Day 5, Sunday April 15

First, to answer a few questions: yes, we can see your posts, and we surely appreciate them (....."I know you do, and stop calling me Shirley"...) :0 Also, Charice, we did just try the Juicy Fruit double-mint gum this morning! But it was the "Green Tea" flavor instead...and we couldn't believe the whole pack was only 1 yuan (about $0.13). Seems like the green tea flavor is everywhere we go: ice cream, gum...oh, and even in tea too (imagine that). :)

Mimi: you're not the only one confused by the spelling issue.....originally, Tami and I were going to use two 'l's in our daughter's name, but then decided later to drop the second 'l'. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to open up a whole new blog after starting this one, so hence the spelling discrepency.

Now back to our originally scheduled program... :)

After our last buffet breakfast at the WangFuJing, we checked out of our room, and loaded our ever-growing luggage (5 carry-ons, and our original two checked bags!) to the van waiting outside. Charlotte took us to the Summer Palace in the morning, and as a special treat, she brought her 6 year old son, Yimo, with her. In spite of the language barrier, the international language of laughter and play cut instantly through the differences of East meets West...He was so cute, and I think he really liked spending the day with us crazy Americans.

The Summer Palace was really nice, but very crowded on this Sunday morning. On the spacious grounds were beautiful residences with more stunning Chinese architecture and painting. After walking around the grounds for about an hour or so, we took a dragon boat ride across the lake and back to the entrance. From there, we had lunch, buffet-style, nearby. (Seems like we're always eating...every few hours or so...but having excellent meals!)

We had one last stop on our way to the airport, and that was to---you guessed it----another shopping stop, this time at the pearl store. We had planned on buying pearls later in Guangzhou, so Tami and I were able to avoid spending any more in Beijing, thank God. But it was interesting to have them explain to us the different kinds of pearls, and how to open up the shells and tell an authentic pearl from a fake one. I'm sure that will come in handy later this week! :)

(Tami here...I kicked Blair off!)
The domestic plane ride on Hainan airlines from Beijing to Guangzhou was, well, 'interesting' to say the least. Imagine riding a plane where you can't understand the flight attendants, the food is bad (and I mean really bad, like when on the packet of the mystery stuff in your lunch it says "not to eat product if big or swelling bad") and we couldn't keep our exit-row seats because we couldn't read the instructions on the exit door! We were however blessed with a 2 hour 'propaganda' movie with some of the most hysterical, literal translations imagineable. I don't think we were actually supposed to be laughing, but Chinese and English are two languages that don't translate too well word for word. Also, the kicker for us was when we were landing and the flight attendent told us that if our ears were plugged, we should try 'slurping'....we hoped she meant to say swallow....

We were an hour late taking off (second common thread of domestic air travel worldwide---being late AND bad food) so we didn't get to our hotel until after 10 pm. We hadn't eaten at all on the plane, so we joined the Gonsoulins for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Their son, Christian, was having his 14th birthday yesterday, so Faith International arranged for a birthday cake to be waiting for him as we arrived. Very cool we thought.....

What really brought home our reason for making this treat was when the housekeeping lady brought a crib to our room at midnight. We have a crib in our room!! AAGH!!

This morning we walked around Shamian island where the Victory hotel is located. This little piece of land--no more than a mile long by 1/2 a mile wide---has beautiful and classical European architecture. We are also right on the water, the island sticking out into the Pearl River. (Oh, and it has a Starbucks too)....we'll show you pictures later, we promise. :)

This morning (Monday) we wondered around this small island, trying to get acclaimated to the surroundings (and the heat!...It's very muggy and tropical here, it was 80 degrees last night at midnight....not much fun for us northerners). We also visited the beautiful White Swan hotel, the place where most adoptive parents stay on Shamian island. Because of the 101st Canton Trade Fair this week, the hotel was booked. But we are staying at an equally nice place, just a lot smaller, five blocks away.

It's 1:30 and now we are half an hour away from meeting Allie. Hard to imagine we are finally at the place on our journey that brought us here after two years, numerous paperwork, and anticipation. It doesn't seem real at times.

Anyway, we will hopefully post pictures tonight as soon as we get settled in with baby. ('Hopefully' is the key word....The Gonsoulins are not able to get back into their internet connection on their laptop, and we seem to be having a problem getting our pictures past the Chinese filters here at the hotel business center).

Keep checking back periodically, as we will keep trying to upload our pictures to the internet.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers....we can definitely feel them!!

Love,
Blair, Tami and Allie