dressing infants here is to dress them as if they are about to go out and shovel snow in the Yukon--and its high 50s here. After the visit at the orphanage, we went to a local hotel for a grand lunch. Several courses, fish, beef, veggies, pork, etc, some bland and some very hot. From there we went down town, and while shopping at a store, we probably attracted 100 bystanders who wanted to look at the babies, lecture us on how to dress them and stare at Westerners who are few and far between in Hechuan. I winked at a little boy, who ran away, returned with two friends, and I winked at them while they blinked back.
The trip was tiring for us, esp so for JieJie, who was a bit out of sorts last evening. I finally got her settled down after about an hour, but every time she looked at Louise she'd start crying! The Dr. told us that this is often a part of the separation process and that moms are particularly vulnerable since they are female but not the primary caregiver they became accustomed to at the orphanage. Today will be low key--we'll go to get our laundry, which was supposed to be ready yesterday, which was hanging quite prominently from the front of the laundry last evening, but which we were informed was not ready. Perhaps there is status in the local laundry business in having Western clothes out front. Tomorrow we are heading east up the Yangtze to Fuling, where JieJie was kept. When we return from what will be a very full day (the recentlyfinished superhighway to Fuling will enable us to get there in about 21/2 hours), the families here plan on a big dinner some place in town. A Happy Thanksgiving indeed!
11/28/02
First of all, Happy Thanksgiving from China! It's 3pm on Thanksgiving Day as I write this, and John is upstairs waiting for a glycerin suppository to fix JieJie's constipation. I had heard before this trip and can attest to its truth, that a big topic of conversation among the new parents is poop. When, how much, consistency, amount, pretty much anything you could want to know about poop, we can tell you about it. And we've even learned a really effective traditional Chinese remedy for baby constipation! This morning one baby was fussing and when the parents told Dr. Chen that every time she tries to "go" she screams and cries, he mashed up a banana and brought a small saucer of sesame oil to the table. He instructed the parents to alternate spoonfuls of mashed banana with a spoonful of sesame oil. An hour later, success--we called it a "pooplosion"! Ok, enough about poop.
We were very glad yesterday that we decided just to hang out and not go to the Chongqing orphanage, though all the parents who went said it was absolutely state-of-the-art, comfy, plenty of caregivers, bright, colorful, stimulating, the whole bit. That was nice to hear and many of the parents were glad to see where their babies spent that time of their lives. This morning we were up bright and early - JieJie is starting to look at us differently, really look at us. She is smiling more, playing more. Yesterday she leaned into my kisses - that was great! For awhile there she really only looked at us long enough to discern that we were "those people who won't go away" and get upset. We figure the first day (from her perspective) we could've just been nice babysitters she was visiting, but once she started to realize that this was a permanent new situation, she began what Dr. Chen so nicely called "the period of adjustment". And really, we were well prepared to deal with this and it is going about as well as can be expected.
As John told you I had a hard time of it the first day or so after she started the transition. I know this is the best thing for her but it is just hard not to be able to give her the people who did comfort her while we wait to become the people who can comfort her. She is warming up to us a little more every day and we're being pretty patient if I do say so myself. Last night she had her first bath and that went pretty well. I got in the tub with her and we kept it short and to the point. That time post-bath and pre-bed is so wonderfully mellow. We played with some toys and hung out before putting her down about 8:30 which is what she is used to. Her paperwork from the orphanage said she sleeps from 8:30-7:30 and that's exactly what has happened so far with us.
After breakfast today we all got on the bus to go to Fuling. What a great thing that even though we are the only family with a Fuling baby, everyone else wanted to come along too! In fact the only person who stayed behind was a single mom who caught a nasty flu that's starting to make the rounds - let's hope our shots worked. It took about 2 hours to get to Fuling. On the outskirts of town it looked like a combination of the aftermath of an earthquake and a huge construction site. Because that part of Fuling will soon be under water when the dam starts to flood the Three Gorges (what an awful pity to lose that whole scenic area!), everything had to be deconstructed so that ships aren't running into submerged houses. Many thousands of people are being relocated as part of the dam project, and these areas we saw are their former neighborhoods. Fuling itself is more like a mini-Chongqing and not at all like Hechuan was the other day (thank goodness - that was not an easy day). There were tons of little shops, lots of people walking around, going about their business. I have seen maybe 2 people loitering since we landed in China on the 18th - everyone is busy, busy busy and these people work very hard. They are building superhighways and overpasses with very little heavy equipment - just wheelbarrowfuls of concrete at a time, but there are plenty of people and wheelbarrows so it all gets done.
