Peeling back the layers.....

It's 9:00pm on Sunday night here in China, and I am sitting at the desk in room 919 listening to the noise of the city behind me as I enjoy the quiet and the dark of the room I am in: loud music, voices shouting, horns honking (though it's less in GZ because it's a 200-yuan fine for using a horn in a non-emergent situation), hands clapping (sales tactic used by quite a few shopkeepers), and the dull roar of hundreds of simultaneous conversations. The smog isn't as bad as Beijing, but it's definitely more than Harbin.  To say that the last 24 hours have been challenging is a severe understatement. Last night after signing off I went through hell; I was sicker than I ever have been in all 33 of my years. I'm glad to say that I am feeling about 50% better, though I have no stamina or energy, and zero appetite. I only lasted two hours at the zoo this morning, even with sitting breaks, and that wore me out so badly I had to take a long nap. Matt has been a lifesaver, in more ways than one. I am still hanging on to the head cold, too, but at this point is just a mere annoyance. Trying to parent a new child in a foreign country is quite a challenge, even without being sick. I love China, and am trying to soak in as much of it as I can so that I can not only enjoy my time here, but to bear witness to what Elliott's homeland was like someday when he asks about it. But man oh man am I craving some Qdoba (vegetarian burrito, extra guacamole,salsa verde), an ice tea, my own bed, and my daughters' hugs.

I have been 'offline' for a couple of days. I need to catch up!

Our flight in was a bit difficult on us because of the hang-ups

mentioned in the other post, but Elliott was a super trooper. He was

the best behaved little man on the airplane! He stayed buckled in

almost the whole flight, and slept for about half of it. By the time

we got to the hotel, it was the middle of the night, and he was back

in "on" mode, and it took him a while to fall asleep, but he finally

did. Our room here at the Shifu is HUGE and the bed is gigantic and

SUPER comfortable. Most beds in China are very firm but this bed loves me. 

What a GREAT way to end this China trip! And we

have the view to beat all views from our hotel window, which stretches

from floor to ceiling, wall to wall.

Catching up with pictures:

Saying goodbye to Lin at the Harbin airport was sad.  We will miss her!

Little man did pretty good with the 4 hour wait at the airport.  He was just as frustrated and bored as we were.

Our airplane: Shenzen Airlines.

Elliott's first plane ride!

He slept for 3 of the 5 hours.  Our little panda bear.  :o)

The breakfast spread at the Shifu is nothing short of fantastic.

Our home for the upcomming week.  The view from our window is nothing short of amazing.  It's the best people-watching ever!  In the mornings, we watch families on the building rooftops play, wash laundry, do tai-chi, and relax.  It's such a mixture of new high-rise buildings with really old clay-tile buildings, and the pedestrian street (Di Shi Fu Road) is straight below.  I could watch out of that window for hours.

View straight down from our hotel window at midnight.  Di Shi Fu Road is still busy!

After a few additional hours of sleep, we got up and ate at the Shifu

breakfast buffet. To say it was amazing doesn't give it enough

credit. After sheer exhaustion and leftover frustration from the

previous day, I was almost moved to tears to see waffles and french

toast waiting for me, with donuts and hash browns. Matt put a pretty

good dent in the omlettes, and Elliott was so happy to have as much

fruit as he could stuff in his cute little mouth.

We met Jack, our Guangzhou (GZ) guide, at 10:00 in the lobby. We rode

over to Shamian Island, which isn't far at all, to have his

immigration photos taken and to have his medical clinic appointment.

After being the only Americans around for the past week, we were

suddently standing in a crowd of 20 to 25 other God-loving

english-speaking Americans. The sound of American english was a

wonderful treat. I even met up with a fellow Rumor Queen forum

friend, Anne, who is adoptiong a beautiful little boy around Elliott's

age. After chatting with her online and following her great blog, it

was nice to finally get to meet her in person.

The clinic was crowded, noisy, and scary for Elliott but he held his

composure quite well. We went from room to room: ENT room, height

and weight room, immunization screening room and health check, and the

physician surgical consultation room. He cried when the physicians

wanted to look at his surgical site on his back, and he cried for just

a moment when he had his PPD administered (TB test) but with one

little piece of candy all was well again and he was smiling. He is

one tough cookie!

