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Apparently in Guangzhou there is a game similar to Hackeysack except it’s played by men and women of all ages and the hackeysack is an oversized badminton shuttlecock except with plastic washers where the rubber bulb would be. There are hundreds of people playing this game all over the park I tried to ask what the game is called or even what the shuttlecock/hackeysack is called and all I got was basically it’s called Guangzhou….Yea, somehow I don’t think they knew what I was asking. Of course the fact that I’m asking in English and they speak Mandarin or Cantonese might have something to do with it. My Mandarin seems to have devolved down to a few stock phrases and numbers. I occasinally break out with a word or phrase from my tutoring sessions but it’s usually a surprise to me and even more of a surprise to whomever I’m speaking with. So I repeat the word or phrase and then the person with whom I’m trying to communicate usually smiles, laughs, repeats what I said and then says, in english, “your chinese is very good”. As you can tell from this story the culture of saving face and politeness is alive and well in China.

 

A typical co-ed group of people playing Chinese Hackeysack (once I find out the actual name, I’ll start using it)

Back to Chinese Hackeysack. I was playing in the park today during Lili’s nap with several men and women, most of whom were over 60. They could do amazing tricks without seeming to move a muscle or breaking a sweat. I, of course, had sweat streaming down my face and missed many opportunities to “hackey” the shuttlecock. Occasionally I’d get lucky with a behind the back desperation lunge using my size 13 feet and I’d earn several thumbs up and even a mei hua – (beatiful, fine, etc.) I was definitely the novelty and several people would join our group of 5 or 6 with apparently the sole goal of seeing how good the “Lao Wai” was, because I got far more than my fair share of shots directed my way, after a few minutes demonstrating I could in fact handle the simple shots, the group just kind of gelled and focused on keeping the shuttlecock in the air, tapping it only once and making sure to include every member of the group. Every 10 minutes or so, 1 or 2 new people would wander over and mumble something in mandarin or cantonese and join the group as others left. Basically the core of the group was a 60-year-old woman and a living breathing caricture of an old chinese man with grey hair and a long wispy beard, and me, the balding slightly paunchy American. Of course they were incredible and would have impressed even the most jaded group of deadheads hackeying outside a Phish concert. (is that a verb?) All in all, I held my own without embarrassing myself too many times. But we all knew who was teaching the game and who was being schooled even though we weren’t having many in-depth conversations.

After an hour I was beat, but the men in their suits and the women in their flats were still going strong. In fact several of the people I was playing with were still at it several hours later when we all went out for lunch. Of course then I was no longer the star since Lili was with us. And boy is she a star.

After lunch we went out and about in the city riding in a couple of Taxis, shopping, and generally trying to get something of a sense of this massive city. It’s size is truly amazing and the density of population makes NYC look like a ghost town without the tumbleweeds.

 

Let’s play find the Lao Wai (foreigner) in this photo.

No, that isn’t an optical illusion the taxi won’t fit in the gap. But unlike in the states there was no animosity, no road rage, no middle-fingers upraised in an angry salute, just a quiet peaceful acceptance punctuated by horns. The traffic is the most chaotic I’ve ever seen. People randomly stop until they decide whether to turn or not, bikes, mopeds, handtrucks, three-wheelers, pedestrians, Buses, taxis and luxury sedans all mix together in this glorious stew that is Ghuangzhou traffic. It makes Brazillian drivers look like calm, patient, orderly, little old ladies out for a Sunday drive. It makes the Costa Rican drivers look like model citizens aiming for another AAA discount. Of course German Drivers would be in apoplexy here because there doesn’t seem to be any rules to follow. But given all that there are surprising few accidents.

 

Indoor waterfall at the White Swan Hotel with a large number of very hungry Koi fish, some almost two feet long.

The White Swan hotel is quite an experience. After Nanchang, where for a week we didn’t see a single non-asian person who wasn’t with our group (they were a few Indian, Vietnamese, and Thai guests at the hotel however), this hotel must have 75-100 or more families all adopting. So imagine a breakfast dining room packed with couples in every flavor of American, all of whom have at least one small chinese person at their table. Sometimes they have two or more since they been down the adoption path before. Sprinkle in a few asian and american business men traveling solo and wearing suits and you have a very surreal meal. Most of the kids seem to be between 1-2 years of age, mostly girls, but there are a few boys. Lili is probably the smallest baby we’ve seen and probably one of the younger ones in residence in the hotel, but of course she is the cutest and we have the photos to prove it. We’ve been very thankful that she isn’t walking and toddling, yet, because watching the parents going from no kids to an instant 2-year-old, looks exhausting. In fact tonight at dinner with our 10 families in a local restaurant, the girls started their first chorus of crying. It wasn’t one or two girls, it was almost all of them. Both they and their parents looked exhausted (that includes us and our perfect Lili) and people quickly gave up thoughts of eating and fled back to their hotel rooms.

