We made it to Guangzhou! We got a late start out of Xi'an for our flight to Guangzhou, but it went good with Caleb. We got to our room about 11:00 pm. There was a problem getting our room and Tim was very upset. It was a difficult check-in process. With a tired 3 year old who was fighting falling asleep and staying awake because there were 50 million people in the hotel because of Christmas. Just a little note: there were literally hundreds of people and lots of kids in the lobby area, which is very large when we got to the hotel. We have learned that the Chinese do not celebrate Christmas, but here in Guangzhou many celebrate something on Christmas Eve and that could be taking the family out to eat and doing special things. The hotel had a lot of things going on on the main level as we checked in. We could not see what was going on but there were kids with party hats, flashing light yo-yo's, flashing rabbit ears and things such as that. There were a lot of things going on as we drove to the hotel and many, many people out and about on the streets.
We got to the room, Caleb took a bath and we all fell asleep. We had to wake him up this morning because we needed to get up to make copies of Caleb's passport, exchange money and eat breakfast. We met Lucia, our guide, at 9:45am to head to the medical exam. Well, first we went to a little storefront to get his visa photo taken, then we headed to the medical facility. There they took his weight, height, temperature, did a hearing test (squeak in the ear with a squeaky toy :) ), looked in the ears and the throat and lastly, the first part of the TB test. Caleb cried. He has seen the needle before. It was short lived when they offered him candy.
We came back to the hotel and Lucia showed us the play room where she and I sat down and did paperwork while Tim played with Caleb a little. It is a carpeted room with lots of good toys that a parent does not have to worry about them a lot. I, of course, worried about him running and stuff, I guess the motherly instinct. Caleb loved the room. We needed him to have this kind of kid interaction. He did not have that in Xi'an.
This room is where we met a lot of great American families. We went to have lunch at Lucy's with many of these families. They are a fun group! We are learning quite a bit about the orphanages and Chinese culture from the families that have adopted more than once.
We went to find the 7-11 for some pop for Mama then came back to the hotel. It is 4:30pm now and Tim is trying to get 15 minutes sleep. We do not know what we will do for the rest of today. Probably stay here. When we go to where the breakfast buffet is there are ponds and a huge waterfall and a very tall Christmas tree. The ponds have huge Koi fish. Caleb loves them, so we can walk around the hotel, go back to the play room (I guess there are other play rooms too that we hae not found), and play in the hotel room. There are so many people gathered around the ponds and the waterfall it is hard to take photos. We are hoping that there are not as many people the later it gets so we can get some photos.
It is pretty cold and rainy compared to when we got here last night. Even at the time we got in it was 65 degrees. It was so refreshing. It is pretty green here. It is much prettier and has cleaner air than Xi'an or Beijing. Since it is a drizzly day we did not get a lot of photos, but we will get more and show more later.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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| The view out our room. We are on the 18th floor. |
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| A Barbie that was given by the hotel. It is an adoption Barbie with a baby. He likes the doll. |
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| Baba and Caleb on the way back from Lucy's. Lucy's is the purple and yellow restaurant in the background. |
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| The 7-11 store. I should have taken a picture of the store. Just a tiny little store jammed with drinks, candy, chips, crackers and lots of treats. |
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| Caleb playing with Baba. |
Shaanxi Time
