On to Guangzhou
Sunday was a pretty quiet day. We didn't have anything we needed to do for the adoption and we didn't have anything planned to do. It was a pretty nice day though, partly sunny and warm. Amy came to our room about mid-morning and we went out to try to play soccer in the park behind the hotel again, this time with Amy. Amy could explain to Tyler what we were doing and how to play and he joined in this time. He seemed to have fun. It started to sprinkle, so we went back in to our room and Amy went back to hers.
It didn't sprinkle very long, so we decided to go for a walk to the park in the middle of the lake again. Several of the buildings weren't open today either for some reason and their main fountain wasn't running either - it's a good thing I got a picture of it when Danni and I went the first time. While we were walking around the park, we came across a girl blowing bubbles. Tyler went after a couple of the bubbles to have them pop when he touched them. He thought this was neat, but once he figured out the girl was blowing them, he quit chasing them. She ran in to us a couple times and smiled at him, blowing bubbles for him, but he didn't want to chase them anymore. He's pretty shy when it comes to strangers.
After we got done walking through the park, we wandered down the street that Amy had taken us down the other day. Mom had seen a restaurant that looked like a fast food place with pictures above the ordering counter called Dicos. We found it, went in and ordered. It was a Chinese version of KFC and it was very good. The servings were large and it only cost us less than $2.50 per person for a monstly boneless fried chicken breast, fries and a drink. Although we were full, we still stopped by a store on the way back to the hotel to get ice cream. We've only had ice cream a couple times since we've been here.
Because today was the 18th anniversary for the hotel, they gave each room a coupon for an hour of ping pong, tennis or some of the other things they offer. Amy took us down to play ping pong for an hour. None of us except Amy had played ping pong in a long time, but we quickly caught on again and had fun. Tyler tried playing, but doesn't quite have the idea yet... but he had fun trying too.
Monday, we went down for breakfast as usual and got back up to our room about 7:30. We started to pack for our flight to Guanzhou. We had everything packed within 30 minutes, and then had another 4 1/2 hours to wait. Amy came by to talk for about an hour of the time and Tyler fell asleep for a little while. Amy tried to cover him gently and he woke up immediately. He started crying, but wouldn't tell Amy what was wrong. Amy told us that her parents told her that when she was young, she would cry after she took a nap and they never could figure out why.... Tyler may be the same way.
We left for the airport at 12:30. When we got there an hour later, our flight was the only flight on the board that was delayed, but it didn't have a new departure time yet. Amy asked if they had an idea of how long the delay was and they said about an hour. We got all of our baggage checked and our boarding passes. As we were going through security, we said goodbye and thank you to Amy, and then went on to find out gate. Finally, about 3:30 (our flight was supposed to leave at 3:40 originally) they said the new departure time would be 5:10. This was the first flight we have had in the entire trip that has been delayed. Tyler did very well for having to sit in the airport for 3 1/2 hours. Tyler was excited about his first plane ride and did very well. He was the only one of the three of us who ate the roasted fresh cod they gave us. We also found out during the flight that he does know what gum is.
After gathering our luggage, we quickly found Xi Xi, our adoption guide for Guanzhou. She helped us get our luggage in to the van and we started for our hotel, The Victory Hotel, on Shamian Island in Guanzhou. It was dark by the time we reached Guanzhou, so we couldn't see too much. There was also another reason we couldn't see a lot that I thought was interesting. We probably drove through Guanzhou for 15 or 20 minutes and were never at ground level. If you are on the expressway, you are above the city, probably 3 - 5 stories high. There are also ground level streets for traveling within Guanzhou. Above the city, it is not just one road that goes across, but several that intersect with each other just like interstates and major highways do in the US.
We got to our hotel and got checked in. We also got our train tickets for our ride to Hong Kong on Wednesday. After getting checked in, Xi Xi took us to a restaurant that a lot of adoptive families say is a must to eat at called Lucy's. It's western style food and it was very good. It is a little more expensive than the fast food places we have eaten at, but cheaper than the hotel we were staying at in Fuzhou. It's just like the price differece between eating at fast food and eating at a sit down restaurant in the US.
After dinner, it was getting late compared to how late we are usually up, so we went back to the hotel room to get ready for bed - we'll have time for exploring and shopping tomorrow in the light of day. We got involved in a movie on tv that we still don't know the name of and didn't actually get to sleep until a little after 10:00, Tyler fell asleep between 9:00 and 9:30 - this is late compared to what we have been doing, usually going to bed by 8:00 or a little after. Tomorrow should be fun, exploring our new surroundings and doing a lot of last minute shopping for souveniers and gifts!
Continue on to Guangzhou, Shoppers beware! or go back to the Main Page.
I'd like to welcome you to come along with us by checking out this site every day for updates. You can also visit my mom's web site at http://www.rainbowhorses.com/tyler.html, and I strongly encourage you to join us at our forum to ask questions, post comments or anything else.
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