Saturday, July 24th

 

We left Changsha this morning for Guangzhou, which is in the southern part of China, and is the third and final part of our trip.  We all met in the lobby of our hotel around 8:30 am and headed for the airport.  There were 15 adults and 7 babies and our guide XiXi, all packed up on the bus and headed for the airport by 8:40 am.  We looked like a herd of cattle walking into that airport with all of us, luggage and babies and the misc equipment that comes with having a baby. 

 

This is the first time any of the babies had been on a plane, much less out of the Hunan province.  We all got seated together and just before take off the steward asked me to move as there were only 4 oxygen masks but 5 people sitting in the row if you counted the adults and babies.  So I got up and moved to the back of plane all by myself!  I was paniced being back there by myself with Elizabeth, but we actually managed fine and had a row to ourselves.  She was sound asleep by the time we took off so the ear thing did not end up being an issue at all.  She did fine on the flight, but we did hit a bit of turbulence about 5 minutes into the flight and the guy sitting behind me started to get sick (ie: vomiting) and continued to be sick for a large part of the flight.  That sounds dramatic but the flight was only about 55 minutes in length.  All I was worried about was he better not have anything contagious!!  We landed and as we taxied to the gate they started to play music throughout the plane via the intercom.  Well, Miss Elizabeth heard Usher singing one of his songs and she was swaying and rocking to the music.  It was soooooo cute!!  I know she is my daughter as I am a R & B music fan and that just cracked me up that she liked the song.  Last nite while we were getting her ready for bed we decided to turn the TV on since we had heard they do alot of TV watching at the orphanage.  Somehow we managed to find China MTV and they were showing the making of a video so there was music playing in the background and she was swaying and moving to that as well.  I am not a big fan of TV for kids but she is very obviously mesmerized by it since that seems to be about the extent of her activities prior to coming to us.  Kind of sad huh? 

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We arrived in Guangzhou around 2 pm and made our way to our hotel.  We are staying in a suite at the Victory Annex building.  It is OK, but I think our room in Changsha was much nicer than what we have here.  Oh well, there is plenty of space for us to play with Elizabeth and Guangzhou is very pretty and reminds me of St Augustine or Savannah.  It is fashioned after British Colonial times so the buildings look very familiar and the temperature and climate is much like Florida.  I was kind of euphoric walking around on the island today because it seemed so close to home.  Guangzhou is a very large city, like 9 million people, and 75% of the manufacturing of goods that say "made in china" come from this area.  We are staying on a small island in Guangzhou called Shamian Island.  It is pronouced with a silent "h" so it sounds like "samian" rhymes with Damian. 

 

We took a brief tour around the island to get familiar with 7 eleven (for supplies like water, diapers, etc), Starbucks coffee, the catholic church and the parks on the island.  Of course, you know we also had to know where the shopping was too!  We found out all of this information and then as a group we headed over to Lucy's for lunch'  Lucy's is a local restaurant that specializes in "western" cuisine aka: hamburgers, french fries, pasta, milkshakes, etc.  It was good, but I tell you I kind of came accustomed to the Chinese food we have been eating.  To me the Chinese food seemed like a healthier alternative than the processed junk we tend to eat in America.  On our walk today we just have seen about 10-12 brides and grooms having their wedding photos made.  XiXi, our guide, says that everyday of the week you will see at least this number of couples having their photos made and it is very expensive, but widely accepted norm now for the younger generation.  They also apparently have their photos made up to 6 months ahead of the actual event and their clothing is all rented and looks just like the brides and groom in the good ole USA.  In fact, when we were out walking I think we walked past at least 2 companies advertising doing wedding photography. 

 

After Lucy's we just walked around some more and picked up some supplies and headed back to the hotel room.  We have been up since 4 am and I just could not get in the mood to shop today.  We have all day tomorrow and half days on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to shop as well. 

 

Elizabeth is doing well.  She is understanding things we say to her. She can now wave bye-bye since yesterday.  It is so cute, she turns her hand around and she is waving to herself when she does it but she gets so proud of herself when she does it and then starts going crazy clapping her hands.  I think we are understanding her schedule a little better, but we are both concerned that we are not feeding her enough.  She has been having "meltdowns" between 5 and 7 to 8 pm every day since we got her.  We thought it might be related to all the activity of going out for dinner with the group, the noise, the hot weather, just the craziness involved with dinner each nite.  In fact, some nites it is overwhelming for me.  Today we kind of realized maybe she is melting down at that time because she is hungry.  So we gave her a bottle around 6:30 to 7 pm and she became her usual animated self.  We also had a fun time in the bath tonite and she would actually splash and bang her stacking cups together.  The previous nites she has been clingy and whiny and just not sure of herself.  Tonite however, she enjoyed herself the most of any nite yet.  We also had hair washing nite and that went better too.  I made it a point to cover her eyes when I was pouring water on her head, which helped, but she also did not freak out as much either. 

 

She is now fast asleep and Patrick and myself are only minutes behind.  I now know why people say you should sleep when the baby sleeps and we may try to do just that the next couple of days. 

 

Until next time........................................