Day 5 - Changsha - Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Ni Hao!

I still can't believe that this is real.  I was sitting in the van earlier today and just had a surreal moment….like I'm in a movie or something.  Crazy!

I have failed to discuss the weather.  It has rained every day we have been in Changsha, except for yesterday.  It even rained on Gotcha Day, but that's okay.  They dropped us off at the door and picked us up right at the door when we were ready to leave.  Speaking of that day, that's like out of a movie as well.  A picture of the building is below, but it is still hard to believe that they let you adopt children from that building as much a mess as it is.  Talk about out of a movie!  We of course did everything by the book and have the papers to prove it, but it just felt odd taking a baby out of a building that looked like a war zone.

I digress….back to the weather.  It has been a bummer for us, because there is no way that we can get out and about in the rain with both girls.  Going out and about is interesting anyway, but especially with the rain.  So, that means we have spent quite a bit of time in the hotel playing.  That is probably a good idea anyway, since it seems to have assisted with the bonding.  That was one thing that I was really worried about before we came, but God is good.  Fingers crossed, but Olivia seems to have bonded with both Philip and myself.

Oh, and if you are wondering….that hairdryer contraption?  It takes me 30 minutes to dry my hair with that thing.

Olivia slept all night again last night, and we are thankful for that. It has taken about 4 days, but all of us seem to have adjusted to the time change as well.  This morning, we ate breakfast in the Western Restaurant again.  Ansley is eating really well, and again, that's a good thing.  Olivia is eating well, too!  We made a little progress this morning with Olivia and Ansley, too, so thanks for your prayers.  Olivia actually let Ansley hold her hand, and that made Ansley a very happy camper.  But, what Ansley doesn't know is that Olivia does not like it when I hold Ansley's hand.  Interesting dynamic we have going on.  Here are a couple of pictures of them playing at breakfast.  (Incidentally, if you are wondering about her sizing, this is a size 18 month dress Olivia has on today.  Last night, she slept in size 2T Gymboree pajamas that fit her pretty well.  So, my sizing estimates are pretty spot-on so far:  18-24 months, some 2T.  She appears to be on the taller side, but very skinny and narrow.)

Lesson One learned today:  Girlfriend does not like to ride in the van.  Wait...let me rephrase that.  Girlfriend HATES, DESPISES, LOATHES (insert any other applicable adjective here) riding in the van.  (By the way, our van is a Buick.)  She screams and cries from the time she sees the van until we arrive at our destination.  Let's just hope that this does not also apply to airplanes.  We will be in serious trouble (and everyone else on the plane for 14 hours) on the way back if this continues.  This also does not bode well for the car seat experience when we get back to Nashville.

Here is a picture of her in the van:

And, a picture of her when she got out of the van:

We have met a couple of other families here that are on Heritage Tours.  All of the girls are 10 years old, so that appears to be the thing to do when the girls turn 10.  We have met families from North Carolina, Boston, and now New York City.  All of them ask how long we waited, and when we say, "8 years," their response is pure amazement.  They are all so nice and have given us advice.  A couple of them have asked to be friends on Facebook and have offered their email addresses in case we need anything.  So nice.

We have also run across some Chinese folks who remember International adoption when it was in its "hay day" back 8-10 years ago.  In fact, one of the Heritage Tour Guides came up to us today and commented that he hadn't seen a healthy adoption in a couple of years.  He was shocked when we told him that we had waited for 8 years.  You can tell the staff at the hotel who has been here for a long time, too.  One of the bellmen is so sweet.  He is an older Chinese gentleman that just oohs and aahs over both girls.  He picks Ansley up every day and gives her a kiss.  I must get a picture of him before we leave.

One of the manager trainees here is really sweet as well.  She "visited us" in our room yesterday and brought us an embroidered handkerchief as a "Thank You" for staying here.  Her English is pretty good, and we are at least able to communicate a little.  She was talking to me this morning about my eyelashes and wanted to know what kind of cosmetics I use.  I told her, and she told me that she really likes MAC.  I can't believe that they have MAC here, but I guess she gets it from Hong Kong.  Interesting.