After the appointment, we took a couple of hours to walk around

Shamian Island. There is a ton of European architecture on the

island, as it was once inhabited by the French and the English. There

were about a dozen photo shoots going on while we were there for some

chic wedding companies. Fun to watch. After experiencing the noise

and the hustle-bustle of our hotel area in GZ it was a nice break. We

could let Elliott run around in the park without having to worry about

his safety, and we had lunch at "Lucy's" which is almost a rite of

passage for adoptive families. I had an ice tea there, which was

REALLY good, but not quite the same as the way I make it at home. I

noticed during the meal that I was starting to not feel so well. I

thought at first it was just because GZ is so hot; it was 80 or so

outside and quite humid. So we dropped our laundry off and headed

back to the hotel for naptime.

I woke up from that nap feeling "wrong" but we went for a walk on the

pedestrian street outside anyway. Curiosity was getting the best of

me. I had to go down and be part of it. We spent about two hours

walking up and down the east end of the street. The smells were

sometimes hard to take: people in GZ, who are Cantonese, will (as Jack

says) "eat anything that flies except an airplane, and eat anything

that has legs except a table and chairs". It's hard to eat as a

vegetarian here, and anytime I smelled something bad or saw something

disturbing I would cross the street to get away if holding my breath

didn't work. Aside from that, the shops are amazing. Everything from

shoe stores to tea shops to food booths to clothing companies to jade

shops. One after another, street after street, with literally

thousands of people walking around. It's a sight and an experience

that I have never had before, and there's no way I can capture that

whole big experience with words.

Is that a full size bus coming down the road? Why yes, it is!

A peek down a side alley.

Busy, busy busy!  Signs, voices, music, aromas, lights!

Di Shi Fu Road was the first recognized pedistrian street in China.  It is, along with it's buildings, very historical.....

... and also VERY hip with the 'young' crowd.  At least on the main street.  The side streets are a little more of what many would think of as 'old China'.  The blend of old and new is so interesting.

Really old stained glass windows next to a modern business sign.

Chinese tea shop.

Tea packages.

Chinese herb shop, where you can get everything from dried bugs and dried plants to dried seahorse for traditional medicinal remedies.

Back to the main street....

Popular snack: roasted squid tentacles on a stick.  No, I'm not joking.  Behind it is roasted seahorse on a stick.  If you think this looks odd in a photograph on your computer screen, try smelling it, too.

The street is way over a mile long, with dozens and dozens of side streets branching from it, all with throngs of people walking down it.  It is, to say the least, a bit overstimulating.  Especially for a country bumpkin like myself.

After spending a few yuan (Chinese dollars) on gifts and taking in

some of the sights, we changed our clothes at the hotel and took

little man for his first swim in the pool up on the roof, the

fourteenth floor. For being so afraid and upset at bath time, he did

quite well for his first swimming experience. There were a couple of

men in the pool area who were from Argentina, coming to town for the

Canton Trade Fair. I tried again to use my Spanish to have a pleasant

conversation, but got a few Chinese words mixed up in there. I don't know how people who speak multiplelanguages can keep them all straight!

View from the rooftop at night, looking east.  There are mountains that surround the city, but they disappear at night.

We got settled into the hotel room, and Elliott and I got into our

pajamas while Daddy ran back to the busy pedestrian street to find

more diapers, which we forgot to buy while we were out. He adores his

Baba, and was in tears when he left, but recovered after a few minutes

and realized that being with Mom isn't so bad after all. When Matt

got home, the illness that I had been fighting all day finally hit me

like a ton of bricks on a highway. It was a bad, bad, bad night.

Matt stayed up with me almost all night, but as a bonus he got to keep

up with the MSU/UofM game online. I'm sad to say that my Wolverines

couldn't get it together last night and beat the Spartans.  Boo.

