Unexpected beach trip #2

On our last day, Nancy and Mr. Wang came to pick us up to take us to the airport, and Nancy brought her 4 and a half year old daughter, Bohan. The girls had a good time playing before we said our goodbyes and headed to the airport lounge. Again, lots of snacks and this one even had hot food. We were so happy because we were sad to say goodbye to our last breakfast buffet, and now here we were with a big lunch buffet. We were having so much fun we almost forgot to go to our gate. (No joke.)

I watched a bad movie or two, while Eric and Casey were sleeping, and after the movie they showed the map of where the plane was flying. I could see Beijing and I could see a dotted line leading to a yellow dot marking the destination, right in the middle of the blue part, definitely south and west of the clearly marked San Francisco and Los Angeles. I decided not to wake Eric up because I must be reading something incorrectly. I asked a flight attendant what the yellow dot in the middle of the water meant, and she said we were going to have to land in Honolulu, but everything was fine and that the pilot didn't want to wake everyone up yet. Then the pilot came on and said we had lost one of our four engines and we needed to stop in Honolulu. When Casey woke up I told her that we've been wanting to take her to Hawaii and today's the day. (She also knows about the engine in case you are wondering if she thinks we just diverted the plane as a little surprise for her.)

I won't go into the details, but while I was glad the pilot landed if we needed to, United did a TERRIBLE job of letting people know what was going on. They were incredibly inefficient and it seemed like this was the first time this had ever happened. We waited for almost 2 hours at the baggage claim before the bags even came out. Then we went through customs and they shuttled us onto several buses (500 people, with one guy loading one bus at a time even though there were many buses and many drivers) and took us to a hotel. (It was about 7am I think.) They said they'd pick us up at 1:45 for a 3:40 flight to SFO (they brought a new plane out from SFO). It didn't really seem like enough time to me, and of course it wasn't. Anyway, I guess I am going to go into detail because I'm still pissed. (It took them over 3 hours to check everyone in!)

However, I have to say it sure was nice to go to a hotel (once we found out where the buses were taking us). We ran right up to our room, opened our suitcases that had been packed tight with dirty clothes and quickly threw out clothes until we found our swim suits (one more example of why we tell Casey you should ALWAYS pack a swim suit), skipped the free breakfast with the long line (even though we could have extended our breakfast buffet run), bought pre-made sandwiches from the gift shop and headed to the beach! Now Casey has been to 11 states and DC.

We got home at midnight and had Sunday to recover. We unpacked, did laundry, and went to see the Muppet movie. Great movie. That's it.

Last day in China

Today we spent our last full day in China at the Great Wall. We took a tram up to a super-extra-trafficky section of the wall and along with everyone else in China, starting climbing the steep steps. Before the trip, Casey was so worried that she was going to fall off the wall and kept asking us if we were going to hold on to her. Then when the time actually came, I was the one who was afraid she'd fall, and I spent most of our short time trying to get her to stop running downhill, stop jumping, and hold my hand. At least she was willing to hold the guide Nancy's hand. Eric carried her on his shoulders up the first steep part. The stairs are uneven, some are much higher than others, and I thought he was insane, so I stayed close behind so that if they fell I could catch them, but I knew I'd probably just be crushed by them. We managed to get a few pictures, but you can't really see her face due to the hat and the scarf that I was able to convince her to wear, so I guess that's my own fault. I guess we'll have to keep the hat forever so she'll know it's her in the picture. I should add that Casey LOVED it.

Then we went to a terrible touristy restaurant above a terrible touristy store. I must have jinxed us because I had just said to Eric that on this trip we hadn't had to go to any of those terrible touristy restaurants that we had to go to on our last trip. They served us the Chinese version of what they think American Chinese food is, which means deep fried sweet and sour chicken, some gross gross veggies, and some other gross dishes. Needless to say, Casey wasn't the only one who was not happy, although she did like the sweet and sour chicken once she tried it (just the outside though, not that there was much chicken inside), which I'm sure was worse than just feeding her snacks. We've never given her that before because it's just so unhealthy.

After lunch we went to a place called the Pearl Market so we could buy some souveneirs for Casey and her classmates. Eric was a good bargainer. I was not. Casey just wanted to run and jump and ride the escalators.