The bus parked, we got off, and there was a curious but friendly crowd this time who definitely gave us more personal space than in Hechuan. They watched with curiosity as 9 families with Chinese babies walked down the street toward the orphanage. We have film of all this so if you want the whole story I'd be glad to show you. We got to meet Madame Yang, the Fuling orphanage director. She is a wonderful woman. We also saw Mr. Pan again, the assistant director, and we got to meet JieJie's caregiver but in all the excitement we neglected to ask her name - we will have to do that via the Internet when we get home. Madame Yang thanked us for adopting Fu De Quan and asked us if we were happy (duh!!!) and asked us to please send her photos and letters as JieJie grows up. We promised. Before we left, I asked Michael the interpreter if it would be ok to hug Madame Yang, he relayed the offer and she came to me with arms outstretched. I said 'thank you' in Chinese and she said the same (xie xie, like shyeh shyeh). JieJie was not at all bothered by being there as we had feared she might be. Quite the opposite - her legs were kicking with excitement and she smiled at everyone who came up and called her name - her nickname there was Quan Quan, pronounced like 'chuenchuen'. We are so glad we went, and we took an hour of videotape forJieJie to see whenever she wants to.
Tonight for Thanksgiving...well, we're all so tired that we decided to give in and have the Thankgsiving buffet here at the hotel. It's quite expensive, about $15/person as opposed to the less-than-$5 we're accustomed to paying for a large dinner, but it will be nice to have some familiar food. We have certainly been plenty adventurous while we're here so we don't feel too guilty...and it is Thanksgiving after all. And hey, it's American Week here at the Holiday Inn Chongqing, whose proprietor is from Hamburg, Germany and which is hosting a huge conference of Japanese businessmen!! For those of you who would like to remember us in your Thanksgiving celebrations, all you have to do is go to a Chinese restaurant and get an order of steamed or fried dumplings (jaozi) and dipping sauce or perhaps some Sichuan noodles and you'll be all set. We plan to add them to our Thanksgivings in the future to remember this incredible trip. Well, better go - by the way we finally sent some photos to be developed so look for those tomorrow morning when you sign on. I'll post them before we go to bed tonight. Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!
11/30/02
Well, we are finally starting to learn a little bit about JieJie's patterns of eating, sleeping, etc. so we are able to anticipate her needs and make things go a little more smoothly. So we knew what we were getting into yesterday when we got on the bus for another day trip. In preparation, we had taken Friday off and put her back on her schedule of morning nap and afternoon nap and she was much sunnier between naps. Yesterday (Saturday) morning we got on the bus and first went to the Chongqing zoo to see the pandas and tigers. She LOVED the pandas and cried when John walked her away from their pen. When she could see the pandas she would babble away and kick her feet in the carrier, smiling so big.
JieJie has some serious lungs and when she is displeased, she is LOUD. Oddly though, when she is happy, her happy sound begins as a whisper, with wide open mouth and eyes almost closed with smiling.I'm hoping perhaps her happy sounds can soon be as free and full as her upset sounds--and hoping those might diminish as she comes to trust us and get used to a dependable routine. After the zoo we headed for Dazu in northern Chongqing municipality. It was a 2-hour bus ride through some beautiful countryside with brick farmhouses and terraced fields of radishes, cabbages, and rice of course. Every so often we would see a farmer using a water buffalo to till a new rice paddy. Many times I saw children with baskets on their backs carrying produce from the field to the house, helping out with the family business. Because Chinese people build their houses according to feng shui (wind/water), the houses follow the contours of the land so beautifully. A good location for a house is one where there are mountains at the back to block the wind and a stream at the front.
When we got to Dazu we all ate at a hotel restaurant. It was pretty good - the biggest discovery was that JieJie LOVES tapioca. What we later realized was she shouldn't be eating too much of it yet! Dazu is famous for some 800-year-old stone carvings of buddhas and other well-known figures of Chinese religious belief. We saw a grotto full of beautiful stone carvings and then walked along a bluff that had amazing sculptures cut into the rock. About halfway through the tour - MELTDOWN. Inconsolable crying, thrashing, the whole nine yards. We expected it because she had barely slept either morning or afternoon (she usually has a 2-hour nap 2x/day) but while it's happening it's still rough to deal with. On top of this, she was wet and hungry. Even after we satisfied both of those needs though, she was still just frantic.
Remember the staring and the "hello" we encounter in public, especially tourist areas? Imagine what it's like to have a crying baby as you walk down the street, everyone staring, pointing, talking about the "waiguoren" (foreigner) with the "chongguoren xiao har"(Chinese baby). I am just coming off of a 3-day bout with the flu so the patience level was not high. John put me on a van to take me back to the bus with the baby and when we got there, it was hello time. "Hello ten dollars! Hello! Hello orange! Hello onedollar!" Normally I can deal but I just made a break for the bus, finally got JieJie calmed down and she fell asleep for about an hour before waking up again in hysterics. The culprit? You guessed it - constipation. Poor baby!!! Thanks to Cathy for suggesting we bring glycerin suppositories. So suffice it to say we are learning. Slowly. Half the parents are sick with this flu and on the bus you could hear a combination of babies crying and parents coughing and moaning. What a sight we must've been! They offered another outing today but almost nobody is going. Small wonder! I don't mean to diminish the majesty of Dazu and I hope if you go to China someday you will get a chance to see these amazing sculptures. Just don't forget the suppositories!!
