First Night in Guangzhou

Our guide has been telling us all along that Chongqing is the "Real" China. Guangzhou is for the International Adopting families and for shopping. She was right. Tonight instead of a spicy hot meal we had supper from Lucy's - Tony had a cheeseburger, me a chicken wrap and Logan had grilled cheese sandwich. Many of the shop owners speak fluent English. People also don't stare at us like they did in Chongqing b/c they are used to seeing Non-Chinese parents with Chinese children.

I do like to shop and if it's shopping cheap, I REALLY like shopping. So far tonight I've bought several squeeky shoes (two pair for the twins each, but mostly for Madelyn), some paintings this man does with his finger and black ink (really cool), t-shirts b/c it's HOT here for us to wear, and one silk dress for Madelyn. I'm planning on buying more silk dresses in different sizes but I'm trying to figure out what store will give us the best deal first. Hopefully Monday night our group can get together to go to the Pearl and Jade Market.

Tomorrow's plans include resting and shopping and then the evening is the Pearl River Cruise for their Lantern Festival. I'm really excited about this.

Our guide will be going to the Consulate for us. From what I understand the only thing we have to do to make this entire adoption official for the US government is to go through the medical exam, have her photo taken, and go to the swearing in ceremony. I'm so glad we have a guide/translator to take us through all of this. She's been wonderful. All the kids love her too. She took Logan tonight into a restuarant that had live fish, frogs, and other stuff they cook to eat. (BTW, there is actually a restaurant that serves pigeons. We're passing on this. As Tony puts it, they are nothing but rats with wings. I'm not eating it.)

As I said before, it is REALLY hot here. We thought the weather was going to be more like home when we came. It's in the 80's here and very humid. Thankfully the air conditioning works in this hotel room. It wasn't working so well in the Harbour Plaza. Even our guide has said this is unusual weather for this time of the year.