Short and sweet

I had a  long post written and I thought I saved it, but it is gone. I had been writing it for 2 days with A bunch of great stuff that people would have really liked to read. Sorry that I missed yesterday and the day before.  I hope you like the short post today. Yesterday we had the medical check. All went well. Today we shopped.   We ate at the same place tonight as we did yesterday. We are all dead tired. We will go to the wildlife safari tomorrow. We are having a great time.   Kids are both doing well.  Sorry it's so short.  Hope to have more tomorrow with some pics.     

Orphanage Trip

Yesterday we went to the orphanage in Linyi. It took us 3 plus hours to get there. Our driver was having troubles finding it and Jinzi started to yell and told him what direction to go. When we arrived we were greeted by one of the girls who brought JinZi to our hotel. They immediately took us to the dining hall used by the employees where we were treated to a home cooked meal of steamed buns some kind of a rectangular tortilla thing a plate of lotus roots, a leek dish , shredded potatoes, spicy white broccoli, chicken feet, egg flour soup and pork guts with hot peppers. I can now scratch chicken feet and pork guts off of my buckets list. The chicken feet were chewy and gelatinous with very little flavor or meat. You just kind of nibble off some skin and call it good. The pork gut was plain and simple straight out nasty.  I will spare you the description of the taste that was left in my mouth and yes I had a second helping to be polite. Over all, the food was the best we have had in China. This is what they eat on a daily basis. Simple yet tasty.

Jinzi was very happy to be back to the orphanage.  He was proud to introduce his baba , mama and big sister.  He was all smiles and was running around like he owned the place. You could tell he was a favorite by the way he was allowed to rule the halls and go from office to office and floor to floor. We lost him while we were still eating. He just walked off and rode the elevator to the floor he used to live on. It was nap time. Notice I said was.  He is a child who can be very vocal when excited and he was. Nap time came to a close and 8-10 boys his age were up and running the halls laughing and playing. 

We were given a tour of his room and the bed he shared with another boy.  He said goodbye and hugged a boy who was visibly upset and sad to see his friend leave. JinZi  told the boy he would visit him on Sundays.  We were then allowed to look at his file and take pictures of it. That was great as we now have somewhat of a record of his earlier life. He was fine during the visit and appeared ready to move on to the next chapter of his life. We fully expect for it to hit him at some point, but for now he is doing well.  

The day was long and spent mostly in a van at least 6 hours.  By the time we made it back to the Sofitel hotel we were exhausted and too tired to cook. So we left our noodle bowls in there wrappers and went to the all you can eat pizza and all you can drink beer night at Biscotti one of the restaurants in our hotel. The pizza was like homemade it was really good and the beer was Chinese so it was like having flavored water. Both of the kids ate pizza and we had a great time. Jinzi and I had to leave the restaurant right after we arrived as he was being loud and a bit of a brat. I took him to our room and we talked with the translator (I talked and he looked sad). When we made it back he was a very well behaved boy.  

The rest of the night was very uneventful from the Jinzi standpoint, however Scottie was feeling a little overwhelmed and had a meltdown. She was upset that I told her we couldn't watch a certain show as I thought it may not be appropriate for her brother. That's when the $h/! Hit the fan. She yelled, "Well maybe we shouldn't have adopted him." it got ugly from there.  She was able to pull it together and say sorry before crying herself to sleep.  Dayna and I were both able to talk to her in the morning individually and she is doing well and had a great day.  It has been hard for her to stop being the baby of the family overnight and step into a new role that she has yet to figure out. She doesn't have to stop being the baby but she thinks she needs to be the big sister in charge. She is a rules girl and has trouble understanding why he doesn't follow them. As JinZi learns English they will figure out how to play with each other better as oppose to them playing next to each other. 

This morning at breakfast I invented something I will call Fredsca. It is a very refreshing drink made with 9 parts Champagne and 1 part Grapefruit juice. It took a couple of try's to figure out that you shouldn't use to much juice. After breakfast we took a cab ride to an open air market. It was not what we thought it was going to be, but was fun anyhow.  Scottie is taking a bath and singing songs while JinZi is sleeping. We are waiting for our guide to bring us Jinzi's passport and then we are going to the 47 floor of the hotel. We were invited to be the guest of the hotel for appetizers and drinks.  Tomorrow we will fly to Guangzhou.

