downtown nanning
Downtown Nanning
Chloe in our hotel lobby (the Majestic)
Chloe and new friend Sarah
Nanning grocery store
It is 4:30 am on 12/3 in Nanning;I can not believe I
actually slept until 4:30 (2:30am wakeup yesterday) so
it does appear that the Jet Lag is slowly resolving
itself. 5 of us families got in last night around
4:30pm and were greeted at the airport by XiXi
(she-she)-and her daughter Jessica (Hope I have this
right)and I can tell already that we will be very well
taken care of! . It was about a 40 min bus ride from
the airport to our hotel the Majestic - very different
area than Beijing - lots and lots of bikes and small
motor bikes - they are parked literally in long
parking lot type lines on both sides of the busy
streets we are passing. We also drove past the WALMART
super center -too funny- and it is even more packed
with people than the states (we were told not to visit
until at least Monday). It is warm and muggy here so
it was quite a pleasure to shed all of our coats.
My travel companions have been complete troopers -
Patsy is having no problem whatsoever with the squatty
pottys - Chloe has been able to do it once but is
havng a hard time now - a little difficult as I have
to squat in front of her to hold her up and I would
rather stay as far away from the floors inside these
things as I possibly can. All in all though, we
haven't really used the SPs that much - maybe 2-3
times so we must be visiting more places with Western
toiliets than I remember on the previous trip.
Chloe has really been awesome - I couldn't hope for a
better behaved little girl. She is totally holding up
her end, taking control of her stuff and keeping her
great disposition. She is falling asleep anywhere she
possibly can and thank goodness as she is the only one
that is getting at least 8 hours per day. She has
been surviving mostly on white rice,french fries and
egg drop soup (did get this one time and it was
delicious) and has even ventured to try some new types
of food. The Chinese people are fascinated by her and
I think she is feeling a little uncomfortable because
they all ask if she can speak Chinese.
The last day in Beijing, I discovered a really, really
cool tea house right across from our hotel. I wish I
would have brought my camera in there. The three of
us sat down and tried some very good (at least to me)
Jasmine tea. I purchased 2 different kinds
(qualities) of jasmine tea - one of which blooms into
this really beautiful flower while you watch it steep
- and they threw in a petite little tea cup and yet
another bag of tea. We also tried some very
interesting tea snacks that none of us really knew
what they were but it was interesting none the less.
One of the couples in our group discovered a bookstore
down the street and was able to snag some Chinese folk
tale books in English and Mandarin - what a find! I
missed that one this time but hope to search for these
when we get to Guangzhou.
Interesting dinner experience our first night in
Nanning - don't think mom was pleased at all. We went
to a restaraunt next to the hotel called the Great
Wall - we were the only foreigners there (actually
Xixi mentioned that if we see anymore caucasian people
here -they are adopting because people don't come to
Nanning to tour - they go to Guilin for that).
Starting at one end of the building to the other end
-against the wall behind glass were all of these small
little areas where you order your food (by pointing at
the pictures on the glass) - the person behind the
glass jots down on your ticket what you ordered and
hands it back to you - and you keep going all the way
down the line ordering whatever you want. At the end
you go back to your table and they bring it all out to
you and place on the spinning thing in the middle of
the table. Very different items = lots of tripes
(look it up:-(), Duck beaks, frog something or other -
but we did end up with a few tasty dishes. Mom was a
bit annoyed that they didn't have her egg drop soup
:-) but she was a trooper and tried a few things - She
surprised me by actually drinking a Heineken! I sure
wouldn't mind trying something a little different for
dinner tonight!
We have SO MUCH luggage - I am not kidding. I am
getting more than nervous about hauling everything
when we do Hong Kong. We were all talking at dinner
the night before we left Beijing and it seems that we
are all "over" the allowed amount. They must have
weighed us as a group at the airport because no one
said anything about paying extra. We all got to
laughing so hard about it at dinner. One person stated
that we should all just wear our clothes in layers
(like we have seen all the kids dressed here)- but
then of course we wouldn't be able to put our arms
down so we would just have to hang our over heavy
carryons from the ends of our arms and turn sideways
to get through security. One man in our group just
brought clothes he was going to give to the good will
and plans on trashing them as he goes along (now, why
didn't I think of that!).
Today is gotcha day. We are meeting in the lobby at
10:30am and can't remember why now as we don't head to
the civil affairs office until 2:30 this afternoon. We
are supposed to get the babies as soon as we get there
so around 3pm. The rest of the group went to the
grocery store after dinner last night since they knew
what type of formula their babies were on - we haven't
found this out for Gige yet but will be making a
similar trip once we do. We are only supposed to
spend a very short time at the Civil Affairs office
today - a get the babies and run type of thing. But
then we return tomorrow to do some paperwork and I
think that will take a little longer.
We have such an awesome group! I can't believe how
wonderful everyone is. I was so hoping that this
group would be as good as Chloes group and I really
have no doubt that we will all stay in touch after
this. Unfortunately for us, we are all from different
ends of the US; New York, Washington State, St. Louis,
North Carolina, Florida, etc. Hmmmm, I wonder where
the reunion will end up should we have one?
We have two adjoining rooms now so it is very, very
nice to have the extra space. I have a computer in my
room but it seems to be very old so I am not sure yet
if I will be able to upload any pictures - will give
this a try in the next few days while gige is napping.
Signing off for now - the next time I write - I hope
to have a gotcha story.
Love you all - I hope everyone is well.
PS to Laura -I am posting to the blog so you don't
need to - did you get my emails? How is Wally?
____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a better sports nut! Let your teams follow you
with Yahoo Mobile. Try it now.
http://mobile.yahoo.com/sports;_ylt=At9_qDKvtAbMuh1G1SQtBI7ntAcJ
No comments:
Post a Comment