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.

How Much?

And how much do those works of embroidery sell for? We saw some of the larger double sided ones going for over 100,000 yuan. (around $15,000 US dollars) I saw mid-sized ones selling for 18,000 yuan. (under $3,000 US Dollar) You could get really small ones for around $100 US Dollars. Here are a couple more double sided ones I liked (R)

More Embroidery

The Banner across this room reads:
"Fashion a State Stitch Work in Full Passion to Honor the Country!

And so the women work by hand for hours and hours and hours. We just confirmed again with our guide--they work full days (8+hours) for a whole seven days a week. They make maybe 800-1000 yuan for the whole month. (that's around $120 US Dollars.)


Here are so close ups of the women at work.














Some work solo.













And then there are teams of women working on larger pieces. They always have a photo or a painting from which to work.

Kicked Out :-)

So after a very hot, busy, but fun morning at the park (and after our McDonald's lunch) M. went down for her nap--and so did mom. Dad was too awake and wanted to blog. Mom was bothered by the sound of the keys on the computer. Dad decided to read. There wasn't enough light in the room to read so he went into the bathroom to read his book. Dad got tired of his banishment to reading on the bathroom floor and decided to find somewhere else in the hotel. :-)

I went down to the Tea Lounge on the sixth floor. There was a low, long table by the windows with sofa seating. On the window sill was a nice little bowl with a goldfish. How fun. I pointed to an unknown pinyin word for a supposed type of tea and settled in to read some Tolstoy. (Kind of a bizarre little story which, so far, seems to be about a man going from libertine-ism to legalism)

I was brought a mug (tall glass, the kind in which you'd find a root beer float) of murky liquid with green vegetation floating on the very top, and lurking on the very bottom. It tasted like.....pond water.

Ah well. It was warm and I was in a groovy mood . I was also brought a little bowl of....little cookie like wafers--the first truly sweet baked thing I've had in Changsha. I sat there for a bout an hour sipping my pond water, eating the little wafers, reading my book and gazing out the window. It was fun!

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. :-)

Playing With Mom

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!

Look at the Duck!

J: Look at the Duck, M.! The man has a pet duck. How fun!
Kathy (our guide): No pet. Dinner.

More Embroidery

I thought of my mom and Grandmother the whole time we were in the embroidery factory/museum. I think you would have loved this. They specialized in "double-sided" embroidery. It was truly beautiful and amazing! (The tiger and panda are an example--two sides of the same piece!)

--R

Moon Over Changsha

I wish I could do justice to the wide variety of lights as seen out of our hotel window. Flashing, blinking, moving, changing. It's almost like Broad Way all over the place. This must be some town for night-life.

Solo Run

After lunch I took my first trip sans group or guide. I went to the local store to get some water, snacks, and (would they have any?) a bib! I looked carefully for a bib. I signed to the clerk. I came home with.....an apron.

An apron will do. :-)

Check out the funny name of the store.

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.

Random Images of Changsha

Pics of the Big Blue--Changsha Style

Not so sure about these fish, Mama!




























No aquarium is complete without synchronized mermaids! They're real, folks--we wouldn't make this stuff up!

Fun With the Fish

We traveled by taxi to the aquarium. Kathy's friend treated both families (!) to a fun time with the fish. It was quite the experience.

As you'll hear from some video in a later post, there's nothing quiet about China. (at least where we've been.) Today is a holiday, so many people were out of work and school today--unless you work in a factory. Kathy says they do not stop. The aquarium was hoppin' with people eager to experience aquatic life.

We looked at many tanks of fish, then watched as a crowd gathered to watch the divers feed the fish in a larger tank. The kids then fed some sea turtles and then some Koi. We finished the morning with a seal and sea lion show. M. enjoyed it to a point but didn't really seem to care about the fish.--we're glad we had snacks and drink toward the end. She didn't seem phased at all by her surroundings--but her adult companions from the U.S. were quite over-stimulated!

--R

Aquarium: Take 2

We're going to try the Aquarium today. We're still in Changsha until Friday (!) and we're going to get a little stir crazy here so anything to get us out-and-about sounds good to me! We have no idea what to expect of an aquarium in the middle of China.