 JinZi bed and one of the auties

 JinZi friend that was sad and going to miss him.

 Our trip back to the hotel.

Baotu Spring Park

Funny things from my mind!

It' is almost 5 am and I was able to sleep 6 plus hours last night. The best part is we were able to go to sleep without any tears from either child last night. A small victory and a giant step towards adjustment for both kids. Nothing new has happened since last night, but I have thought of a few things that have made me laugh and though I would share them. This is the part where i should have Anthony Bourdain theme music and a viewer discretion warning. Okay so here goes the things that have made me laugh. 

1. The longer you are in China the more you speak broken English. Dayna and I have caught each other leave part of phrase from sentence. We don't do it on purpose, but when this is what you hear in conversations with others all day long, well it just sorta happens. It's like when Dayna goes to Georgia she starts to sound local. 

2.  This part on language brings us to another fun part of being around those who don't know what you re saying. You can say anything you want. When the kids and I walked around in the mall last night we didn't encounter  a single person who spoke a word of English. Scottie and I saw a fur coat and wanted to know what kind of animal it was. When I tried to ask one of the ladies she had no clue what I was saying so I started to make all the barnyard sounds I could. By the time I made it to the chicken clucks we had 6 or 7 store employees standing around us laughing. I pointed to one of the girls cell phones and said google it. This was the secret that unlocked our communication quandary. We soon were looking at a picture of a Beaver.  

3. You generate at lot of stares when walking with 2 Chinese children especially when one has beautifully golden hair. People would just stare at us as we walked by. This is not considered rude here, it is just a part of the culture.  My inner narcissist really enjoys all the attention and has helped me emerge from my own bubble and blossom. I can now talk to anyone and say anything I want. As long as you say it with a smile and kindness. Some people will even repeat what you say.  They want you to belive they know what you are saying. Here are some of my favorites from last night. 

"stop doing heroine"

"You have huge ears"

"Brush your teeth at least twice daily"

"We come in peace"

"I'm Rick James"

"Your fly is down"

I know I said more, but that's all I can remember. I was on auto pilot. 

4.  The melding of Chinese and French cooking does not help French food to be any better. It still has that nasty French influence  The only thing the French have brought to the table it the Mamossa. What a brilliant idea to have a pint of Champagne at breakfast. I think today I may try the fresh mango or Watermellon Mamossa. Dayna and Scottie have enjoyed the croissants, but I think they taist just like the ones from Costco. 

5. Children who have never seen the stairs move get real freaked out from escalators. 

6. Children who have never had condiments are fun to watch when given the chance to experiment. They are however not fun to walk home from our new favorite food chain " Mr. Lee's" when the combination of hot chili oil and vinegar go right through them and they have to walk home 2 blocks with a load in their shorts. 

Time to leave for breakfast.  More latter when we get back from our trip. 

Day Two with JinZi

I think it's been  a week since our last post. Or maybe 2 days, it's hard to keep track. I have been getting very little sleep 2-4 hours per night, with a cat nap if I am lucky in the afternoon. 

Yesterday we spent doing paperwork. Our adoption is official in the eyes of the Chinese government. JinZi( pronounced :GinZah ) is a boy without a country until we touch down on American soil. He will then be a US citizen.  Today we spent our morning taking a little boat ride down a spring fed canal and then walked in a local park with 72 springs. The city is well known for all the springs. It was nice the kids had fun.  Jin needed to be carried for a good portion of the time. He is enjoying being cared for and is acting well beneath his age.  Last night he had another blow out at bed time. Scottie decided she needed to have one as well and utter craziness  ensued.  It was the largest jealousy rage I had ever seen until her blow out after we came back from our morning outing today. Jin , Scottie and I took a nap after her major blow out and his minor one. After our naps, we put our coats on and let Dayna have some down time. We walked around the 7 storie mall in our building and killed a couple of hours. 

We played cards on the floor of our room and practiced counting in both English and Mandarin. JinZi can now count to 5 on his own in English and Scottie is up to about 30 in Mandarin. We all discovered that we could not count in both languages at the same time. 

