China – Day 11: December 2014
Today we had another free day so Jeff and Leslie each took a turn in the gym before breakfast today. While Jeff was taking his post-gym shower, Leslie took Han to ride the escalator in the hotel. Eight up and down escalator rides, 4 times up and down the stairs, and one time around the revolving door at the entrance to the hotel, and it was time to go eat.
As we have mentioned, Han has decided he only likes white food; so for breakfast he ate congee (a rice porridge) and a banana. This kid consumes at least 3-4 bananas every day; it is the only food he will reliably eat. He also cannot pass a stack of them without picking one up for later.
After breakfast we went to play on the playground at the hotel for a few minutes before meeting up with our guide Joyce (yes, we were right on her name!) to go to the pearl market. We took a cab to the pearl market, which is a wholesale market. Leslie was pretty proud of her negotiating skills and managed to get freshwater pearl necklaces for both Brynn and Esme for about half of what they originally asked for. The pearl market was this giant building with stall after stall of vendors, each stocked with all sorts of pearls. Some stores looked like jewelry stores you’d see in a mall; others just looked like kiosks. There were bags and bags of pearls all over the place — people were pushing flatbed carts filled with what looked like sandbags, each filled with pearls. It was a little crazy to see these giant bags full of pearls just sitting on the floor everywhere. We did get a good video of the women stringing the pearls for our necklaces — you pick out a strand and they make the necklace (or bracelet or earrings or whatever) on the spot.
Attached to the pearl market was a store that sold embroidery and we were able to get a gift for Jeff’s mom that we think she might actually use (everyone else on our gift list was easy). We then crossed the street to the jade market. We bought a beautiful jade piece (a “family ballâ€) in Beijing when we were able to go to the jade factory and watch the artisans at work. The jade market in Guangzhou was really a bunch of small booths that sell jade jewelry rather than the larger, more intricate decorative items we saw in Beijing. We did buy a small jade pendant for Han. We have a picture of him when he was at the orphanage wearing a similar pendant so we wanted to get one for him before we left. Leslie was able to negotiate for the piece and got it for half of the original asking price. If you haven’t guessed, she is very proud of this newfound negotiating skill. It helps when you don’t speak their language and they don’t really speak yours. Most negotiations revolved around them saying “name a price†and handing you a calculator. Han could not have looked more trilled when we gave him the necklace (it is a small, circular pendant strung on a red thread). He looked like he won the lottery.
After we took a cab back to the hotel, we set out in search for lunch. We tried to go to a restaurant recommended by Holt, but we could not find it, so we went to a restaurant in a park (not the big park we went to the other day, a different park on the other side of the hotel) we had heard about from a few other families in Guangzhou. (We later found out that it was the same park but a different restaurant.) They actually had a dedicated English menu, so we thought it was a good sign, and we were seated right away. It took at least 15 minutes before anyone came to take our order and another half hour before they brought one of the items we had ordered (Chinese restaurants seem to bring out dishes as they are ready, not all of the food at one time, since the dishes are designed to be shared by everyone at the table). By this time, Han was exhausted and had already eaten the banana and random snacks we had in our backpack, and Leslie and Jeff were both really hungry, tired, and all-around cranky. Leslie had ordered tofu with mixed vegetables, which turned out to be tofu with mushrooms and Chinese broccoli. Now, if you do not know, Leslie HATES mushrooms, and has eaten Chinese broccoli at pretty much every single meal because it is the only vegetarian option. The tofu, fortunately, was very good. While Jeff finished his food, Leslie took a very impatient Han for a walk; however, one of the hostesses grabbed his hand and paraded him around the restaurant to meet all of the other employees. For those of you without adopted children (which is the majority of our readers), having your new child just randomly (and willingly) go to a stranger is pretty distressing. It feels as though your kid doesn’t really care who is taking care of him; so long as it is a smiling face. We know it will take time for Han to really bond with us and to really understand what it means to have parents; but this part of the process is really hard. It is normal, but hard. Regardless of how it felt for Leslie, Han enjoyed being fawned over by about 8 of the female staff, but was happy to leave when it was time to go.
When we got back to the hotel we all took a nap and then went to meet some other families to take a walk in the big park across the street. This was the same park where Han slammed his face against the pavement the other day. His walking/balance has improved and we didn’t have any mishaps this time. Today we went to see the Five Rams Statue, which is apparently a big attraction in Guangzhou. It was literally just a giant statue of 5 rams. The park is really lovely and we did enjoy walking around. When we got back to the hotel we ended up going to the executive lounge to have dinner and then to Starbucks for dessert. (There is a Starbucks in the hotel and some people had been raving about the cheesecake; it was pretty good). Then back up to the room for bathtime and bed.
We have our appointment with the US consulate tomorrow for all of Han’s immigration processing. We are anxious to be home and glad that we will be one step closer.
See pictures and videos below or in our China: Day 11 SmugMug gallery.
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