One more partial day, then we fly out tonight. This'll be the hardest day of all, I think. Long day with nothing to do, have to check out of hotel at 2:00 PM, so then we wander about (maybe to Lucy's for a coke or a beer, to the charity shop to donate some things we brought, etc.), then our van arrives to take us to the airport at 4:30 PM. THEN we wait until 9:00 PM until the plane takes off. Long day, just to get started. We'll see you on Saturday.

Chingrish & instructions

Yesterday we saw a sign on a parking garage stating "If you are not authorized to park here it will result in a parking tickle." Do I get to pick who tickles me? If Antonio Banderas is available I'm going to rent a car right now....

Instructions for our arrival: we have no idea how Lauren will react to anything: airports, long flights, lots of people, etc. She had 2 ginormous fits yesterday, we're guessing it's because Susan & Jeanne left. At least we were in the hotel room when she had them. So, please, when we arrive keep your distance from her. If she seems receptive I'll let you know if you can offer your hand to her. Do not try to pick her up. I'm sure Leanne will be up for lots of hugs & kisses.

Mike & I are both feeling puny so we may be the ones in tears.

One child policy...

Our guide, XiXi, told us an interesting story about her family and the one child rule. We're guessing XiXi is about 35. She said when she was born both her parents had good jobs, nice apartment etc. Well, 4 years later mother gets pregnant again and has a boy. Both her parents were fired from the jobs and heavily fined. They decided what the hell and opened their own produce distributing business and continued on to have 2 more children.

crazy drivers.....

Here are the girls at a local amusement park having tons of fun. Did we mention how bad the real drivers are in China? Lane stripes, stop signs, merge lanes, etc - we decided are merely suggestions to Chinese drivers.

The Electronics Market...

Time today to give mom and girls some bonding time, and hopefully reduce some of the stress and fear we saw yesterday. So I went along with a couple of other families to the Electronic Market area in Guangzhou.

We stopped at a multi-floor building, and it had dozens of individual stores (or stalls) on each floor.

Of course, I forgot my camera - DANGIT - just as Mr. Kelch did (he has the same model Canon EOS Digital Rebel). We both wanted to buy zoom lenses and his son wanted an uptraded Playstation.

I wound up with a Canon bag and Mr. Kelch got a 'twisty' tripod - you don't need a flat surface to use it, since it wraps around anything. The bag was under 10 bucks. The electronics (and lenses) were at or above US prices (Fry's, 42nd Street, Wolf Camera, etc.)

Interesting notes:

There were two stores that sold ham radio equipment! A store on 3rd level had Diamond antennas, Yaesu handi-talkies and a couple of base models. A vendor on the first floor had 'Standard' (Yaesu's other brand), Kenwood, and Icom handi-talkies - both Amateur 2m/70cm bands and GMRS. Prices were equivalent to non-competitive with US mail-order. Also sold were some Motorola GMRS talkies, as well as Chinese-make radios. Very interesting - if I'd only not forgotten my camera - DANGIT.

Glass Audio! Numerous stores sold Tube HiFi equipment! There were numerous high-end audio stores - quiet, wood-paneled and with cushy listening areas. No need to ask prices here - it'd be more than I'd pay and of course, if I wanted tube audio, I'd build my own. They also sold some obvious (what I'd call) HiFi 'paraphernalia' like special power cables and speaker cables - no actual physics here - just thousand-dollar one meter power cords, etc., to make you feel like you've got the best. No actual performance over Radio Shack wire.

All prices were negotiable! There aren't any prices on ANYTHING! ...you ask, they give you an initial price; you balk, start to turn away - wait! - now it's lower, how's that? But I was only looking - wait! sir! how about this? Give them credit: they're good sellers here. We just weren't in a buying mood, I guess.

But I never found a good price on memory sticks, camera lenses or portable DVD players - these last are too 'new' there. In the US I got Leanne's DVD player for about US$80; here: about US$300. After all, I just ordered (from here! oh ye wondrous Internet! oh, series of tubes) from Woot.com a 2-gig microSD card for $5.99. Hard to beat that. And I know 8-gig Corsair Flash USB drives are going for around half what were quoted, so no deal.