So today is a Mellow Day. JieJie's in a fantastic mood and giggling and laughing especially when she can see herself in the mirror. She also likes rattles so we're going to find one or two new ones today. Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou for the last leg of this trip. We have received JieJie's official notarized adoption certificate from the provincial authorities, and her Chinese passport (it's so cute!) which are the major things we need before we head to the U.S.Consulate in Guangzhou. We are very excited to see our friends from home and meet their new daughter Emily. Wow, what an adventure! I'll write next from Guangzhou - take care, Louise
Friday, May 12, 2006
The big trip summer 2006
Well, we're about to set off again on another family travel adventure! I'll be sure to let you know how things go. Based on our last trip, I'll be biased toward staying at Holiday Inns because often they have more breakfast options right in the hotel, and boy is it great just to walk down to breakfast instead of packing everyone in the car AGAIN...plus I am in the middle of the first two weeks of the South Beach Diet so I can't just go to the usual carb-a-thon that most hotels put out in the morning. Eggs for me! Getting sick of eggs for breakfast, but it's working.
I digress!
The itinerary:
en route to Alabama wedding...
2 nights in Williamsburg, VA with friends
1 night in Inman, SC with friends
2 nights at Lake Martin, AL with friends, includes the wedding (awww)
en route to the Twin Cities, MN...
1 night in either Memphis, TN or Cape Girardeau, MO (depending on how close to meltdown the kids are)
rest day and touring in Hannibal, MO--not that the girls are going to be all excited about Mark Twain, but maybe we can take a neat riverboat ride or something...anything to stretch our legs and get some fresh air)
looooooong driving day to the Twin Cities (can you say Huge Glass of Shiraz Upon Arrival?)
stay a few weeks with family, then home to the Shenandoah Valley the usual way, WI-IL-IN-OH-WV-VA.
I'll be posting from the road on a laptop...stay tuned!
I digress!
The itinerary:
en route to Alabama wedding...
2 nights in Williamsburg, VA with friends
1 night in Inman, SC with friends
2 nights at Lake Martin, AL with friends, includes the wedding (awww)
en route to the Twin Cities, MN...
1 night in either Memphis, TN or Cape Girardeau, MO (depending on how close to meltdown the kids are)
rest day and touring in Hannibal, MO--not that the girls are going to be all excited about Mark Twain, but maybe we can take a neat riverboat ride or something...anything to stretch our legs and get some fresh air)
looooooong driving day to the Twin Cities (can you say Huge Glass of Shiraz Upon Arrival?)
stay a few weeks with family, then home to the Shenandoah Valley the usual way, WI-IL-IN-OH-WV-VA.
I'll be posting from the road on a laptop...stay tuned!
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Pearl place in Guangzhou
So many people have asked for the information on the pearl shop we found in Guangzhou (not far from Shamian Island), I thought I would post it Once And For All:
Proprietor Cai Qin Bing
Zhejiang Wenling Jin Bing Jewelry Arts and Crafts Factory
#GB9, LiWan Plaza, KangWangNan Road, Guangzhou
Mobile phone 13501532796
Telephone / Fax: 020-81711599
We got amazing treasures at this store in Guangzhou! It's hard to find the first time you go. You may want to have the White Swan concierge call, so they can write exact directions in Chinese for a cab driver. LiWan Plaza is a huge shopping center but this pearl place (and there are several in the vicinity) faces the street, it is not inside the mall-like area. It's about the size of a frozen yogurt place, door opens at or near the corner of the plaza. It's really not far at all from the White Swan. The place is at the corner farthest down the road from the White Swan, so if a cab driver drops you at the main entrance, keep walking til you get to the corner.
Here's the important thing to remember, etiquette-wise: this is a pearl wholesaler. There are American jewelers who get all their pearls here on annual shopping trips. The prices are already so cheap, you should not try to bargain as you would with other merchants, or you risk insulting the proprietors. And really, you don't need to bargain! Why? Example: pearl earrings, $5/pair. Large pink freshwater pearl ring in a setting of Austrian crystal: $20. Three-strand freshwater pearl arrangement in purples, teals and black with pearl-encrusted clasp: $60. Perfectly matched collarbone-length saltwater pearls with a pearl in the clasp: $100 and up. Saltwater will be more expensive than freshwater. There is a greater selection of colors in the freshwater pearls. Your necklaces and/or bracelets will likely be hand-strung, double-knotted, right in front of you and it will really not take that much time (fun to watch too!). They will bring a bundle of strands down on the counter and ask you to pick the strand you want. You can even ask for calipers to make sure that they are all the same size! We found the strand selection process to be a big part of the ritual of buying pearls here, so don't go if you're in a hurry, or you won't have as much fun.
