Sept. 11 Apparently epic bedtime struggles make for a good night’s sleep because Megan slept from 12:15 – 8am and woke up happy. After a nice warm shower we headed down to the breakfast buffet. The restaurant was packed. I think all the families that were in China from all the agencies came to the White Swan hotel last night. There were people everywhere. The buffet was amazing. It was hard to know where to start. Brian had a fresh made omelet and I just had a variety of stuff, all very good. Megan opted for congee, banana bread (half of it ended up on the floor) and mashed banana. One of our fellow travelers does not eat Chinese food, so he was thrilled to be here.
Let me tell you a little bit about the White Swan hotel. This hotel is part of urban legend to those of us whom have never traveled to Guangzhou. As one of the other parents explained to their son when we arrived, “This is the hotel that mommy and daddy have heard so much about.” This hotel is on Shamian Island in Guangzhou right on the Pearl River. The hotel is huge (28 floors) and beautiful inside. It has an indoor waterfall. Our room isn’t as big as our room was in Nanchang and the bed is hard, but other than that, it’s very nice. The biggest bonus is that the air conditioning works well. I would say that this is the hotel with the most adoptive families in the world. We found out yesterday that the US is basically the only country that has their consulate in Guangzhou (I’m not sure about Canada). All the other countries have their consulates in Beijing.
After breakfast, we took a short walk to a small store where we had Megan’s visa photo taken. She had fallen asleep in the carrier and we had to wake her up for the picture. Thankfully she fell back asleep afterwards and the picture was actually pretty good. The international health clinic was our next stop. This is where all the babies have to have a check up for their consulate paperwork. Remember, lots of adoptive families arrived yesterday, so just imagine what this clinic looked like. (I thought I heard someone say this clinic is only open on Sat.). Anyway, think about a small town ER on the busiest day imaginable and 90% of the families have children under 2 yrs. old. It was loud and crowded. Megan had an ENT check, very quick “physical” and height, weight, and temperature check. The only thing she didn’t like was the height/weight/temp. check. Thankfully she amused herself for the entire 1 ½ hr. time frame by playing with a deodorized garbage bag dispenser that was attached to the backpack. Weird what keeps kids entertained. Some of the babies had to receive some immunizations, but we didn’t because we are a non-Hague family.
When we returned to the hotel there was a Barbie doll waiting for us. Mattel gives out these Barbies as a gift to the adoptive families. It is a blond Barbie holding a Chinese baby. Mattel also sponsors a play room for the children. We haven’t checked that out yet though.
There are lots of little shops on Shamian Island where the White Swan is located. They sell all kinds of souvenirs. One of the most popular things that they sell for adoptive families is squeaky shoes. These shoes have a little toy inside the heel of the shoe that squeaks when you push on it. This is another example of something that I have heard about for years, but have never seen. We were told that Chinese families also buy these shoes for their children. Chinese children are often very spoiled and don’t want to do things for themselves, so they often don’t want to try to walk. The squeaky shoes are meant to motivate them to walk by themselves. I thought the shoes would be very cheaply made, but they are not. The pair that we chose are pink leather with a rubber sole. They remind me of a stride rite type shoe.
In the afternoon, Brian and Megan had some down time while I went to fill out paperwork for the US consulate appt. on Monday. We had 5 things to fill out. We also put all the required paperwork into plastic folders and our guides will take everything to the consulate Monday morning.
Traffic in Guangzhou isn’t nearly as crazy as in Nanchang. They follow the normal rules on the road, more like Hong Kong. Incidentally, in Hong Kong they drive on the opposite side of the road and the steering wheel is on the opposite side of the car because they are a former British territory. There also isn’t any honking as it was outlawed in 2003. If you are caught honking, the fine is 200 RMB (approx. $30). There are also no motorcycles or scooters. These were outlawed in 2007 because there was a gang that road motorcycles and scooters that were stealing purses and bags. The city itself also looks more modern than Nanchang. They don’t turn off all the lights at night and it looks more like a normal city. The weather here is tropical, somewhat like Florida and very humid. God obviously prepared the weather for people from ND, because it isn’t nearly as hot as accuweather.com predicted it would be. I would say it’s been in the 80s today. Unfortunately, it has been raining. We didn’t have any rain in Nanchang.
For supper, our group went to a Thai restaurant. The food was pretty good. Brian had a sweet and sour chicken dish and I had a noodle and chicken dish. Megan opted for baby food and a few noodles. By the time we got back to the hotel, we were all very tired. Megan was tired too, but didn’t want to admit it, so she fought sleep for ½ hr. Finally Brian got out some of the Chinese CDs we bought and put them in the computer. That seems to help her settle down.
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