Mr. Kelch and I opted out of new Canon auto-focus zoom lenses - prices were equivalent and if it stops focusing or jams back in USA, it won't be warrantied.

But my $10 camera bag, a twisty-tripod, and a few DVDs made the trip a fun adventure.

Mike.

Terrible night...

Lauren had a terrible night last night (not to mention the rest of us too). Started about 5:00 when we had to go have her passport photo made. She was fine at the photo store and actually made a real cute passport photo. Something happened snapped in her after we left there and she completely disassociated. She wouldn't walk, she wouldn't let anyone touch her, and absolutely no eye contact. OK, what to do? We decided to sit near her to see if it would pass. Well, it didn't. We finally decided we were just going to have to pick her up. The 4 of us couldn't contain her. How can a 7 year old be so strong? We'd make a about a blocks progress before we'd have to put her down and regroup. You'd think the child was possessed. Screaming, crying & thrashing. I guess we should be glad she's not a biter, kicker or hitter. About half a block from the hotel 3 grannies and a security guard from nearby stopped to help. The guard spoke pretty good English too so Mike asked him what they had said to her. They told her you don't have to stop crying or being upset or scared but she does have to stand up and walk into the hotel. Finally got to the room where we let her finish her fit. At least in the room I'm not so scared she hurt herself by falling on concrete or dashing in front of a car. Now Leanne won't go out of the hotel anywhere with Lauren. Whew!

Things seem better today. I took Lauren for her exit physical today and she breezed through it like a champ. She weights 42.9 pounds and is 44.9 inches tall. I took her etch-a-sketch to keep her entertained while we had to wait. She wrote some Chinese characters on it and I was able to ask XiXi what Lauren had written. She wrote the Chinese characters for Baba (dad), Mama, JieJie (big sister), MeiMei (little sister) and toast. Who knows?

Good food... Bad DVDs...

As I'd mentioned, we have a LOT of time on our hands.

First the Food:

On the island, just east of the Victory Hotel, North Shamian St, is a place called "The Diners Club". Great local food. The Shanghai fish is good, there's Mu Shu pork, and a 'sticky-rice paddy' that has a sort-of oyster sauce and vegetables along.

Walk on around to the eastern point - we passed a sort-of 'theme' restaurant that has rail cars out front (Eat in a Rail Car!), although the food looked good with steaks and such - brings you to Il Dolce Vita. They have a take-out menu, but we were just handed a regular menu and the hostess said they'd make anything to go. Fantastic pizza - we tried the Pizza Margherita (cheese only), and Pizza Panceta. Susan and Jean had previously had the Lasagna. The building is beautiful. The inside walls are two-tone textured and the light bounces down from a gold ceiling. Amazing pizza and way cheaper than Papa Johns!

And now the Bad News:

Went to a large, LARGE bookstore on Sunday. They sell LEGAL DVDs there, which is nice, but - they're all burned with China Region. In a USA (purchased) player, they all show 'Incorrect Region'. So, they'll either go back, or XiXi has said she'll buy a few, or we'll donate a few to the charity store here. On the other hand, I'm going to the Electronic Market today and I might be able to find a China region (or region-switchable) player. We picked ALL the DVDs to have both Mandarin and English audio tracks, so that's not the problem - the DVD makers decided that if they were gonna sell DVDs for $3 in THIS market they couldn't be sold back in the USA (where they sell for $15, $25 - etc.)

Mike

the girls & our bookstore experience....

We made this in a garden area in the hotel. They had been blowing bubbles and we got them to stop long enough to make a picture. Leanne is a certainly a poser.

We went to the Guangzhou Bookstore today. Our guide told us it was very much like Barnes & Noble or Borders. I was looking forward to some nice quiet browsing. The only similarity is that the Guangzhou Bookstore does have books in it. It is very much like Northpark Mall at Christmas only in about 1/4 of the space and 10 times more people. And everyone is on meth. I never want to go there again.