If you bring your baby along, perhaps you will have the same experience we did: they gave our daughter crackers from a bag they were snacking on, then insisted we take the rest of the bag with us, AND they made a black-and-white pearl baby bracelet just the right size for our daughter and gave it to us, no charge. They were so sweet to MeiMei, holding her and playing with her.
On both our trips, we got Christmas presents for moms, sisters, nieces (we were trying to think of more people just to take advantage of the amazing deals!). After you tell them everything you want, but before they start making it, they will total it on a calculator and show it to you to make sure you agree to the price. Chances are, you will be used to what things cost at most souvenir shops by that point and you will just nod an immediate yes. It really was an incredible find--we lucked into it in 2002 and made a point to go back (twice!) in 2004.
Proprietor Cai Qin Bing
Zhejiang Wenling Jin Bing Jewelry Arts and Crafts Factory
#GB9, LiWan Plaza, KangWangNan Road, Guangzhou
Mobile phone 13501532796
Telephone / Fax: 020-81711599
We got amazing treasures at this store in Guangzhou! It's hard to find the first time you go. You may want to have the White Swan concierge call, so they can write exact directions in Chinese for a cab driver. LiWan Plaza is a huge shopping center but this pearl place (and there are several in the vicinity) faces the street, it is not inside the mall-like area. It's about the size of a frozen yogurt place, door opens at or near the corner of the plaza. It's really not far at all from the White Swan. The place is at the corner farthest down the road from the White Swan, so if a cab driver drops you at the main entrance, keep walking til you get to the corner.
Here's the important thing to remember, etiquette-wise: this is a pearl wholesaler. There are American jewelers who get all their pearls here on annual shopping trips. The prices are already so cheap, you should not try to bargain as you would with other merchants, or you risk insulting the proprietors. And really, you don't need to bargain! Why? Example: pearl earrings, $5/pair. Large pink freshwater pearl ring in a setting of Austrian crystal: $20. Three-strand freshwater pearl arrangement in purples, teals and black with pearl-encrusted clasp: $60. Perfectly matched collarbone-length saltwater pearls with a pearl in the clasp: $100 and up. Saltwater will be more expensive than freshwater. There is a greater selection of colors in the freshwater pearls. Your necklaces and/or bracelets will likely be hand-strung, double-knotted, right in front of you and it will really not take that much time (fun to watch too!). They will bring a bundle of strands down on the counter and ask you to pick the strand you want. You can even ask for calipers to make sure that they are all the same size! We found the strand selection process to be a big part of the ritual of buying pearls here, so don't go if you're in a hurry, or you won't have as much fun.
If you bring your baby along, perhaps you will have the same experience we did: they gave our daughter crackers from a bag they were snacking on, then insisted we take the rest of the bag with us, AND they made a black-and-white pearl baby bracelet just the right size for our daughter and gave it to us, no charge. They were so sweet to MeiMei, holding her and playing with her.
On both our trips, we got Christmas presents for moms, sisters, nieces (we were trying to think of more people just to take advantage of the amazing deals!). After you tell them everything you want, but before they start making it, they will total it on a calculator and show it to you to make sure you agree to the price. Chances are, you will be used to what things cost at most souvenir shops by that point and you will just nod an immediate yes. It really was an incredible find--we lucked into it in 2002 and made a point to go back (twice!) in 2004.
Monday, April 24, 2006
China 2002: Beijing
11/18/02
Hello everyone,
Well, after traveling for a very long time... 5 hour flight to LA, 3 hour layover, 15 hour flight to Guangzhou, 2 hour layover after easy time through customs, then a 3 hour flight to Beijing...We are safely settled in the Novotel Peace Hotel, minutes fromTiananmen Square. All of our bags made it here safely and we had smooth flying on every leg of the trip. China Southern Airlines has wonderful service and delicious food.
The hotel room is very nice. We have a hot pot for boiling water for tea or just to make it safe to drink. We have many western channels on tv, including CNN, so we were able to catch up on the news after being in limbo for a while. We had a wonderful dinner. Our guide made arrangements for us to eat at Sichuan Restaurant a few blocks from our hotel. We had an assortment of dishes and everything was DELICIOUS!! The only hard part was we have been warned not to eat fruit, but they brought out this beautiful plate of apple and orange...since fruit is one of the joys of my life it was torture not to eat it!!! I admit I cut a tiny bit of the inside of an apple and took one bite. Sadly I told our guide maybe she should tell them not to bring any more fruit when she orders our meals. [hindsight comment: as long as you wash the fruit, it’s probably not going to hurt you! Watch for this attitude to relax a great deal in upcoming entries]
Beijing feels like New York City and with all the lights it's a bit like Chinatown-meets-Times Square. Not crowded at all, though it's true what we've heard about the crazy driving so you have to keep your eyes peeled at all times. Tiananmen Square tomorrow, I think. Our guide, Nancy (Chinese first name DouDou) and our driver Mr. Yan are both very nice. They may make alterations to the exact timing of the places on our itinerary, but we will still be seeing all the things we planned to see. Nancy is about 23, so nice and very cute, a hardworking student and very hip! She met us at the airport dressed in a smart, neo-Mod style with a beige corduroy cap, rust-colored leather jacket and pointy boots poking out from under her pant legs. She has a great sense of humor and we are going to enjoy touring around with her and Mr. Yan. Well, we're about ready to pack it in for the night - it's 8:30pm Monday so you're probably just getting your morning coffee as I write this. It's inexpensive and easy to use the business center in our hotel so you can expect regular posts from us while we are in Beijing.