Now we're back in the hotel, ready to go get some dinner. The last two nights we have ordered room service because we've gotten home after dinner time and have been too tired to go out. Time to go noodle hunting. (After I sent this email, we all lost steam and ordered room service. While we were deliberating, I told Eric, you know, I just told all of our friends and family that we were going out to dinner, and now we're ordering room service again. How sad. But luckily fries won out over pride.)

A bicycle built for ten

Casey enjoyed playing with "Talking Tom" on Nancy's phone. I love this picture of her at the Forbidden City, lookin' too cool for school. I also love it because the woman in the background wanted her picture taken with ME! Not with Eric or Casey. When we were at the Chen Family Temple, Casey was riding around on Eric's shoulders (well, she rode around on his shoulders pretty much everywhere) and someone wanted to take a picture with them. On our first trip, some girls even asked ME to take a picture of them with Eric. I still regret not getting a picture for myself too. Eric also got asked for his autograph on that trip.

The fourth picture is us at the Summer Palace. I think we have the same picture of us from five years ago. We also went on a boat ride.

Then we went to see the acrobat show. And, once again, we were impressed with the 10 women riding on one bike. But this time we had a better camera so you can actually see it. We were also impressed by the 5 men riding motorcycles in a spherical cage. I was happy no one crashed into anyone. Casey was very impressed. She tried a few tricks with DogDog when we got back to the hotel.

Beijing birthday breakfast buffets 1 and 2

The day after the orphanage visit was not too exciting. Buffet breakfast (well, that was exciting. We each ate about 10 perfect mandarin oranges that had no seeds and practically peeled themselves), and then a 3 hour drive back to Guangzhou for the airport. Then about 3 or 4 hours in the airport lounge where Casey tried every kind of little Chinese snack they offered (and stowed many away in her monkey backpack) and then a 2 hour flight which turned into a 3 hour flight to Beijing. We were all so tired. It was rough. When we arrived we were picked up by our guide Nancy and our driver Mr. Wang (pronounced wong). Casey wouldn't even look at Nancy, so Eric and I were a little worried, but the next morning after about 12 hours of sleep she loved her.

Luckily we didn't meet until 10 am, because we had a nice relaxing Beijing birthday breakfast buffet (Eric's birthday - China time) and then headed out for the Temple of Heaven. On the way in we saw men practicing their caligraphy with giant paintbrushes on the ground, using water as their ink. We stopped to watch one and he wrote in English "America USA" and we all laughed. Like our guide on the last trip, Nancy proceeded to give every possible fact on the Temple of Heaven, including the number of steps, etc., and after we'd been there for a while and facts were spilling out of my head as fast as they were spilling in, I said, "Casey, do you know where we are?" and she said, "no." I told her we're at the Temple of Heaven and Eric explained to her that it's like a big outdoor church for the emperor who ruled china and he would go there twice a year to pray to heaven. We were all totally bundled up since it's minus 3 degrees here. (Celsius, hahha). But that's still pretty cold for us.

We stopped at a little tea house to warm up and have some peanuts and tea in cute little cups with a smelly cup (a smelling cup - Casey is dictating here) and a tasting cup. "She can spill the tea on the table and there's a bucket under there and it was my second day meeting Nancy." (Casey was impressed that there were holes in the table, so the woman could pour extra water right on the table and it would go through to the bucket under the table. Casey kept cracking up and yelling, 'She is making a mess!!!' "And we got to see cups turn into different things (we bought a cup that had the characters for panda and when you heat it up it turns into a picture of a panda. They also had the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square) and we got to see a pee pee boy!" (It's a clay baby boy that when you pour water on it it comes out like a stream of pee pee and goes further the hotter the water is. Actually, not only did we see one, but when we bought some tea, the woman threw in pee pee boy as a special bonus - just this one time, only for us since it was Eric's birthday. Heheh. ) We tried about six types of tea and bought one with gensing and one with lychee and roses.