It has truly been hard but we know it will be worth it in the end. Scottie has the hardest time trying to understand why he doesn't know how to behave. She had been in a foster care situation while he as only ever been in an orphanage. Tomorrow we will make the long 4 hour drive each way to see the orphanage. We have purchased some diapers to give the orphanage and some snacks for the kids. 

Gotcha Pics

Gotcha Day

It's a little past 8 pm Sunday night.   Dayna is fast asleep. The kids are getting to know each other. Jin is doing his sisters hair at the moment.  I am having a pineapple flavored beer and watching European soccer with a Chinese voice over. It seems to be a perfect ending to crazy day. 

I woke up at 2ish and did cat naps until 4:45. We had breakfast at the hotel at 6am and then went to the airport. Things were relatively calm and excitement free. We had a smooth flight that lasted only 45 minutes  When we landed the "haze" was so bad you could only see 100 yards.  Our guide, Echo said it was just a haze. The people in China tend to downplay the fact that the air quality is so bad.  When we stepped off of the plane it smelled like the city was burning poo. It really reminded me of our incinolet electric toilet we had when we lived in Haines. 

Our trip to the hotel took around an hour.  The traffic was about the same as in Beijing. This city is very dirty and old. It has not been embraced by the powers that be and given a much needed facelift. Think of the worst, most polluted city you can and square it.  

When we arrived at the hotel around 12:30 we were told we would met Jin at 2 pm.  At about 10 after 2 the door bell rang. Dayna and I each hit the record button on our designated IPads and opened the door. An energetic busy little man came in and wanted to touch and see everything. He is full of life and energy.  I think he was as impressed with the room as we were when we first walked in.  We met one of his caregivers and another orphanage worker. They said we could visit his orphanage on either Wednesday or Thursday. So we will be driving 3-4 hours one way to visit the orphanage to see where he has spent the first 6 yrs of his life and meet his friends and caregivers. With our guide,  we did some basic paperwork and walked to a photo shop to have our pictures taken for the government. We were then turned loose and left to our own devises for the rest of the day.  We did a quick trip to the market for bottled water and a couple of snacks.  The afternoon was spent getting to know each other in the room. Boundaries were tested and introduced and this task will continue. As Scottie says "He has a lot to learn".  He is a sweet boy who seems to be adjusting well.  Only a couple of small melt downs while at the market when he couldn't get something he thought he wanted and then with the initial introduction to the idea of a bath. He rebounded well from both. He is very brave no tears yet.  Scottie ended up taking a bath first and then he decided that a bath could be a good idea. He had a great time in the bath. 

Okay so Fred spoke to soon. He is now very sad, and has been crying for about 45 min. Fred has convinced Jin that maybe bubbles could be something to do. 

Evening in Beijing

Air so thick you can taist it.  We saw a guy with a dust mask on take it off so he could have a cigarette.  I thought it ironic.  

Beijing and the Antique Street at Liulichang

 Today after breakfast we decided to explore an antique street our guide yesterday told us about. The hotel and our guide said that we should take a taxi or the subway but of course we did not do this and headed out on foot. We took a short cut through Tienanmen Square, had to go through security there. They are really stopping the illegal street vendors. It was interesting to watch the guards heavily searching the older local people, but let us walk on by.  From there we made our way toward the area where we believe the antique street, Liulichang, was to be found and well there it was. We had a great time looking at the art and other collectibles.  We purchased three wooden masks that represent a story told during the Ming Dynasty called the "Journey to the West", a carved wooden panel, and a Mao porcelain sign from 1968. We had a great time.

 Tienanmen Square in the background.

 Qianmen Gate to the City

 Liulichang street.

 For those of you who are unfamiliar with public toilets in China here is the squatty potty that Scottie and I visited today. This was a very nice one, there was even soap at the sink, but you should travel with your own toilet paper.

 Since we never like to travel the same way twice, we left Liulichang and headed down a new street in the direction of our hotel. We walked through a large hutong that stretched over a mile. The people there were very friendly and we had a great time.

 These are fish drying in the hutong.  if you zoom in you will notice the flys laying there eggs.

 Qianmen Street which is a 600 year old shopping district.

These were some kids we passed on the street that were playing in front of their houses. We walked 5 or 6 miles today and had fun. At least this portion of Beijing we are getting to know very well. Tomorrow we leave early for Jinan and we will get Townsend tomorrow evening.  Tonight will be the last night he will be an orphan,