11/20/02 It's Wednesday morning the 20th, 7:20am and John and I just finished another delicious breakfast in our hotel. Today I tried some rice congee {like oatmeal} with honey and lichee fruit. Yum! John discovered they have chocolate croissants, so that does it for him. Yesterday was mind-blowingly full of sights, sounds, smells etc. and when we finally arrived back at our hotel at 9pm, we turned out the lights and fell right to sleep. Our tour guide Nancy met us in the lobby at 9am and Mr. Yan arrived in his Red Flag car {Chinese-made, very nice} to take us first to The Forbidden City. We knew it would be amazing and we were not disappointed. There is a definite sense of "inner sanctum" there, with the moat, the outside walls, and the concentric rings of plazas and palaces. Finally at the back there is a beautiful garden - must be wonderful in springtime. I bought a book of photographs to take home and look at later. Words cannot describe the scale of the place, it must be seen and felt...just immense. Next we went to TianAnMen Square. TianAnMen means "Gate of HeavenlyPeace" and this is the famous area presided over by a large painting of Mao Zedong. Nancy pointed out that his eyes follow you as you walk around the square, "just like the Mona Lisa". We walked through the square, past the Great Hall of the People where they recently had a large party congress. Workers were removing special floral decorations installed especially for the event. Also the flag of theUkraine was flown at the corner of the square because the Ukrainian President is here right now.
We went to lunch at an official tourist restaurant at the National History Museum. Our favorite dish was Kung Pao Chicken, buteverything we've had here is flavorful and worth a try, though of course we prefer some dishes more than others. We must have been quite a sight trying to pick up slippery mushrooms with our plastic (hence slippery) chopsticks. The waitresses brought forks after watching us, but we're stubborn and insisted on getting it right the local way. Our tour guide doesn't eat with us, though we've invited her to. We realized that she probably needs a break too, and is able to have some down time while we eat. She is so knowledgeable and her English is great. We briefly toured the National History Museum but it is really just one large room with artifacts and no signage or interpretation at all.
Oh - I forgot to mention John's head gear caused quite a stir yesterday! He brought this black hood called a balaklava that is for staying warm while bicycling, but since it looks like a black ski mask, everyone was staring and making comments to our tour guide like "he looks like he is about to do something bad." The lady in a souvenir shop at the Forbidden City thought he might be a robber! Some Japanese tourists insisted on having their picture taken with this tall American outlaw and he obliged. It was pretty funny. Next Mr. Yan (who we've decided is quite cool) drove us to the SummerPalace, built for the Empress Dowager CiXi. That was my favorite place after the Forbidden City. There is a man-made lake there, and beautiful pagodas, relaxing pavilions and even a private theater where the Empress enjoyed opera performances. At the end of the tour we saw her huge marble boat, that was permanently moored and "always floating" as a symbol of the stability of the empire. Oh--and I should mention that while we were there, a guard started eyeing John's curious headgear and getting closer and closer...I was a bit nervous, wondering how serious this could get. All of a sudden the guard caught John's eye, smiled and made a tommy-gun gesture with both hands. John responded by adding his dark sunglasses to the mix. Hoo-boy.
We exited the Summer Palace through an onslaught of hawkers yelling in our faces "Hellooooo! Look Here! Rolex Watch, Real From Germany! Helloooo! Look this way!" etc. but we just made a beeline for the car and all was well. When hawkers want to sell you something, they always seem to yell "hello!" and after a while it starts to sound as though it has a much different meaning. A lady at The Forbidden City was saying "American Guy! American Guy! You buy film!" Still I don't mean to make people here sound so grabby. Many of the people we've encountered are curious and friendly, and smile easily. We know once we have JieJie with us we will attract even more attention, but now we are just two of the many westerners visiting this amazing city. Yes, I keep saying "amazing" but it is, and I'm out of synonyms, so sue me. We next visited the Ethnic Park, a display of the homes and lifestyles of different non-Han nationalities within Asia. It was a nice walk outside...not much was going on. This was followed by an authentic tea ceremony, where we learned about different kinds of tea and how to enjoy them more thoroughly. Lots of fun - ask us about the lucky pee-pee boy figurine when we get home! Dinner was at the same hotel where we were to see the Beijing Opera -good dinner but we were starting to fade. We were determined not to allow ourselves a nap yesterday in order to get a better night's sleep last night. The Beijing Opera scheduled for Friday was moved to last night and we saw two different stories, shortened for foreigners' tastes (usuallyI would want the real thing but in this case it was fine). The first one was "Farewell to the Concubine" (the film of a similar name has to do with this story). The second involved acrobatics and kung fu and was about the famous mythological character The Monkey King who fights off different warriors. It was an impressive spectacle and we're very glad we saw Beijing Opera. And that was yesterday -- today in about an hour Nancy arrives with Mr. Yan to take us to the Ming Tombs, then a jade factory, then lunch, and then The Great Wall. We are hoping to find a cybercafe where the per-minute rate is lower than at the hotel - many internet cafes are $1/hour rather than this 25 cents a minute! That's all for now. We are in good health, basically over any minor jet lag and ready for another day of amazement. Sorry I haven't been able to upload any photos - I'm working on it!!
