How we pass our days

So how are we doing?

In list form it would look like this:

Days we've hand washed clothes in the hotel room - 11

Boxes of knockoff Legos purchased - 4

Screaming tantrums in public - 0

Squealing loudly and repeatedly in frustration because bored (in public) - cannot count but more than 10

"Ping guo" (apple) eaten - 8

"Ping guo" carried lovingly around - 12

Number of conversations carried in between Charlie and his friend about Minecraft - impossible to count

Arguments over who gets to play with the magnatile toy things - 2

Swimming pool visits - 4? 5?

Times vomited from carsickness - 2.5

Delicious meals eaten - too many to count

Number of times Tim has accidentally rinsed his toothbrush with tap water - 3

Adoptions completed - 1

Immigration visa approvals signed for - 1

Out of list form? Well, here's the rhythm of a typical day. Wake up, yawn, stretch, pull clothes on, leave room a shambles and go down to sumptuous buffet breakfast (while the Marriott here is not quite as 5-starry as the Hilton in Zhengzhou, the breakfast spread is MORE than adequate. HeHu has congee, a sort of watery rice porridge, with scraps of meat and veggies in it and I dollop some scrambled eggs on top for extra protein. Popular flavors have included corn and lily, chicken, pork with century egg, sweet potato, and beef. Charlie has started eating it too. It's actually pretty tasty comfort food. And all of us eat a mix of fresh melon and dragonfruit, eggs, yogurts, dumplings, steamed buns, and -- for me -- oatmeal. Shockingly good creamy oatmeal with brown sugar and peach chunks, that is is like being enfolded in every comforting taste and texture you know.) After a lot of ambling around wondering if we should get just one more thing, we head back to the room to find that it is a) the aforementioned shambles and b) that we have just interrupted or missed the housekeeping service. Tim and I run around tidying it up and he hangs up all the laundry that still isn't dry in new housekeeping-friendly places and we brush our teeth -- Tim has a 20-25% habit of getting distracted and rinsing his toothbrush with the forbidden tap water -- and everyone goes "niao niao" and then we flee.

Where to? Usually there is some event for the day -- a meeting, an appointment, paperwork to be filled out. We have been to the medical clinic, to a meeting to do paperwork for the consulate visit, to the consulate, to a meeting to prepare for departure, and also done a few outings -- the outrageous "gift wholesale market" and Shamian Island. (Oh that market. A 5-story mall, except every store is a tiny stall, maybe 15 feet deep and 10 feet wide, absolutely crammed with goods of all types.)

So we do those and then we come back, sort of at a loss, and are basically killing time until dinner. The afternoon is when things come apart a little -- while we are naturally the epitome of sweetness and light at ALL times, Charlie is more likely to be restless and fussy and getting into stuff and challenging us, and HeHu to be restless and fussy and getting into stuff and challenging us. Yeah, that wasn't a typo. They each have their own way of doing it, but .... It can feel a little Lord of the Flies. Once we bought 2 holsters of fries from Mcdonalds and hunkered on the floor around a small table eating them with all the grace and politesse of four seagulls attacking an abandoned Big Mac in a parking lot. That may have been a low point.

More productively, the afternoon is usually spent playing or in the pool. We can see the pool from our window and I often like the idea of going to it more than I like actually putting my suit on and getting wet. While I'm not emotionally drained the way I usually am by this point in the adoption trip, I admit I am tired and it is making me LAZY. Also our room is freezing all of the time and I want to climb into bed and read and drink cocoa all the time. Doesn't that sound nice? Ahhhh.

That is really not an option though -- the one afternoon I spent in bed I didn't feel well enough to read most of it and there was CERTAINLY not going to be cocoa! -- and after all, this is a special time. So we carry on playing and doing laundry and taking photos and then it is dinner time and we troop up to the 17th floor, where the Executive Lounge privileges included with our room are giving us access to heavy hors d'oeuvres that make for a respectable dinner each night. For example- tonight they had a pan-fried dumpling station, penne pasta, broccoli, chicken on skewers, curry fish, and tiny tomato and mozzarella sandwiches, along with the usual salad bar, fresh fruit, bread and cheese, and dessert stations (Panna cotta and strawberry cheesecake mousse squares). I don't know what Charlie will do when his access to a never-ending supply of Brie dries up.

Confession: that's what the Executive Lounge served tonight, but we only ate the desserts, because our group had a farewell dinner at Macau Street, a sort of Cantonese and sort of Portuguese restaurant. I assume it was harkening back to the time when Portugal was an important player in colonial expansion and China. I don't know. All I know is that 17 of us squeezed around and extremely large table and put a major hurt on some very delicious food. And we STILL cruised by the Lounge for dessert. I will hang my head in shame once I stop chewing and wipe all the whipped cream off my nose.

Then we go back to our room (first I wrote "home" -- then I wrote "tomb" -- I don't think there is this much laundry hanging from ceiling cents in either one, though). We wrangle these two little guys into and out of the shower and into PJs and into bed and build a barricade of pillows between them and listen to HeHu chat and sing to himself for 10 minutes and then -- almost always -- that's it. Except that 10 minutes of sitting in the dark knocks Tim out too. And that's why I am sitting on the floor at 8:45 pm while everyone snores around me, writing a blog post on my phone. :-)

Tomorrow is our last full day in Guangzhou, or so we assume. I suppose the visa printing process could break down (that happens sometimes) and strand us here. Or the Supertyphoon that is getting ready to knock Taiwan's southern tip for a loop could drop a little further south still and whack GZ and HK instead. Some of our friends are heading out through HK so we are paying wary attention to this storm. Anyway, if all goes according to plan, tomorrow is our last day in GZ and we will be up bright and early on Thursday our time -- Wednesday evening your time -- our tummies full of one last bowl of oatmeal or congee, hopping in a van and heading to the airport.

I will keep you posted!