Thursday, January 23, 2014

Our Last Day- OK, 2nd to Last Day

We're heading home tomorrow. Yay! We get Jinny's visa and off we go.

Today's pics really need explanations, so here goes.

Erin's first manicure and pedicure ever, and she had them in China! What a
great memory!

We got pedicures with a couple other moms. Jinny sat happily on my lap,
enjoying yet another adventure.

Heading to Starbucks for a late night snack with Brittan and Amy.

Right across the street from the hotel is this amazing Mexican place.
Seriously the best burrito I've ever had. Erin got the shawarma. It was
tasty too (and pretty similar to a burrito). We'll be taking a few of these
on our van ride to Hong Kong.

Jinny discovered my music player. It is by far her most favorite thing yet.
She loves music and listened to everything from Handel to the Kit Kittridge
soundtrack. This will be a HUGE help on the flights, I'm sure.

The last picture has a funny story with it. There is a fancy rotating
restaurant on the 30th floor. We made reservations for the earliest we
could, but still couldn't get in until 8. We went and had the Mexican food
and decided we'd just get dessert at the fancy place. Well, it certainly
was beautiful, but I was somewhat nervous when they did not give us menus.
I saw a huge, every-exotic-food-you-can-imagine buffet as we walked to our
table. I asked if we could order off a menu and was told they only had the
buffet, so I asked how much it was. He said 550RMB, which is the equivalent
of $90! Gulp! I politely declined the buffet, and we headed for the door.
But, before we left, we were able to get a picture. I know it looks like an
alien landed in the city, but that's just the reflection of a crystal
chandelier. There is quite the city view from the 30th floor.

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Shamian Island Pics

Sorry for so many pictures.  There is a blog post at the end. 
What a fun day! The weather was perfect..maybe 68 degrees and sunny. It
was less crowded today than on the weekend. Beautiful bronze statues dot
the island. As you can see, Erin had lots of fun with them. By the end of
the day, Jinny joined in. And...it only took us 20 minutes to hail a cab
this time. Yay!

Jinny is doing so very well. She really is happy...all the time. She happy
to take a shower every night. Happy to go have lunch. Happy to get in a
taxi. You name it, she's just excited about it. We went and got (really,
really cheap) pedicures tonight, and she sat on my lap, happy as a clam, for
at least an hour. I think she's truly happy to finally have a family.
Every day is an adventure to her.

We've been singing a lot of songs. The orphanage director said Jinny liked
to sing and dance. Boy, does she! She dances and sings around the room for
hours. She will try to learn and sing anything I sing. She and Jia
definitely have this in common. I see many home performances in our future.


Off to bed. Our consulate appointment is tomorrow. So glad it's finally
here!