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To Sleep Or Not To Sleep

The plane trip home went pretty quickly. None of us except for Junie slept. It's amazing that you can go 26 hours without sleep and still be able to drive home from the airport.

We spent the next four hours unpacking, checking messages, checking mail, and making phone calls. Even after we went to bed, John and I didn't get much sleep because June was up on and off throughout the night. Friday morning we were tired, but got going anyway. We didn't accomplish much. June had a doctor's appointment then we went to Gabby's old school to pick up the guinea pigs who were staying there while we were in China. Everyone wanted to see June so we said quick hellos to most then went to see Gabby's fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Seymour. We stayed awhile and talked to the class about China and June's adoption.

We were home by 4:00pm and all asleep in the livingroom by 5:00pm. Gabby fell asleep in my chair. John and June slept in John's chair. They both slept until 10:00pm in the livingroom and then went to bed. I slept in the livingroom until around 8:30pm and then got up to take care of June. After John and Gabby went to bed, I couldn't sleep so I stayed up and puttered around the house. Gabby woke up about this morning around 2:00am and she helped me clean. By 3:00am John and June were up, but stayed in the bedroom until 5:00am. Isn't jet lag a wonderful thing.

So, this morning we decided that we would stay awake until 7:00 tonight. The only way to do that is to keep moving. We started off good. We did some visiting, some shopping, did lunch. John didn't feel good, so we dropped him off at home, then Gabby, Junie, and I continued on our quest to get June some cool weather clothes and get some real food in the house. Gabby was having trouble keeping her eyes open in the car, so we stopped to get some ice cream. I don't know if it was the sugar or the fact that the ice cream was cold, but we both had a little more energy. It didn't last long. By the time we made our final stop at the grocery store, we were all a little cranky and ready to go home.

Gabby was the first to go. She fell asleep despite June's crying. She was about 20 minutes shy of the 7:00pm goal. June fell asleep about 10 minutes later. John napped while the rest of us were shopping, so he will probably outlast me. I'll be asleep as soon as I post this, brush my teeth, then put my head on the pillow. Sweet dreams everyone.

We're Coming Home

We're all packed and ready to go. We have a 4:30am wakeup call so that we can leave the hotel by 5:30. Amazingly, we were able to fit everything we brought plus everything we bought into the suitcases we already had.

Our plane leaves Guangzhou at 8:15 am. We arrive at the Elmira airport Thursday evening around 6:00. It will be so good to be back on American soil.

The Gardens

The hotel had a beautiful outdoor area with a stone path and ponds full of koi fish. We did not discover how to access the garden area until today.

Points Of Interest

We ate at Madison's Steakhouse four times during our stay. The food was pretty good although the hamburgers still tasted like meatloaf. Most of the time Junie was in a kiddie chair. This once, we sat her next to John in the booth. She looks so tiny.

We had the same waitress every visit. The last time we went, June was fussy so our waitress and another waitress took June and walked around with her.

This guy was delivering soda. He wasn't very loaded down this day, but we've seen bikes with more drinks stacked up.

This was another one of the delivery bikes. These bikes were set up nicely for delivering stuff. We've seen them loaded down with water bottles too. Today, while we were in a taxi we saw a regular bicycle with three square feet of cardboard attached to his seat with rope. The guy couldn't ride the bike with all of the cardboard on the seat, so he was walking the bike.

This was one of the nice squatty potties. This one was clean and had toilet paper. We were lucky that there were also regular toilets at the local Ikea store.

Ni Hao. Wo jiao Kim.

Here are a couple of words in English then Chinese (spelled phonetically):

Hello - Nee How
Goodbye - Zie Jen
Good Morning - Zow
Please - Cheeng
Thank You - Shay Shay
You're Welcome - Buke A Chee
Not Good - Boo How
So So - Mama Who Who
Excuse Me - Dwee Boo Chee

Hot Potato

One of my last posts was about what to expect from food while you're in Guangzhou. Even knowing all that we do, mistakes still happen.

Gabby saw a baked potato with butter and sour cream on the menu of one of the restaurants we went to. It wouldn't seem like you would have to explain exactly what you wanted since the menu was this specific.

Gabby got her potato and everything looked great. The potato was on the small side, but there was butter and sour cream in little dishes on the plate. Gabby was so excited to get something that she would like. So, she doctored up her potato with lots of butter and sour cream. It was looking good. Then she took a bite. It wasn't quite right. It tasted kind of sweet.

John said, "Do you think that it isn't sour cream?" So, I dipped my finger in the white stuff and immediately knew that it wasn't sour cream. It was light and fluffy to the touch. I was pretty sure what it was, but I took a taste anyway. Yep, it was whipped cream. Gabby had just made up her baked potato with butter and whipped cream. It could have been worse. At least whipped cream tastes good. We're lucky that it wasn't shaving cream.