I think tonights blog entry will be relatively short although I do have a bunch of pictures to post but we’ll see how fast the internet connection is because I have never been really patient with waiting for things to upload.

We awoke to a laughing baby girl which was a lot of fun:

 

Good morning  I wake up happy and laughing

We went to a pavillion whose name I cannot remember and as Thom has gone out for a beer with James I don’t think that the name will make the blog today.  It is one of the three most well known pavillions.  One of the other ones is in Hunan province.  It was built for a prince of the Teng dynasty who did not wish to become emperor.  I guess most of the princes tended to fight each other for that right but he enjoyed painting and other activities and had no desire to be that much in politics. 

  

  Teng Pavillion

 

Female lion  More pavillion

The pavillion was rebuilt in 1989 for the 29th time so it supposedly has 89 steps on the outside.  I did not feel any desire to confirm this number so I am just going to have to believe what I have been told.  There was a bell over on the left side which you could ring for good luck and a price which, of course, we did.  I have a picture of Thom with the incense after ringing the bell but unfortunately he has taken that camera with him on his beer quest.  Inside on one of the floors you can buy some coins to toss inside a metal urn.  If you get it inside the urn a voice says something in chinese and again it is good luck.  Thom managed to get a coin in on his 6th or 7th try.  I missed many times with the coin hitting the sides and popping out.  However, it is much harder to throw a coin when you have a baby attached to your front.

   Stairs to   Dragon on top of bell

 

 Mommy misses with last coin

We saw a show on the top floor of the pavillion.  There were a lot of other families there with newly adopted babies.  We met one couple from Colorado Springs.  We arrived to early for the performance so listened to the rehearsel which I found to be quite difficult on the ears although it did not seem to bother any of the babies.  However, the performance itself was very nice and relatively short.  You get some great views of the city of Nachang from the pavillion

 Performance at top of pavillion

 
  View of Nachang from Pavillion

Lili seems to be quite content to be awake as long as things are going on. Many of the other babies seem to fall asleep when we are out on excursions but not our daughter she wants to see all that can be seen.  Needless to say she fell asleep during lunch which was again at a local restaurant and again very good with some spicy food which is what the province is known for and the girls from here are often referred to as “Spicy girls” which is a line that Thom keeps saying with much gusto.  Lili will eat most food we try to give her. Lili slept all the way home on the bus and then went back to sleep when we got back to the room. 

Today, a tailor came to make outfits for the babies and the adults if they wanted anything.  Needless to say, Lili has a New Year’s outfit through her 3rd birthday.  I do not deny that we went overboard especially when you see Thom’s new jacket which is black with black dragons on it. I nixed the silk pants and he does not understand why but everyone else should be quite grateful.

Her personality continues to develop.  She can have her fussy periods which seem to be mainly when she is hungry and sleepy.  She is learning to sit up buy herself although she still forgets that when she leans to one side she need to use that arm to support herself but over the course of an hour or two she went from sitting with me supporting her for the most part to playing with her toys in a tripod sit.  It was nice to have a chance to just sit and play and bond today and Lili and I spent a lot of time doing that and I loved every minute of it.

  

  Mommy and Lili at the pavillion resting

  Getting to know each other better

Tomorrow we are off to they passport office, the country and a porcelein place which is what Jiangxi province is know for so I am sure some more shopping will be done.

No naked pictures today. Just some local flavor from yesterday. Lili and I getting ready to walk out the door.

As Catherine mentioned we went to the park. It was full of families, artists and musicians.

There is a single string instrument for traditional chinese music called the Hu ( or it could be lu) which multiple groups of people were playing and singing along with. Plus there was yet another food on a stick sighting. This time it was ornamental sugar in the shape of a shrimp.

 

Later in the day Lili and I went for a walk while Catherine tried to recover from some virus that was making her queasy and woozy. Everywhere we went we attracted stares and crowds much like this one. This is one of the families in our group with their own set of admirers.

As you can tell definitions of personal space are different everywhere you go. However no matter how many people crowd around you, they are curious and friendly even if you can’t understand what they are saying to you.

We attracted a crowd of about 30-40 women and children. I finally realized that the old ladies were grabbing lili’s hands to check if she was warm enough. They showed me this by having me touch the hands of this little girl whose hands felt like ice cubes. So while they were initially skeptical of how many layers Lili had on, they were very impressed by how warm her hands were and so they approved.

 

I met a very chatty 70-year-old man who was a veteran of the Korean war, on the North Korean/Chinese side but also loved America because of our help fighting the Japanese during WWII . He basically said through a translator – “never always enemies, never always friends” I wished I knew what the Chinese words were for that thought because it’s pretty true. We chatted some more with the veteran and lots of other neighborhood residents. It really is a little neighborhood around the Hotel, complete with small markets, hanging laundry, chickens in the alleys, craftsmen making mortise and tenon furniture by hand and eye, and lots of sausages hanging out to dry. The three-wheeled vehicles/motorcycles are everywhere here and are the perfect methods of transporting loads too big to hand carry and too small for a big truck.

We had a very nice walk around the neighborhood before seeing this littel sunset scene which was a perfect close to the evening.

 

We’ll post more pictures and stories from today’s travels. Including more pictures and stories. -t

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