That’s all for now. More pictures tomorrow.  -tjm

I am sitting here blogging as Thom reads Lili her bedtime story, Goodnight Moon.  It is a lot of fun to listen to him read it to her.  My favorite part is when he reads her the author and illustrator off the front cover and often mentions that it is the 60th anniversary. There are so many things I love about this experience and one of them is watching Thom fall in love with Lili.  It is great to see.  I know the whole thing scared him to death when we began and even just before we came but he has adapted quite quickly although he does avoid the diaper changing a lot of the time.  Of course, I enjoy falling in love myself and everyday it gets stronger and stronger.  I never knew that I would be able to spend so much time just staring at someone awake or asleep.  I can also just put her down on the floor with me or sitting next to me and watch all the new things she is learning to do everyday.  Her sitting has become much stronger and she will often catch herself with her hand now when she falls sideways.  Backwards remains a problem but she will overcome it.  Today she picked up a piece of shut-up cracker and put it in her mouth.  She did not quite know what to do with it once it was there but it was the first time she made a concerted effort to put something she picked up into her mouth.  She also seems to be realizing that she can pick up the cheerios and drop them back on the ground although she does not understand the idea of putting them into her mouth.

Today we went for our doctors appointment.  That is quite an experience.  I guess they are also busier than normal because it is just before New Year’s and so there are a lot of babies now.  It was essentially an assembly line.  She got weighed(with all her clothes on), measured and her temperature taken then she went to the ENT room for a hearing screen.  They squeaked a duck next to her ear but she was more interested in trying to get the doctors mask.  On the other side they played a little toy piano. It all worked much better when we closed the door so she did not have all the outside noise.  She can ignore many noises going on about her.  We had the room door opened today and were talking in the hallway and she slept through the whole thing.

After the physical, we came home for a nap which ended up being 2 hours spread over lunch time, of course.  Thom headed out to pick up some lunch just before one because she was still asleep and she woke up about 5 minutes later.  Luckily, that meant by the time Thom got back (with fabulous Thai food – Otter was right), Lili had eaten her lunch so I could have mine.  By then it was 2 and we had to get dressed in our new outfit we had had made in Nachang and go down to get the red couch picture taken.  This is a picture of all the babies in our group.  Lili was perfectly fine up until taking the picture then she started crying.  She finally did get comfort in the end although she never smiled.

 Preteen?

  Ready, set picture time

 

  Red couch picture.  You try and get 10 babies to look in the same direction.

 

  Daddy and   Mommy and Lili

After the red couch picture, we rested for a bit and our baby who had just woken up from a nap about 2 hours ago started acting very sleepy again.  She fell asleep as we were getting onto the bus to go to the temple for the baby blessing and awoke just before the blessing.  She was in a good mood, however, and she just watched the ceremony with these big eyes.  We spent about an hour at the temple including the blessing which was a great experience.  It was in one of the buildings with 3 large Buddahs and we all went in and knelt on the rug with our babies while the monk did the ceremony.   This buddhist temple is special because it has a bone from Cambodia that was a special Buddah relic that a monk from this temple travelled to get.  It also has a female Buddah which as far as I can make out is essentially the fertility Buddah.  The pavillion in the middle of the temple is also not common usually it is just another one story building which is the biggest in the temple.

 

  Female   Pavillion at temple

 

Dragon on urn like structure at temple.  Money for good luck

  

   Lili and Mommy at temple

Incense at temple

After the temple, we headed for an early dinner with dumplings.  Yum! Yum!  Lili ate like her father and believe me he ate a lot at this meal.  We could not believe that she could fit any more into her but she kept going for it like a champ.  Since dinner was early we had a chance to walk around the island before putting Lili to bed.  It was a nice walk.  Lili was in a great mood smiling and laughing at everyone.  She really likes to be full.

Another very full day although a lot of it was spent in the hotel room which I would never imagine that I could enjoy as much as I have but again watching Lili is so much fun.  Tomorrow we essentially have a free day except for the half hour we need to be in the room when Candy is at the US consulate getting Lili’s visa.

Sorry about yesterday.  It was a long day and total exhaustion hit before we were able to even get Lili to bed.  We left our hotel in Nachang about 11am yesterday. 

 

With our local guide, Cindy in Nachang Kisses from Daddy

  

Sleeping angel  I’m pissed of but once you start walking I’ll be happy. Thanks to Effie for the jacket

 

Not the safest crib nor do I like to sleep in the middle of it. It not only flunks the coke can test but also the canteloupe test. Although the really big opening make it easy to get Lili’s head back into the crib.

 

Daddy’s obsession with drying meat. I want that camera

 

Our little girl did not have much interest in taking a nap yesterday morning so she was a bit cranky and also it was her lunch time.  We gave her lunch in the airport and she eventually fell asleep.  Our plane was late, so it was after 1:30 before we boarded.  With the limit of 1 bag per adult(baby is not included), we ended up with only 6 carry-ons not including the most precious one of all.  Lili was awesome on the plane.  She slept until the last 20 minutes when we started descending and I know my ears hurt so I think that is what woke her up.  She then took a bottle and which she finished about 10 minutes before landing but she was a happy baby during that landing.  It was the first time I have been able to sit in a plane and essentially not do anything.  I just stared at my baby and thought about how beautiful she is and she truly is. 

Well, we are off to get our red couch picture and then a blessing at the temple and then dinner.  I think we should be able to blog again tonight. -c