I woke up still feeling nauseated and totally drained, but not wanting

to be left alone and not wanting to ruin Elliott's and Matt's day by

keeping them stuck at the hotel, I put on my game face and went to the

zoo. Elliott, who is terrified of dogs (uhhh.....Houston, we have a problem!)

was curious and had a great day. He is quite fond of Jack, but still

only wants us to hold him or hold his hand. One highlight of the day

was being able to see two panda bears. They are amazing animals.

I could only dream of having animals this well trained.  :o)

Straight back to the hotel after the zoo, I was past ready for a nap,

so we slept from 1:30 to a little past 3:30. Our laundry from the

other day was delivered to our hotel room, all fresh and clean. I

could get used to that! After our nap, we were ready to try the pool

again. Elliott still squaked a little bit when he first got in with

Baba, but relaxed a little and had fun. The pool is. a little chilly,

so they only stayed in about 15 minutes.

Lifeguard on duty in training.

I love my boys!  :o)

After the pool, the boys were tired again and I knew I hadn't eaten a

meal in 24 hours so we set out in search of something I could eat.

While waiting for the elevator, we ran into two more friends from

Rumor Queen: Dana and Jeff, from North Carolina, who are adopting a

handsome little four-year old boy from here in the Guangdong province.

Such wonderful people! We are going to try to meet up with them

tomorrow for dinner. Matt is in need of someone to talk football

with, and Jeff has all of the current news and scores. Sounds like

fun!

We walked for an hour looking for a Subway that I had heard existed in

our area, but never found it. We settled on Pizza Hut again, which is

not only expensive but doesn't taste like pizza at home. There is

only one meal on the menu without meat on it, and it's the vegetable

pizza: corn, green pepper, pineapple and onion. (Corn?!?!) Matt

couldn't stomach the vegetable pizza again, so I agreed to the seafood

pizza with popcorn shrimp and crab on it. Elliott got the bacon fried

rice and thoroughly enjoyed it.

We got to Skype with the girls at home, and they are having a blast

with Grandma B, Aunt Tina, Aunt Stephanie, and cousin Kayla, who

brought along a little kitty for the weekend. I'm glad that they are

doing so well and having so much fun, but I can't wait to get home to

them and to my farm. Even if it is freezing cold there (only 50 for a

high today in Farenheit). Elliott tried out a few words in english

today while on Skype (only "hello" and "byebye", but hey..... that's a

start!). I continue to talk to him in Mandarin and Matt talks to him

in English. I think once we get home I will gradually use more

English, but for now it's our only reliable way to communicate without

the use of my bad acting skills.

Elliott has finally fallen asleep, so I am trying to blog quickly. I

have over a thousand photos, and I want to share them all, but am only

going to have time to insert a few. My GoTrusted secure server fails

intermittently now that I'm in GZ, so connecting to the blog through

the Chinese firewall has been a huge challenge lately. I'll do my best to

be persistent. I may not be able to upload many photos until we find a better way to connnect.  I know, big bummer, eh?  I told Matt that I'm going to lose subscibers.  :o)  Keep checking back.  I like to go back and polish up my posts.

Elliott is such a gem, and I am continually in awe at how well things

have been going with him. Don't get me wrong, there have been plenty

of challenges (him wanting only Daddy to hold him when we're out, his love of

unplugging and replugging electrical appliances, turning the TV on and

off repeatedly, his severe dislike of baths or showers, and his love

of knives..... his favorite word is DA! which means "hit!". When we

go out to dinner, he smiles and starts attacking his food with

whatever utensil he can get to and babbles "da! da! da! da! da!". Our

little Ginsu master.) and this has been no luxury vacation, but I was

expecting much worse when it came to our bonding well with Elliott.

I know there will come a time when his grieving

comes back, and I think this might be when we return to the USA, but I

won't know for sure until we get there. Every day he continues to

open up his little personality more and more, like peeling back the

petals of a rose, and our relationship is starting to feel more and

more "real".

Our little emperor on his favorite chair, here in our room at the Shifu.

Tomorrow we are heading back to the medical clinic to have Elliott's

PPD read and complete his medical check-up, then do some shopping on

Shamian Island. I hope I wake up feeling like a brand new April.