Four days to baby!!
11/21/02 Good morning everyone (good evening for you, it's 7pm where you are)! We slept all the way til 6:30am today! We were so excited we high-fived. Yesterday was less busy than Tuesday (thank goodness) but still great. We met Nancy at 10am in the lobby and Mr. Yan was there with his trusty Red Flag to drive us to the Ming Tombs, where 13 emperors from the Ming Dynasty are buried. Down in the crypt, people were throwing money onto the casket dais. Nancy said it was for good luck, so John threw a 2RMB note on there for JieJie.
Then we were taken to a jade factory. We saw one artisan making a Happy Buddha from some beautiful amber-colored jade. It was aboutthe size of a softball. The factory spokesperson then taught us how to tell real from fake jade (a useful skill as a tourist!). Hard green jade bangles actually ring like a bell when you tap them with another piece - also they will scratch glass and not be marred. You can't do that with soft jade though - the way to tell with soft jade is that it should be translucent. Fake jade (usually glass or some kind of color-impregnated lesser stone) is opaque. The showroom was full of beautiful jade pieces and we really enjoyed seeing everything. Next we walked down a long wide path called the Sacred Way to the Ming Tombs. This was thought to be the road to heaven, since the emperors were from heaven and when they died they went back to heaven. There are huge stone animals and people watching along the way, including four horses, two standing, two kneeling. It is said that the horses do a "changing of the guard" at midnight! Also at the opposite end there is a "slander pillar" where people who had a beef with the emperor could go to say what they had to say to a stone pillar rather than to the emperor. The weather was cool but bright while we were here and the many willow trees along the way were shedding their leaves a few at a time. Picturesque.
Next, the Cloissone factory (my friend J is probably rolling her eyes going "yeesh, they're taking you to all the tourist places!" but hey...that's what we are, so we don't mind). We saw how they make cloissone from copper, enamel powder that is fired, filled again and fired again, then polished smooth and gilded with gold through an electroplating process. Impressive.
We had lunch upstairs at a tourist restaurant. I should tell you about these wonderful meals we've been having. At every meal we are brought maybe 7 or 8 different dishes, some meat and some vegetables or fruit. Also we each get a little bowl of steamed rice, and usually some soup. Chopsticks fly and we each try a little bit of everything til we just can't fit anymore in. Always tea, of course, and our choice of some other drink (we've learned that we can't say we'll only have tea--we have to choose a second drink). Waiters are constantly stopping by to bring new dishes or pick up empties (or bring a fork if we're struggling w/the chopsticks, but yesterday John was picking up individual peanuts with his, so we're doing quite well!) After lunch we shopped for a few gift items and John found himself a great tie with a dragon on it (symbol for the emperor). Next was the best thing of all - our driver took us to Badaling to see the Great Wall of China (snow prevented us from going to the wall at Mutianyu, which J had recommended). We took lots of pictures there. The wall is even more impressive than we thought - we took a cable car up high and climbed to a high guard turret. More souvenir hawkers of course, saying "hello hat! hello! hat! 40 US dollars!"and when we kept walking, they treated it as negotiation: "hello hat! 30! warm hat! 20 dollars!" or my favorite one from yesterday, as we passed through an archery platform: "Hello! CopperCertificate! Copper Certificate!" You can have your name engraved on a copper card saying you've been to a high point on the Great Wall. But we know we were there, copper or no, so the yuan stayed in the pocket.
It was very windy up there so we came down again after maybe a half hour and watched a great film about the wall. It was in one of those panoramic theaters like they have at Epcot Center and showed some of the history of the wall as well as what it looks like where the wall ends (in the east at the Pacific Ocean and in the west at the Gobi Desert).
On the way back...stuck in a Beijing traffic jam. They have a great new highway system here but more cars on the road with every passing day, so traffic jams are a problem. The cars use leaded gas too, so when we got stuck in a 1km-long tunnel, that was not pleasant, though really no worse than the air I've breathed at the Port Authority in New York. Mostly the cars are either Chinese-made Volkswagens or Citroens (plants in Shanghai) or Red Flag. Occasionally you see a Japanese or Korean car but they are far outnumbered by the European models. Our driver Mr. Yan navigates through traffic with surgical precision and we marvel at the tight spaces he fits through! Trafficis complicated by the fact that bicyclists often get onto the freeways and dart through traffic, and the same goes for pedestrians. Still, we've only seen evidence of two accidents, one fender bender and one more serious, and other than that people honk alot but it's not as life-threatening as you might think.
