Guangzhou day 2: Shopping, paperwork, and time with friends

Hello everyone,


It's Dan! I know you've been dying for me to do more than just post the pictures and videos so I'm providing both tonight. Today we started out by awaking around 7am which is fairly typical now that we have adjusted to the time zone. Becky and I showered and then Bethany took a bath. She wasn't very happy about it I must add. Although her information said that she loves baths, every time we turn on the tub water she wails. Hopefully that goes away soon. It's a bit heart breaking to hear her do that.



After breakfast we went up to the 45th floor rotating restaurant for a breakfast buffet. It is very neat. Lots of food with good variety. Definitely not the kind of variety that I have mentioned previously about the food here in China. Good variety, the kind you actually want to blog about... As the restaurant turns you get to see a different view of the city. I promise to share some video/pictures of that soon. Guangzhou is very busy and the area we are in is very, very modern. Folks dress very trendy and it is very interesting that this feels a lot more like New York or Vegas. In some ways good and in others bad. There are individuals on the street in the evening selling pirated DVDs and attempting to give our advertisements for places of ill repute if you know what I mean... You definitely feel a bit more concerned about ensuring your money and those you care about are close and safe. During the day its very different and much nicer.




We traveled to Shamian Island which is known in Guangzhou for the White Swan hotel as the adoption hotel and its colonial style and various shops. We picked up a few things there from the local shops to bring back home. We also stopped by Carrefour which is the second largest retailer in the world to Wal-Mart. It was a neat experience.

Inside Carrefour. it's a grocery store that is 3 levels deep (you keep going down to get to everything)

Some of the loot from Carrefour. Not as nutritional as it should be but there's fruit in there...

Dragon fruit. It's very odd looking on the outside, the inside is white with black seeds but tastes like kiwi.


Becky and Bethany in front of a Christian church. We couldn't go due to timing and the service that was going on when we arrived was in Mandarin Chinese.

The church. Beautiful colonial style. It was nice to see. Wish we could have participated.


This afternoon Becky (along with 1 parent from each of the families) enjoyed completing some paperwork for the adoption while Bethany and I played in the room, went for a stroll in the hotel and played with some of the other families.

Bethany being goofy with stickers...

This evening we went out to an authentic Italian restaurant which actually was very much so. The Grimaldis and the Davidsons joined us; it was a lot of fun. The tiramisu was awesome. Just ask Becky... There was also a hefty Japanese boy who had to have been up there 4-5 times cleaning up the tiramisu every time they brought more out. After that we strolled back to our hotel and hung out in our room just talking and letting the kids play. Now we are tired and ready for some sleep. Bethany is fast asleep with little incidence. Woohoo!

We are blessed that we have a doctor who is a part of our travel group...he and his family are here adopting their second daughter from China (they have 2 biological sons too). He gave Bethany a brief exam today, as we are worried about a cough she has had since we got her. Her lungs are clear, but he thinks she has an ear infection in at least one ear. The other ear is too compacted with wax to even see the ear drum. Since he is a radiologist, he suggested we try to talk with our pediatrician in the states to see if he thought we should start her on an antibiotic...so we'll see what we can do. Otherwise, he said he would give her some of the zithromax he brought if we want before we fly out on Friday. We'll see how it goes.

Good night from Guangzhou!

Dan (& Becky too)