We are finally home (arrived at my parents’ house on Wednesday the 30th and home on the 31st). I’m still catching up and trying to keep this in a sort of order so will continue with our travel journals and do a home update soon.
Day 14 – Guangzhou
We had an unplanned free day today (thank goodness) as our scheduled excursion to a botanical garden with the group was canceled due to the weather. We expected Guangzhou to be sunny and pleasant (and I even packed capris, just in case) but the snow and ice everywhere else in China meant it was chilly and rainy even here. J and I had then tentatively made plans with Josh and Kathy to take the girls and visit the 6 Banyan Temple but I felt like crap and begged off. They were cool with that and we rescheduled for another day. We were up much of the night with Ava, as usual, but J took over in the AM and let me get another hour of much needed sleep. I have the worst cold that I think I’ve ever had and it’s really taken it out of me at the worst possible time.
We finally got up and about and trekked out around the island to have a look ’round. Shamian Island is really beautiful and I would love to see it in the spring. After the pollution and hustle of the big cities the island was like a mirage – it is very green with lush gardens, gorgeous tropical plants, ancient trees, and friendly (and relatively non-pushy) people. Shamian Island was a key strategic defense point during the opium war period and was leased to the French and British around that time. Much of Shamian is protected by the state as a historical area, including the architectural complex built during the concession period in Shamian’s modern times. The area became concession in 1859, and afterwards the British, French, American, German, Japanese, Italian, Netherlands and Portuguese set up consulates, banks and trade offices, one after another. The Kuomintang (KMT) government took over Shamian after winning the Anti-Japanese War in 1945. Many of the old buildings are of Western classic layout giving it a peculiarly colonial feel. And I have to say that I was incredibly happy to see a Starbucks as I’d not yet succumbed and was seriously jonesing for a grande hot chocolate, skim, with no whipped cream.
We did a tiny bit of shopping but mostly just picked up our laundry and looked around. We didn’t want to keep Ava out long because of the weather so I bought only one outfit (because it was one of the few emerald green ones that I’d seen) and a couple of pairs of the famous squeaky shoes. We grabbed some snacks from 7-11 and headed back to the room for a quick nap for all 3 of us.
Good thing I’m an impulse shopper because we got an unexpected call (interrupting our naptime) that the red couch photos scheduled for the following day had been rescheduled for that evening. I was so glad to already have a silk outfit for Ava so we tossed her (not literally) in the bathtub with J for a scrubdown. Geez, does this kid hate water! The good thing about her is that while she screams like a banshee from the time even one toe touches the surface she will stop immediately upon removal. Got her cleaned up and headed down to the 2nd floor of the hotel.
I’m not sure how the red couch photo thing got started but basically every travel group gets their kids together and poses them on one of the many red couches throughout the aviary area in the hotel. It was pretty humorous watching the hubbub of people trying to get x number of kids to sit still for a photo – the parents were hilarious and the kids were pretty much unhappy with the whole situation.
Our travel group of 14 families was split into 3 groups. One group (ours) was comprised of 4 families that adopted from Hubei, one group was 1 family who adopted from Nanning, and the remainder adopted from Guangdong. The Hubei girls were great on the red couch. They were quiet – well, until Elizabeth (one of the babies) decided she was very interested in Ava’s outfit and attempted to pull it off of her. Ava dissolved into tears, but only after we got a number of very good shots. The Guangdong group never did manage to get a tear-free photo. After finishing up here, we got some group photos of all of us with the babies and headed out for dinner at a local restaurant.
The dinner was very good and we’re pretty sure we only ate beef and chicken since our facilitator went along and ordered for us. We had the most amazing spicy green beans and our table managed to wolf down nearly everything in sight – one of the other tables was sending food over to us because they couland’t finish everything. We had no problems with that. I was thrilled because J held Ava for the whole dinner and I was actually able to eat a meal without constantly pushing little hands away from my plate and I’ve finally (almost) gotten the chopstick thing down now.
Ava still hates being put down and won’t tolerate sitting in a highchair. We managed about 5 minutes this morning at breakfast so I have hopes that any improvement is a step in the right direction. J is very much a breakfast person so I generally have the breakfast duty of holding the baby. She continues to wolf down the bottles and we’ve begun adding rice cereal to pretty much all of them now.
I won’t say everything is easy. The lack of sleep is getting to both of us, me more so than J, probably because I’m sick. J is an incredible dad, though. He’s infinitely patient with Ava and is much less likely than I am to get flustered or frustrated. Ava is also very, very clingy and will absolutely not sit and play by herself at all. We’re just lucky she seems to like both of us and will happily be with either me or J with little fuss.
I’ll update with pictures later. They’re on the other laptop and I need to transfer them over to this one to post.
Still more trip to follow…