Dinner was in a park at a building that used to be the Temple of Earth. It felt kind of funny eating in such a grand building -paintings on the ceiling and a majestic ambience all around - but we settled in and enjoyed some delicious fish in caramel sauce and some other goodies. Oh - and about the fruit situation...I have eased into eating a little more fruit, just not anywhere close to the peel. It was just too much torture to sit there staring at that tantalizing stuff...no problems yet so I'm getting braver. Yesterday they brought some peeled and sliced persimmon in orange sauce and I ate it all. What the heck - we have Cipro with us if worse comes to worse.
Today our schedule relaxes even more - Nancy's not coming til 10am. As we ate breakfast, we watched commuters go by in cars and on bicycles - lots of parents had a child on the back of the bike -guess they were heading to school and then work. I will probably write again Friday afternoon (middle of the night for you Thursday) if we can find a cheap cybercafe near here. Today's plan is to tour an old Beijing neighborhood called a hutong, then see the Temple of Heaven and Beihai Park, and I think the Lamaa Temple as well. Oh - we asked Nancy yesterday what here Chinese name (DouDou) means and she said it means "little bean". She is the youngest of three sisters and so the name fits her perfectly - she is a little bean! We really like her and Mr. Yan is like the driving equivalent of James Bond. More later - 3 days to baby!!!
11/22/02 Hello (a word I don't like as much these days)...so let's make it Howdy! Today has been and will continue to be VERY low-key, so those of you who were concerned that we were too go-go-go over the past several days can relax, because that's what we're doing. As for yesterday, yesterday was just wonderful, in a different way from the other days we've spent here so far. We left at 10am for the Lamaa Temple, which is one of my favorite things we've seen. It is a very spiritual place, and being there definitely set a different tone for the whole day. When we arrived, Buddhists (in everyday modern dress) were lighting incense and kowtowing in front of several statues of Buddha. The place is arranged like many of the ancient structures of Beijing, with increasing levels of grandeur the further in you go. We went through (I believe) three different chambers, all with incense, buddhas, and the most beautiful silk banners everywhere, and courtyards between with more incense, a heavenly smell. Finally we reached the biggest building of all, which houses the world's largest Buddha statue, a huge golden Buddha...I only came up to his ankle! You'll have to look in your Guinness Book for exact specs, cause it's in there. We bought a book since you're not allowed to take pictures inside the religious rooms. Nancy helped us find a good price. It was our first purchase of many yesterday! Next we went to a hutong for a rickshaw tour of one of Beijing's 700+year old neighborhoods. These are fascinating places. The alleyways that wind through (which are called hutongs, hence the name of this style neighborhood) are fairly narrow, just wide enough for a car although the only cars we saw were parked. Touring a hutong is a popular activity so these tours are fairly well organized. It was cold - the rickshaw driver threw a blanket over our laps before we went on our ride.
We stopped at one door and Nancy turned us over to another guide who told us a bit of the history of the area and the type of houses they have there. Then we were invited into the residence and the next thing we knew we were sitting down in the Huo family's dining room and Mr. Huo was whipping up a fantastic lunch in the kitchen! Now you might be wondering how this works. Well, the government is getting geared up for the 2008 Olympics in a big way, and anticipating lots of tourism. It seems everyone is learning English and it is now a compulsory subject in schools. So anyway, the government promotes hutong tours as a way for people to learn about middle class Chinese life, and asks residents if they would be willing to open their doors to visitors, maybe a few times a week.The Huo family gets a stipend for doing this, and since Mr. and Mrs. Huo are retired and at home during the day anyway, they seem to enjoy the exchange. So our hutong guide interpreted while Mrs. Huo told us about her family and the fact that the Red Guard had taken their house during the Cultural Revolution (before that her family had lived there many generations). They only returned in 1991. She asked if we had any questions and we asked a few things. I tried my meager Chinese and she immediately wanted to know why I would want to try to learn Chinese. I explained that we knew we were taking this trip and I thought it would be a nice way to show respect to the people we met. She seemed satisfied with the answer. She reminded me so much of my Grandma - John thought so too. She had this mix of a very stern but kind demeanor and something in her eyes reminded me of Grandma. I almost began to cry, but I didn't think that would be very appropriate so I just asked the hutong guide to tell her that she was reminding me of my mother's mother.
Lunch arrived and we had the most delicious lunch we've had since coming to China! Dumplings, beef stew, lotus root, chicken and green peppers, little bok choi, and a sliced Asian pear that was out of this world. She asked if we liked it and we assured her it was the best we've had. I said the pear was great and that I love fruit--she left and came back with six mandarin oranges for me! I gave her two hands' full of the Hershey chocolate we brought for these kinds of occasions and she is saving it for her grandchildren. We finished our lunch and had our picture taken with Mrs. Huo. She insisted we take a picture of her in her dining room and send it to her - gave us a little piece of paper with her address and everything. We certainly will send her the pictures - and one of JieJie as well!