Then we went to Tiananmen Square (the largest city square in the world, if you want the exact number of hectares (?) you can ask Eric) and quickly took a few pictures of ourselves peeking through our winter scarves hats and coats and went back to the van to go to lunch. Our lunch was at the apartment of the Beijing Manager for our tour company! Her name is Cindy and she didn't speak any English, and the head of the company, Michael, was also there! Eric and I traveled with him 5 years ago when we arrived we were surprised to see him. Cindy made us all kinds of homemade Chinese dishes, and Casey helped Nancy and Cindy make dumplings. Casey had a blast and the food was excellent. She also gave Casey a book about Chinese characters, a kite, a fan, and a pearl necklace. It was very sweet. That lunch was a highlight of the trip for all of us.

Then we said goodbye to Michael and Cindy and headed over for a pedicab ride. (There are men pedaling bikes that have little seats for passengers.) Casey only wanted to ride with Nancy so Eric and I went together. We rode through the hutongs (the old part of Beijing - where the buildings are like 400 years old (should probably check with Eric) and people still live in them. Nancy lives in one. We went to visit one of them and Casey did NOT enjoy it and just wanted to get out. Last time Eric and I were here we ate lunch in one, and it was pretty cool but I was glad we weren't eating there this time. We then got back in our pedicab and rode to the drum tower and Nancy let us know exactly how many steps were there (maybe 69) and we climbed up them. They were up to Casey's waist or so (she is pointing to her tummy) but she managed to make it up. She ran around and had a good ole time waiting for the performance and checking out the view. Five people came out and played the huge old Chinese drums. It was really cool.

After all of that, we got back to the hotel (we're at the Temple of Heaven Holiday Inn, in case I am trying to remember some day) and we were all too tired to think about going out for dinner or even standing up for more than 10 seconds. Casey and I tried to convince Eric to go out and bring back some food but we were unsuccessful, so we ordered room service.

Now it's morning and Eric finally convinced Casey to take a bath (I can't even remember the last time she took one and she spilled Sprite all over herself the other day -- we're letting her drink Sprite in China for some reason) and now there is a lot of singing coming from the bathroom. We have to get ready so we can go down for Beijing Birthday Buffet Breakfast #2, since now it's Eric's birthday on my watch since I never changed it to the new time zone.

Today we're going to the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace and then to see an acrobatic show if we are still awake. Tomorrow is the Great Wall.

From Casey "I had a great time. I'm looking forward to the Great Wall."

From Eric "Tell everybody I had a fantastic birthday. I loved the tea ceremony and I loved the jaozi (dumplings) that Casey made, and I was surprised by the birthday cake at lunch (Michael ordered a cake for him when we were here on his birthday five years ago, too). Tiananmen Square is 800 meters long and 400 meters wide. 32 football fields." Unfortunately he cannot rememer the hectares. Maybe next time.

Orphanage visit

Today we went to the orphanage. We started out in a downstairs room where they meet visitors. The walls were full of pictures that families have sent of their kids who used to live at Yangdong. They served us lots of oranges and some pomellos (they look like grapefruits but Eric said it was sweeter). I was trying to talk to the staff (through our guide) while Casey kept wanting me to peel oranges for her, as apparently Daddy can't get the seeds out as well as I can. I thought I was going to miss the whole thing while peeling oranges. Casey was pretty shy at first but once she got to play on the little play structure she opened up. She also sang her two Chinese songs (the pengyou (friend) song and liang ji lao hu (two tigers)) and it was a big hit. She busted out her Chinese whenever she could. (Hello, goodbye, thank you, you're welcome, what's your name, my name is Casey, I'm five years old, and the numbers from 1-10.)

They remembered her and her chubby cheeks, and we showed them some pictures of her when she was at the orphanage. They told us who the big girl (10 years old) in the pictures was (her name was Bao Zhu and she was adopted by a local family) and told us who the nannies were. It was quite overwhelming and I don't think I'll remember any of their names. We tried to write down what we could. They asked Casey if she had any questions and her question was, "When do we get to see the babies?" I had heard from others that they don't let visitors see the baby room. Our guide had been there a few weeks ago and seemed pretty confident that we were going to get to see the babies, but I was not so sure. They walked us up the stairs and we first saw the room with the special needs kids. They are young but not babies, and it was a little intense. One kid had a giant bump on their forehead and I can't really explain what the whole thing was like. Nothing terrible, just sad. Then we went to the baby room. There was a room of 28 cribs and 28 babies (Eric counted). Each had a blanket in the crib, and that was it. We had brought about 10 baby toys from Target, but we didn't buy more because I wasn't sure if we'd even get to give them to the babies and even though each one was small, they take up a lot of space when you're trying not to overpack. Now I wish I'd brought 60. (That's about how many kids are living there.) Even the bigger kids were interested in them (the oldest was 8). Casey was pretty undaunted by the whole scene, and just passed out toys to the kids.