What Lauren was looking at....

Wedding photos...This is a wedding crazed city. I guess in a city of 10 million people there are always a lot of weddings. There are always brides & grooms in the parks having there pictures made. Lauren was really taken with this couple and they were kind enough to let Lauren stand with them for a picture.

Some Interesting Products...

We're in Guangzhou for both sides this time, (Chinese adoption and American Visa appointment). Our first trip, with Leanne we arrived first in Beijing, decompressed, visited the Great Wall and some other sites, then a flight to Nanchang (Jiangxi province), then a flight to Guangzhou. So we have some free days here in lieu of travel days. There's no Walmart here as there is in Nanchang, but a (French-owned) Carrefour which is pretty good. You enter by going down an escalator - no stolen shopping carts here - then you proceed down, down in stages, and checkout on the bottom floor (4-down). On that floor they have an amazing array of candies, snacks, preserved items, local and regional favorites. Here are only a few (poorly chosen on our part):

What fresh Hell is this? Why of course, sunflower seeds! Warning: Definitely not the salty, brine-flavored "David" brand we have at home. These are almost (heh-but not quite!) sweet. Jei-Jei, Lauren likes them quite well and pounded down about two hands-full. She reads Chinese and knew exactly what it was.

Not enough Corn in your diet, my friend? Try, New! Corn Juice Drink. Delicious... corn... is a liquid inside, and I wish I could tell what you the color was before I drank it, but I'd suspect it's ... corn ... colored, with yummy corny goodness inside every... slurp. I tell ya, it's not quite like a liquid Frito, lacking the necessary fried corn flavor, but it's not quite buttered corn (or pop-) variety either. It's neutral and not ... terribly ... offensive. You'll never find anything like it again! Tell your friends! (Probably cannot be used as a fuel in flex-fuel vehicles).

Trio...

Lauren and Leanne, with Xi Xi, our guide here in Guangzhou.

Panda

Panda

Movie Star...

Lauren

For Amanda

Requested Post for Amanda, back home.

Bear with it...

Bear Cub at the Xiangjiang Safari Park Guangzhou - just an hour outside Guangzhou, actually. They had Lions, Tigers, Bears and Pandas.

more Chingrish.....

We went to an amazing wildlife park today. We saw pandas & white tigers. We had our picture made with a white tiger cub. The Chingrish for today was on an animal enclosure that had a plexiglass front and it had written on it "Please to not flap on glass." Also in the bathroom at the park there was a sign stating "Please to urinate and defecate in assigned areas only." You know, those pandas have absolutely no manners in the bathroom.

Lauren is having terrible tummy aches. XiXi (she-she), our guide, thinks it's dairy products we've been giving her. She had ice cream yesterday and cereal and milk this morning. The other day we got pizza, which she tried to eat with chopsticks, so we've just over-loaded her with something her body can't process. Hopefully with a change in her diet her tummy will feel better. XiXi suggested steamed rice, congee (rice cereal) and steamed eggs (it's kind of like an un-sweet egg custard). Luckily Lauren loves all fruit & vegetables. I'm hoping Leanne will pick up some of Lauren's good habits.

On the plus side

Lauren did call me Mommy today.

Chingrish I saw today...

In the hotel lobby today there was a sign stating "We will be spurting for mosquitos today." At an enormous shopping center we went to today there was an "Outlet Spore." I wonder what they sell?

On the kid front, Lauren had a terrible evening. We went to a local restaurant around the corner and she started crying from the second we got there. She did eat a bit but Mike finally decided to take her on back to the hotel. By the time I got back to the room she was in full meltdown - crouched in a corner crying. Thank God for Hershey's chocolate!! I gave her a piece and that started to bring her out a bit. Then I gave the girls a bath and there was much rejoicing throughout the kingdom. She and Leanne were squealing in no time. Whew, that was a tough one. It is just totally heart-wrenching. And Leanne tried so hard to comfort her too. Tomorrow is another day....