3 DAYS UNTIL
WE LEAVE!!! That was our exclamation when
we woke up this morning. We just can't
wait to be home. Kiah was up a couple of
times last night so we didn't really sleep
well. We got to breakfast earlier this
morning. We ended up sitting next to
Hayley and Mike Hoppe from our CCAI DTC
list. Their daughter Piper is so cute!!!
We have been seeing SO MANY people from
our DTC list. We were also reunited with
some families that we met in Beijing and
Hong Kong. It was great to see them with
their new babies.
We all met up
at 9am in the lobby. Today we had a
morning tour to visit the Six Banyans
Buddhist Temple, the Provincial Art Crafts
Store and the Provincial Art Museum. The
Buddhist Temple had some wonderful
architecture. It was very interesting
learning about the Buddhist religion. We
had learned in Beijing that a great number
of people in China have no religion at
all. That seems so very foreign to us.
There were so many beggars on the streets
in front of the Temple. The Buddhist
monks were holding a service while we were
there. They use A LOT of incense!!! I
think that I am all incensed out for the
year!!! I was actually waiting for a
headache to set in but it didn't. We then
traveled to the Art Store. It was an
expensive version of the shops we have
right outside the hotel here. Brandon
bought several small items. Most of the
husbands were enthralled with the snake
wine they were selling. Inside the wine
bottle are 3 different dead snakes who are
preserved by the wine. They offered us to
try it but we passed. They suggested that
we buy some to take home however the
thought of putting a bottle of wine filled
with snakes in our LUGGAGE just didn't sit
well with me. What if the bottle
broke!!! Our clothes would be covered in
wine and snakes!!! NO THANKS!!! We then
went to the Art Museum which was very
beautiful with many decorative gardens and
sculptures. The bus then headed back to
the hotel. Although the tour was good, we
are really just killing time until we can
leave. We have had a lot of down time and
they are trying to fill it. Our Consulate
appointment is on Thursday. We ate lunch
and dinner at Lucy's. I had Chicken
Quesadillas both times. We ate lunch with
several members of our travel group. The
one thing they do differently here in
China is they do not bring everyone's food
out at the same time. It is brought out
as if it finished. So this means that
some people may be finished with their
food before others even start. We did a
good bit of walking around and shopping.
We have really only visited 2 stores in
the last 2 days. Some of the shop keepers
are just plain pushy!!! We had a really
bad experience at one of the stores
yesterday.
We did spend
some time this afternoon in the Swan
Room. This is a playroom that Mattel has
outfitted with tons of toys especially for
those that are adopting. Another benefit
of staying at this hotel is that every
family adopting gets a special "Coming
Home Barbie" which is an American Barbie
doll with a Chinese baby. We were so
happy when we came into the room and saw
the doll. It is a great keepsake. They
are only given to families that stay at
the White Swan Hotel.
Tomorrow we
are planning to go with the group to the
local zoo. We are not really interested
in going however, it will kill some time.
We are all inching closer to home and we
are all getting very antsy. I just can't
wait to get on the plane and start our
journey. Living in hotels for 3 weeks is
getting pretty trying. Thank goodness
there are cheap places to do laundry or we
would really go crazy!!!
Love to Jake
and Katelyn!!! 4 more days!!!
Love from the
White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou,
-Nicole,
Brandon and Kiah!!!