I had met a woman on the Yangdong Yahoo group recently who said she was going to adopt her baby in January or February. I asked her what the baby's name is and she told me and I said maybe I could get her a picture, even though I figured the chances were pretty low. When your child hasn't lived their whole life with you, any kind of picture of them or information about them in their early life is a treasure. I was going to say it's like a treasure, but it is more of a treasure than anything I can think of. I told one of the staff the name of the baby and she picked up the baby and took her out of the baby room so I could take a picture. (You can't take pictures in the baby room.) That's when I really got choked up because I wish we had something like that and I was so happy to be able to give that to someone. She said it's the first picture she's seen of her baby smiling. It was one of the highlights of the whole trip for me.

Casey played on the playground again, and we saw Chen Xue Yun, who brought her to us four years ago. Casey serenaded everyone again, and then we went back into the downstairs room to see her file. We've already seen everything (medical report, our adoption papers, etc.), except for the police report and a baby footprint, and they wouldn't let us have copies or take pictures of it, because we were 2 months too late. Apparently someone in England got a copy of their daughter's and posted it online, and a lot of people got in trouble, and you are no longer allowed to receive it or even know what's in it. People sometimes use them to try to find birthparents, and they don't want that to happen. It would have been nice to know more about her history. They gave us a couple of other pictures of her (the same posed ones that we got in the referral but in a different outfit / same day). I wish I had asked why they changed her outfit. Just curious.

Then we went out to lunch with the director and many of the staff. It was a little awkward because the only one who can translate is Bob, our guide. I was pretty exhausted and drained by then. Luckily the food was Jamie-friendly (my favorite was pumpkin with pine nuts!) and Casey ate a lot. She did her best with the chopsticks. Near the end she was pretty much done and just wanted DogDog, but then she got her second wind with another round of her two favorite Chinese songs.

In addition to a big bag of oranges, they gave Casey a kite (the city of YangJiang is famous for kites) and a shell necklace (it's also by the beach). Very special.

Then we took one of the staff people to the store so we could buy them some diapers and towels (that's what they wanted) and we waited while she picked them out. Casey had a great time playing with Bob. We looked for baby toys but couldn't find anything. I will tell the next people to go to bring some. I hope they will let the babies keep them.

Also, they said that 10 kids have been adopted from there this year (internationally) and 3 kids have been adopted domestically.

She really did great, and has done great the whole trip. Better than at home, actually. No nightmares, sleeping through the night (for the most part, considering the time difference), and just having a great time hanging out with us 24/7. Next time we'll be sure to learn some new Chinese songs and definitely some more Chinese. They said most kids come back to visit at about age 10. We didn't want to wait that long since she asks about China so much and because we wanted to go back when we thought there was a chance they would still remember her. We also asked if she sucked her hand back then (like she does now when she's tired or stressed) and they said no. The driver really remembered her and he seemed pretty sure about it. I guess she started it when we picked her up.

Casey wants to add that YangJiang is famous for knives. (We bought a fruit knife and some kitchen scissors. On the billboards the name was "Good Wife's Knives", but on our scissors it says "Cleverest Son's Wife".)

She hopes the babies like the toys.

Eric wants to add that everyone was so happy to see us, they loved Casey's singing, and the yard looks very much like what we saw in the pictures.

And they just want to get back to watching "The Incredibles."

Tonight we're going out to dinner at the same place as last night, which was amazing. Like on our last trip, we shocked the guide and the driver with descriptions of fortune cookies being served at every Chinese restaurant in the US. They don't have them here. Next time I will try to remember to bring some. Casey loves our guide Bob, and our driver Ling (I think his name is Ling - that's what we're calling him so I hope it's his name.) Ling doesn't speak English but of course Casey has charmed him. He now knows the word for seatbelt, because Casey keeps telling him to put his on. People don't wear seatbelts here and kids ride in the front seat. It's pretty much anything goes. Yesterday I saw a woman on a motorbike talking on her cell while in the middle of a busy roundabout in crazy traffic.