This morning, we met Vicky in the lobby and headed out for another adventure.  It is really awesome that we have her, as well as our driver.  I can't imagine doing this without them.  We went to a store called Carrefour this morning to get some Chinese baby formula for Olivia.  She still will not take the formula that we brought, so we are going to try this.  She also drinks it warmer than room temperature, and with a little sugar in it.  She is only drinking juice with water right now for us, so we really need to remedy that if at all possible.  The Carrefour store is similar to a Wal-Mart, but they do have Wal-Marts here as well (Beth, you could move to China and work here!).  We haven't been to a Wal-Mart, but there are 4 here.  Here are a few shots from Carrefour.  I don't know if you can tell, but the chocolate is practically sold out.  We were told that they didn't have chocolate in China, but they do.  It seems to be a popular commodity!

This is the formula that we bought:

They also have make-up at the Carrefour:

Here are the mints and chewing gum:

And, the chocolate!

Ansley acted as our "Sherpa" when we left Carrefour.  She wanted me to post these pictures:

After our trip to the store, we went to an Embroidery Museum.  My aunt would LOVE this place.  It is so interesting!  I can't even begin to describe the detail that goes into each of these pieces.  They are gorgeous.  Some of them are so good that you think they are photographs instead of embroidery!  We saw a couple of pieces that took 2-3 years for one person to make.  There are 4 major embroidery markets in China, and Hunan is one of them.  There is a factory on the outskirts of the city where they make these items.  The museum that we went to today is government run, and they sell pieces here as well.  There was a piece of Albert Einstein (stitched with hemp) there, and Ansley told us that Grammy, Grandad, and Jen Jen knew him.  (Ha!)  We also saw a photo of George W. Bush in the museum where when he came to China, this embroidery place made a special piece for him.

This is a picture of how they still manually make each piece by hand:

Here are 2 pictures of a two-sided piece.  You probably can't get the exact idea, but essentially, one side is a tiger and the other side is a beautiful peacock.  This is made by one person with two needles, sewing this at the same time.  Simply amazing.  Out of 60,000 embroiderers in the country, there are only about 30 that can do this.  The trade also seems to be phasing out, which is very sad.  It has been part of this country and province's history for many, many years.

At the end of our tour, there was a little area that had foods and snacks from each area of the province.  We found Olivia's area:  Ningyuan County, near Yongzhou.  Evidently, they are known for their dried fish snacks…yuck.

I was also able to get some general shots of part of the city today:

Pizza Hut!

And, for all of you cyclists out there who are following us, they have some bike lanes here with their own traffic lights.  It is hard to see, but on the far right is the bike lane with a picture of a little bicycle.  I don't know why they even have traffic lights.  No one seems to follow any semblance of order around here.  It is best to not look out the window while we are riding anywhere, and walking down the sidewalk is a sport in itself.

Philip also made a point this afternoon to walk over to one of the bike shops we have driven by this week.  He said it was a nice store and like most of the Asian market, dominated by mountain bikes (you wouldn't want to ride on the road here).

Philip also found some Red Bull and some Coca-Cola:

I'll be honest:  I think things will be better when we get to Guangzhou.  Eating has been very, very difficult here, which I anticipated, but it's still hard.  For those of you who saw the amount of food we brought, I'm pretty confident that most of it will be gone by the time we leave Changsha.  We are doing the best we can.  We aren't enamored with Changsha, but that's okay.  We got what we came for!  :)

We went back to the play room after naps and then back to the pool.  We took it easy this evening and had room service - spaghetti and pizza.

Tomorrow, we will go back to the Civil Affairs Office to pick up Olivia's birth certificate and some other paperwork.  Then, if the weather is nice, we will head to YuLu Academy, an ancient university, and then possibly a "nice park" where the girls can play outside.

We hope all is well in Tennessee!

Until next time,

Jill