A Day Slept Away

Well, I've pretty much slept all day.

Since the infamous bowl of ramen-esque noodles (quiver) I've drunk a bunch of water, a third of a bottle of Sprite, eaten six crackers and a snickers bar. (I know. That last one was just moments ago.) I'm very hungry (a good sign?) but very nervous to eat much of anything. Nothing appeals. Not Chinese, not western. Well, I would love a dish of rainbow sherbett. That's about the only thing I can think of that appeals. Alas--it's not on the room service menu.

J. is a trooper. She's such a great mom and wife. I think she's wearing down, but I do think she's had a nice day bonding. They've had breakfast, then lunch in the room, gone for walks, been to the pool, etc. etc. I just love watching them together, as I'd peak blearry-eyed over the covers. I love listening to J's voice as she speaks so gently or sings to M. So sweet! She's gotten lots of smiles and giggles and I heard a very clear "Mama!" as M. crept around the corner to play a sort of "peek-a-boo" game. She said "mama!" then ran away gigling. wow.

I was nervous that a day without much interaction would set me way back with M. but I don't think it has. She has given me plenty of smiles and giggles as well when they've been in the room.

Oh. No. Noone went to the Aquarium today. One of the daughters of our group-mates got sick at breakfast. We were all nervous that that was the sign of a virus that would take us all down. But she's fine now. They guess she was overly hungry and had an aspirin on an empty stomach.

Well, that's about it. A pretty slow day. And not a picture.
Thanks for your prayers!

The Mini Cup of Wrath

Fallen! Fallen! Fallen!
Is iron stomach the great!
For you have behaved with overweening pride.

Your ramparts will be shaken
Your walls will become a heal of rubble.
The cauldron of which you boast will crack
Heaving its contents.

For you cried out from the heights in your arrogance,
And called aloud from your lofty perch:
"I am not afraid of the sickness that becomes mere mortals.
I shall not quiver and quake but shall stand tall!"

and again you spoke
in your need to be right:
"Only a moments boil!
I am right and you are so wrong."

Tell it not in Mexico, Jamaica or Haiti!
Tell it not in Cochabamba or Nairobi.
Thine undoing will come in Changsha.

The humble and ubiquitous package,
within the very comfort of Wal Mart
Hidden within is thy doom.

He undoes the package;
He boils the water and lets it sit.
He pours the contents from the
familiar foil pouch and adds the poisons from two more;
They sit and mix;
Their vile elements combine.

And now thy doom is at hand!

You have been brought low:
To ceramic tile and porcelain bowl!
Shaking. Heaving. Sputtering.
Can you be brought lower still?

I sit on the floor and repent
As though in sackcloth and ashes.
May I never quake and heave again.

--R with influence from the prophets Isaiah and Obadiah

Play Time

After a good long nap, we went down the hall to the hotel play room for some fun. We played with bubbles and balls, then we went to the slide/tunnel. We had some really special time with her.

A little later, the others from our group came and the kids had some fun together. So much fun to watch.

Mia fell and hurt herself mildly and cried. Our three-time adoptive friend pointed out that this is a really good thing. Her oldest daughter, at time of adoption had already temporarily lost the ability to respond to pain. Life in an orphanage trains you to believe that no one will listen, I guess.
We also noticed that she's not big on sharing. :-) While she did kindly and repetitively bring Mama and Baba each a ball with which to play catch, when she heard some noise in the hallway, she promptly picked up the bucket of balls and looked for a place to hide them. Later, we saw her push another child's hand away when he tried to play the little keyboard she was using. Normal kid-stuff to be sure, but I think it's especially pronounced in the orphange setting.

Speaking of Books...

To my friend B.,

I really wish I could read Chinese. I'm betting these are modern prints of ancient Chinese philosophers on the shelves at Wal Mart. I thought they looked really fun. I thought of you immediately. I wish I would have gotten some from your recommended reading list, but silly me, I was concerned about what would be acceptable at customs. It seems they're ok with quite a bit. :-)