After this we proceeded to an amazing place (there's that word again), the Temple of Heaven. This was a place where the emperors would pay tribute to the God of Heaven. Buildings here are round to symbolize heavenly things - it was very noticeable as most of the other ancient buildings we've seen have been rectangular. We tried the famous "echo wall" - we were 60 meters away from each other and I could hear John perfectly. Nancy said it's a good thing we're here in the off-season because when it's more crowded, you can't hear well enough to do the trick. Again with this place, just when you think you've reached the sanctum sanctorum, there's a bigger one waiting just beyond the next courtyard! I keep wondering what the first Westerners to encounter China thought, because very often the first layer of buildings is enough to make you say "oh, this must be where the emperor would go" but no--it's just the guard gate or the first ceremonial temple and there are more spectacular surprises awaiting.
Out the back of the Temple of Heaven was another surprise: a really nice park where many people were gathered playing traditional music, playing cards, and singing. A choir of maybe 50 people was gathered in a long hallway singing the most beautiful traditional Chinese song, very moving.
Mr. Yan, aka Al Unser, arrived with the Red Flag and we were off to spend some time at Beihai Park, a former imperial garden that has been very well preserved. We walked up to another temple, this one with a female Buddha inside, and were treated to a beautiful view from the highest vantage point we've visited so far. We could see the Forbidden City's rooftops and the national library, also some of the lakes of the city. I can't imagine how lovely this place must be in spring. Since we've been here it's been fairly overcast, though not rainy. This morning the pollution was kind of bad - we judge it by how well or how poorly we can read the Hyatt sign a few blocks away. This morning I couldn't read it at all. John has a bit of a sore throat and so do I but we just keep drinking lots of tea.
We did LOTS of shopping yesterday afternoon as we had to waste some time before dinner. We went first to a freshwater pearl market, where the saleslady asked me to pick out an oyster from a tank. She opened it and there were the telltale bumps inside (there are pearls in all the oysters because they have been impregnated with the pearl "seed" already - it doesn't depend on nature's magic). She popped some out, four in all, one in each color: white, yellow, pink and black. We got to keep them for free, each about the size of a lentil. John looked for a few things while I chatted with the saleslady about the pronunciation of the words "romantic"and "copper". Like many of the salesladies we've encountered, her English was quite good but she wants it perfect.
Next the Huan Long (I think) Silk Market - WOW really good prices and three floors of everything silk! Carpets, linens, bolts of silk in all different prints and types, robes, pajamas, jackets, shirts, bags, you name it and if it's silk, they have it. Nancy helped me pick out a traditional padded silk jacket for JieJie and one for me that matches. Inside the beautiful embroidered red fabric is a CASHMERE lining - it's really nice and warm! Mine is reversible -red on one side, gold on the other, with traditional dragon and phoenix (symbols of the Emperor and Empress) designs on it. I hope JieJie's fits ok, but guess we'll just have to find out the day after tomorrow! I can't tell you what else we found but suffice it to say we pretty much finished our Christmas shopping yesterday afternoon. John at one point looked at me and exclaimed "I can't believe I'm so excited about shopping but this stuff is just too good!"
So on to dinner at a traditional Dai restaurant. The Dai people live in Yunnan Province. This food was (of course) delicious - a bit more spicy than we've had. While we ate there was traditional music and dancing, and the inside of the restaurant was decorated like a Dai banquet hall, lots of flowers and bamboo. Some Japanese businessmenwere getting drunk on yellow wine in bamboo cups, chanting "HO! HO!HO!" before downing the next shot. I was glad not to be their waitress.
This morning, breakfast again - a huge Swedish tour group is here now and they have taken over the buffet! The Russians who were here earlier in the week have left, and tomorrow we will do the same. Today we just walked around Tienanmen Square people watching and refusing to buy little red books and other souvenirs. I got so tired of saying "Bu, xie xie" (no, thanks) that I just started trying some French or Spanish just to amuse myself. Ah! Que lastima pero no hablo ingles... This afternoon we will have an hour-long Chinese massage...aahhhh...and tonight is our duck dinner. I'm writing this from our Western hotel by they way - no luck finding a cyber cafe used by the locals. We went to the one on TienanmenSquare but it was dark and locked shut with a huge chain and padlock. The official line is that there was a terrible fire in another cybercafe and many students were killed, so for people's safety they have closed many internet cafes. Draw your own conclusions. [hindsight comment: actually, this story checked out—there really was a fire in that particular café] Lunch today was a huge bowl of noodles and a soft drink - 12 yuan(about $1.50) total for both of us! Well, the masseuse calls...I'll write from Chongqing if possible.
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