Various Other Activities

We've spent the rest of our time here on Shamian Island shopping, eating, shopping, sleeping, swimming, shopping, shopping and....shopping. Oh--and did I mention SWEATING?!

We found some nice (unique) shops and lots of copy cats selling the usual trinkets. Apparently the prices are higher and variety is much less than in recent years. We tried to find a gift for each year up to 18 for our daughter. Lots of folks try to do this either as a "Gotcha Day" gift or birthday gift---if that date is known. It's a little tricky, because you really have no clue who your daughter will be years later. Will she want TONS of stuff from her homeland? Will she want to forget that she has anything to do with China? Both extremes are common enough. One just doesn't know. We got many things that are just simple, nice and fun for a young girl and some things of nicer value. We think we'll give them on her b-day rather than Gotcha. But we'll see.

Since coming to Guangzhou, we've basically stopped eating true Chinese food. We've had a little from the deli, but mostly have gone quasi western. Last night our group had a big dinner at an Italian place (with a real Italian chef!) It was a little pricey, but a nice send off for the whole group together. I loved my gnocchi, J. didn't care for her lasagna. M. like it all well enough.

We calculated at lunch today that we've probably been in a restaurant setting for TWENTY-ONE meals with M. since Gotcha day. (The rest were take-out or room service) Normally, that's asking for trouble with a toddler, but M. has done quite well. Seriously--did any of our kids go to that many restaurants in a whole YEAR when they were two? Not on your life.

The Cow and Bridge

We had dinner with our group at a Tai restaurant--"The Cow and Bridge." It's known for spicy food. It was clean and reasonably priced. I went for a "one pepper" dish, after Martin said the "two pepper" dish left his lips actually in pain for days. Jessemyn was very dissapointed--her sweet and sour was ketchup (huh. I always thought you spelled that "castup") based! I LOVED my dish of spicy squid. WOW

The Papa No Hutt

I guess it's Papa John's here on Shamian Island (where our hotel is in Guangzhou) The menu was typical western stuff (with some Chinese writing) Nothing strange. Here's our delivery guy and his bike and his posed shot. I only include the blurry one for our pizza delivery friend. I'm sorry--I rushed the shot.

Good Dinner

We ate in one of the hotel restaurants tonight and it was really good! We had Jasmine Tea, Fried Dumplings (better than the steamed we had last night) a type of cornbread (in bamboo basket) and spicy shrimp with peppers. REALLY good. Not pictured are the noodles w/ bok choy.

What IS It?

If you look over M.'s shoulder in the "ice cream" picture, you'll see the above. This is one of the daughters of our group-mates. They were so excited to see the ice cream stand. They picked out some nice frozen raspberry treats--or so they thought. What do YOU think it really is?


After a few moments the dad whispered to me--"we're wondering if it's bean based." I few moments later, he tried it and with a grimmace said, "definitely bean based."

yuck.

oh.
J just tells me she already told this story. huh. sorry. I'll post it anyway so you can really see the bean-cicle up close. :-)

CHICKEN!

We went to a new restaurant and we found chicken! A whole bird stewed. Not very Chinese-y. Tasted like the chicken you'd have with dumplings, carrots and celery (minus the dumplings, carrots and celery.) It was VERY good and really hit the spot. We also ate their very Chinese Cabbage (Bok Choy--though our guide had to think for a little to figure out what we were saying--she said it "Bai Chai"--something like that--and ours was just different enough that she couldn't place it.) The final dish was a favorite of......the still ubiquitous Chairman Mao. A dish of greenbeens and pork. The flavor was truly delicious--but it was a little hard to get down because the "pork" was mostly a lump of fat with an occasional ittle kernel of meat on the end. If they could have done the meat that way--Wow!

This restaurant was also the cleanest we've seen. We'll be back!

Where Are the Good Eats?

This is a restaurant around the corner from our hotel. It's cheap and the food's not bad. (Well, it's not great either...) I just read about another family in our larger group currently in another province raving (!) about their food.

Other than a couple things in our hotel, there hasn't been much to rave about. huh. Maybe we're just going to the wrong places?!

We had a couple really good meals in Beijing. This has been tough going. So tough that we ordered Pizza Hut tonight. :-) At first, M. spat it all out. After a while she ate only the crust! A perfect fit for our boys--who don't touch the crust!

This was our second trip to this restaurant. It was far less unsettling than another one we visited and we could stomach the food. Our guide wrote down what we ordered the other day in Chinese and we had the same meal.

Breakfast

Well, we just got back from breakfast. We all ate something and feel pretty good. M. is such an eater! WOW! Egg after Egg after Egg! wow.

I guess I am a little shaky--having been mostly horizontal for the last day and a half. But I think I'm going to be OK. J feels good. Not sure what was up in the middles of the night. Maybe she's just exhausted. This is quite the marathon--and without a partner yesterday!

What An EATER!

Boy can this girl eat! Oh. And we were wrong about the spoon. She is actually quite good with them. Her fine motor skills are quite good all the way around. It's her gross motors that will need some work. She's very unsteady on her feet. We think she's probably spent much of her time in a walker.

Sharing Cheerios

M. Feeds Mom some Cheerios.

Breakfast

After M. finally woke up (can't remember the last time I had to WAIT for one of my kids to wake up!) we took her down to breakfast at the hotel buffet. She would feed herself melon, banana and cheerios, but it seems she does not know what to do with a spoon. J. fed her rice and helped her drink from the glass. She was such a delight!







The buffet is really wild. Crazy mixtures of western and Chinese foods. Plenty of things you'd never think to eat for breakfast. My favorite today was the polenta bread. I gave M. samples of just about everything I ate and she tried it all. Boiled egg, polenta, omelet, and tomato juice. (not sure if she like that!)







It's really fun to be down in the "coffee garden" in the morning. There are so many adoptive families walking around with their new children. The Chinese wait-staff are wonderful! They clearly love the children and are excited that they are being helped and cared for. They go out of their way to talk to, smile at, and play games with the kids.