Adventures in Guangzhou--3/28

Hi Everyone--

I'm really sorry that we didn't post updates over the week-end. On Saturday, Roger and I did lots of important paperwork in our hotel room with Judy, our guide. After carrying those documents all around China, it was odd to just turn them over to a relative stranger, but I just had to trust that she knew what she was doing. After the flood of signatures, Roger and I took Ellie-Kate for her medical exam while the other girls waited in the hotel room. It was kind of an assembly-line system of checking basic medical issues so that the children can be cleared for visa approval. Our guide worked us through the maze quickly, and we saw several parents that we had met along the various points of our journey thus far. After the medical exam, we went back to the hotel, got the other girls, and went for lunch at Lucy's-- a relatively close and inexpensive diner near our hotel. We learned that Ellie really likes chicken congee (even though she loves pasta much more). After lunch, we did a bit of shopping, and we discovered Jordan's (actually Jordan discovered us as we were walking. He found out that we were from Ohio, claimed to love the Buckeyes, and invited us to come to his store for a free gift). Jordan did a calligraphy of Ellie's English and Chinese names for free, and it's just lovely. Back at the hotel, we went to the Swan Room, sponsored by Mattel. It contains lots of baby and toddler toy as well as a huge red ball that Emmy loves. When we got there, a group of parents were doing their paperwork. We were glad that we got to do our's in the privacy of our hotel room instead. We played for awhile and then decided to head out for dinner. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty massively, and we wrestled with ordering pizza (again) or eating the expensive hotel restaurant food. We just couldn't eat pizza again so we opted for the hotel restaurant. Because all of the regular tables were reserved, we ended up being seated in a private room overlooking the river at no extra charge-- wow!! It was nice to just be together and eating great food without the distractons of being around other guests. (We've learned that many folks like to smoke as they eat, and we can live without that!!)

I need to pause for a bit, but I'll get back on later today and continue to catch up the blog, along with more pictures :)

Christie