Trip to China
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Friday, December 12, 2008 Friday we got a very early start. I woke up at about 2am and was laying there quietly when I heard this sweet little voice whisper, “Mommy, I can’t sleep.” Then I heard a deeper voice reply, “I’m up too.” So we turned on the lights and did some Skyping which helped to pass the time. Rob went to see if he could locate water and Diet Coke in the hotel but had no luck. He considered going to the market but I told him that walking alone in Beijing in the middle of the night was probably not the best idea. He agreed so we all just hung out in our little room together. Rob went back to sleep around 3:30, Zoe watched some “Ni Hao, Kai Lan” on the DVD player and I took some time to lay quietly. At 4:30 I turned off the DVD player much to Zoe’s chagrin, and made her lay down with me. I hoped she would fall back to sleep but that was so not happening. At 6:30 we went downstairs to have breakfast. After drinking some apple juice, Zoe began to cough and the juice went down the wrong tube causing her to throw up all over her top layer of clothing. She felt fine so we just removed that layer and ate breakfast. It was during breakfast that we met some of our travel mates. We ran back upstairs after eating and changed Zoe’s clothing. Since we were not aware of any place near the hotel that does laundry, and we were going to be leaving for Nanchang early Sunday morning, we decided to have the hotel wash what little dirty clothing we had. It would have been just too gross to pack the vomit covered outfit. Note to self and future China travelers: next time someone throws up on their clothing, put it in a ziplock bag and wait until you can get laundry done in a place other than the hotel. When we got back to the hotel in the evening night, we discovered that the extremely small load of clothing we had washed cost us 56 USD! CRAZY! The day itself was incredible! As we got to know some of our travel mates, who are now becoming fast friends, we went exploring. We visited the Temple of Heaven first. It was huge, beautiful, and COLD!!! Thank goodness we packed hats, gloves, and scarves! It was there that I discovered that Zoe is scared of squatty potties. Thankfully every place we hit had at least one western style toilet. Saturday I think I am going to need to limit her water intake when we visit the Great Wall. But I suspect she is going to have to face this fear if squatty potties at least once in an emergency before we leave China. Today there were two other children with our group. Olivia and Logan were terrific. They are both seven and Zoe had a blast playing with them, or when she was feeling shy, just watching and laughing at their antics. Rob was taken for a ride when he bought what our entire travel group suspects may be the most expensive Chairman Mao watch in all of China. I had explained to him prior to travel how the whole negotiating thing works, and that you NEVER pay full price for anything. Well, I guess I didn’t do such a good job of explaining the exchange rate to him. Zoe and I were walking ahead of him when he made the decision to get the watch. The starting price was 150 Yuan. He was able to get the seller down to the fine price of 100 Yuan and decided that was a good deal. Needless to say, he was shocked when I explained to him that he had just paid the equivalent of more than 16 USD for a watch that may be worth $2. Note to self: never let Rob carry more than 50 Yuan at a time and never let him do the bargaining again. After the Temple of Heaven we thawed out over a tradition Chinese meal. The food was delicious! Z actually ate the rice, tried the mushroom soup, and drank a few sips of tea. For those of you that have never met our child, this is an amazing thing that she did. Maybe she won’t starve in China after all. About halfway through the meal, some women performed several traditional Chinese dances for our group. It was really special to watch these beautiful dancers with my arm draped around our oldest daughter’s shoulders. She watched, wide eyed, as they women gracefully performed. Several times I noticed one of the dancers watching Zoe watching her. At the end, the dancer tossed Zoe the trinket she was using as a prop. Zoe proudly wore it the rest of the day like a necklace. After lunch, our group made their way to a different section of Beijing. We took a rickshaw ride as we rode through a section of the city filled with hutongs. I am not sure I can explain exactly what hutongs are other than to say they are interconnected buildings where MANY people live. They are crowded and do not have private bathrooms, but rather communal bathrooms that many families share. Seeing how people live in such cramped quarters really made me appreciate how good we have it in the US! Zoe really liked this part of the day because she got to ride in the rickshaw which meant she didn’t have to walk. Her little legs were getting tired. At the end of the hutong tour and rickshaw ride, we climbed the steep stairs to the top of the drum tower. Every 30 minutes there is a group of drummers that come out to mark the time. They were amazing! Following the drum performance, we took a walk through a shopping district. Rob asked if I wanted anything and I talked him into waiting until we get to Nanchang before he gets us anymore “deals”. I do not know if he will ever live down the watch incident. Our entire group became aware of his “excellent” negotiating skills and he was teased many times throughout the day.

Our big girl. Zoe and Daddy standing on the Heavenly Stone. Freezing at The Temple of Heaven. Riding in a rickshaw. Zoe and Daddy in a hutong. Climbing the stairs to the top of the drum tower.

On the way back to the hotel Zoe conked out. It was around 4pm. I carried her up to the room and let her get a little shut eye. We were supposed to meet down in the lobby at 5:15 to go to see a Chinese acrobat show. I decided to try and wake her up as I wanted her to sleep through the night. I didn’t have much success on that front. She slept through the trip down to the lobby, through putting her jacket on, through the bus trip, and through waiting more than 20 minutes in the cold to get into the theater. We did wake her up with the smell of popcorn (one of her favorite foods). She saw about 30 minutes of the amazing acrobatic show and ate about half the popcorn. But when I looked down after a while, she has passed out once again. Rob and I thoroughly enjoyed the show, after which I bundled Zoe up and carried her back to the bus. She actually stayed asleep when I carried her up to the room, took off her jacket, and put her to bed. Rob and I were not far behind her and we all went to bed without eating supper. It was 2:30am when I woke up and started this post. Zoe opened her eyes at 3am and is now quietly watching a Doro video. It’s early, but she actually got about 11 hours of sleep so I think she’ll be good for today.

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