Also, I should add that we are staying in a 5 star hotel that is amazing and has a beautiful view. It's more than a little weird staying here after being in the orphanage today, but we're enjoying it.

The first picture is of Casey and the main nanny who was there when Casey was there. The woman on the right hand side of the second picture is the one who brought Casey to us.

The pictures are all out of order. Having two cameras has its pluses and minuses.

Unexpected beach trip #1

On Sunday we took a 3 hour van ride to Yangjiang. It was a very beautiful and interesting ride and I took lots of pictures out the window. It started out with industrial areas, and then fish farms, and we saw water buffalo on the side of the road. We saw whole families riding on a single motor bike. When we got there, we went to the beach! We were very excited and took off our shoes and headed down to the water. The sand was nice and soft and the water was pretty warm. There were lots of shells and Casey got right to work collecting them.

Casey's been playing with my iPhone during the long drives. She's played Yatzee (called Yatzy), Angry Birds, Math Bingo, and she's been watching and listening to her favorite movie du jour, The Sound of Music. It's been the soundtrack to our trip. She and Eric just fast forward to the songs and the scenes with the kids. If there are no kids in a scene, she won't watch it.

We checked in to the Phoenix Hotel, which was very fancy. Check out our view!

Both nights we were there we ate at Hei Long (Black Dragon). Great food. The photo shows Bob and Ling with their gloves on ripping up the chicken. It was really good! The last four photos are actually taken the next day.

Have u seen my dog?

The next day we went to the Six Banyan Tree Temple. Last time, although Casey seemed quite fond of throwing things, she seemed to have the sense not to throw money into the big statue type thing that is probably an incense burner (picture 1). Four years later, she is much more comfortable throwing money away. I'm not sure if we got any money through the hole but we sure had a good time trying. We had the monk bless us again, but this time it was just us and one other woman instead of 18 families. I don't think this happened last time, but when he blessed us he poured water on our heads. More than just a few little drips, and while it was pouring down Casey's face, and she was looking so surprised I got the giggles and the more I tried to hold it back, the worse it got, until I was crying.

Then we went somewhere we hadn't been before, to the Chen Family Clan Temple, where the highlight was that some people wanted to take a picture with Eric and Casey. It was interesting to see the park nearby, where families were taking their kids to bike, skate, scooter, and run around. Everywhere you go, there are a lot of people.

When Bob and Ling dropped us off, a crazy terrible thing happened. We got to the hotel and realized that we didn't have DogDog. One of Casey's favorite books is called Knuffle Bunny, and in the story, Trixie loses the bunny at the laundromat. Casey also loves Knuffle Bunny Too, where she accidentally switches bunnies with her classmate and the dads have to meet at 2 am to exchange bunnies. Knuffle Bunny Free, however is one of her least favorite books. Trixie loses her bunny on the plane on her way to the Netherlands. The bunny ends up having an adventure in China and then Trixie finds her on the flight home, but then gives her away to a crying baby. Casey hates it and always makes it clear that she's never giving DogDog away. Well, we were worried that DogDog was off having an adventure in China without us. We tried to be patient and wait the five hours until they came to pick us up to see if he was in the van. (We were pretty sure he was, but we were still pretty nervous.) We went to a great little Malaysian place above the McDonald's and while we waited for our food, Casey made a couple of signs that said, "Have u seen my dog?"

Then when Bob came to pick us up to go on the Pearl River cruise, he came with a cab! No Ling! We all panicked and were relieved to find out that it was actually Ling's own van and no one else was taking it. Bob called Ling and Ling went to check and there was DogDog. Thank goodness. Ling agreed to pick us up after the cruise, with the dog. The cruise was fine. Casey loved the bridges that were all lit up with color, especially the rainbow colored ones, and said, "Take a picture, take a picture!" as we passed each one. But by the end she was falling asleep, pining (and whining) for DogDog. We were about the first ones off the boat and we saw Ling right away.