July 16 – Guangzhou
Today is a low key day according to our schedule. Cordelia is taking all of our paperwork to the U.S. Consulate for review. We are required to stay in our hotel rooms from 10am to 11:30am in case there is a paperwork snafu, in which case Cordelia can call us and try to clear things up. She will give us a confirmatory phone call when all is done to let us know that we are free to enjoy the day and leave the room.
We have breakfast in the hotel and then I quickly set out to try and change some money into RMB (yuan) at the local bank. I have heard the process is slow – but what does that mean? I have about 30 minutes until the 10am witching hour – surely this is enough time.
I walk in the door and take a number. I see – now serving number 29. My number: 67. Hmm – not looking so good, but there are three different tellers working, so this could work out.
I look glance around – there are rows of chairs for sitting. Not a good sign. I decide to browse a local shop across the street to kill time for 10 minutes before returning to the bank. As I walk in the door I hear an announcement “Now Serving Number 31 at Window 3.” Hmm – I return to the hotel defeated and am back at the room at 10 on the dot.
We spend some family time in the room playing a bit – updating the blog, etc. Cordelia finally calls at 11:35 and tells us Congratulations – all paperwork is clear. We will be officially sworn in tomorrow at the US Consulate in the afternoon. Our final hurdle has been crossed in the paperwork odyssey.
I set out again to change money and see that they have already passed my number 67 while I was waiting in the hotel room. But there is still a queue 30 deep. Then I start to wander the island and find another bank, this one with a queue only 15 deep and three tellers working. 45 minutes later I am out the door with more RMB for shopping today.
Karen, Emma, Amy and Randy are going to walk to the clothes shopping area near the hotel. I am going to spend some QT with Zoe in the room – have lunch and maybe take a walk – just bonding. They head out while we feed on noodles and prunes. She makes a mess of herself, but generally is pretty happy. After all, it’s noodles!
After lunch, she reluctantly allows me to towel her off. Then I get out the baby carrier. She looks at it in terror and sees me putting it on, and immediately goes ballistic calling for mommy. I get her in the carrier – walk into the hallway to her piercing screams echoing off the walls. Geez – I am afraid we’ll wake the dead and am a bit embarrassed to walk through the lobby with her this way. I try to duck into a stairwell marked “Exit” but this hardly seems like a good solution. The concrete walls and stairs seem to amplify her screams, and now it seems like I am some sort of shady character, ducking down a back stairway with a screaming baby. So, back to the hallway, back to the room, and a quick deep breath for me.
Okay, we need to do this thing. I am not going to sit in the hotel room all afternoon. I will just deal with the stares from everyone as we go screaming through the lobby. So, back to the hallway, walk to the elevators. Hope nobody is taking a noontime nap. Then, magically when Zoe sees the elevator she calms down and studies the buttons. We board and ride down to the lobby, and walk out the door all calm and grace.
Zoe likes being outside. She tucks herself close to me as we walk, and holds my arm with one hand. We took an hour long walk through the streets (across the river and off the island) to see what was selling in the local shops. Mostly clothing in an open-air mall that was teeming with people. I’m the only westerner that I see during my entire walk.
We take some side streets and loop around back toward the island. See shops with cured meat hanging from hooks, and a smell I don’t need to experience again. Guys sitting around with a band saw carving up some sort of meat slab. Strange exotic dried scorpions and snakes, and other delicacies that I would rather not know too much about.
Then back to the hotel, where we get return to the cool of the A/C. Zoe and I have completely sweated through our outfits during this journey. We play a few games in the room (lots of pass-the-ball and such), and it dawns on her that she has not seen Karen for the last 2 hours. Suddenly the flood gates burst. She is inconsolable. Crying at the top of her lungs. Hoping that somewhere, somehow, Karen can hear her screams for help. She is exhausted but giving it all she’s got. We lie on the bed and attempt to sleep. She is alternately quiet, and then full-bore screaming. You’d think this was a Hollywood murder mystery with the blood-curdling cries emanating from this room. I’ve resigned myself to a kid that will not calm down until she passes out from exhaustion, or…
At this moment I hear the key card “beep bop bee bop” at the door. Karen and Emma have returned with all sorts of goodies (fantastic deals as usual) but the best goody of all, as far as Zoe is concerned, is that Karen can lay by her side and she calms down immediately.
My walk with Zoe was a great success. I never thought she would go for it, but she did and I enjoyed spending that time with her. But it is still clear that her primary comfort and sense of security is Karen. I am feeling better about the airplane ride home now (except for the 5:20 am departure from the hotel in two days).
Cordelia asked the group to assemble at 4:30pm to walk over to the White Swan hotel for group and kid photos on the “red couch” and in front of the waterfall there. It’s a tradition, and the kids are mostly game but Zoe is tired enough that all of her photos include her crying. The White Swan is the fancy hotel on the island – much more expensive than the Victory – with nice shops, an indoor waterfall with coy pond, and expensive restaurants.
We then head to a group dinner at a Chinese restaurant down the street. The menu reads disgusting (lots of pig ears, tripe, silk worms, etc.) but Cordelia does an excellent job of ordering tasty food like fried rice, dumplings, noodle soup, sweet and sour chicken, black pepper steak, green beans and drinks. We ate family style, which is the way it’s done at all of these restaurants. Take a bit from a dish on the lazy Susan, spin it a bit, and take something else that passes you by and looks interesting. We fed 10 people in this fancy place (with food left over) for just over $40 U.S. total. Even on this mostly tourist haven of an island.
Karen, Emma, Zoe, and I return to the hotel for an after-dark swim in the rooftop pool. The moon and stars are out, and it is still warm. Amy, Randy, and Naomi join us a few minutes later and we splash around and take in the nighttime city views.
It’s hard to believe we’ve been here almost two weeks. Karen and I spoke of how we thought by this time we would be dying to return to Seattle. But we have really only spent what feel like a few days in each city, and with all of the meetings and paperwork, we feel like there is so much more to explore. I suppose that’s a good sign. It will be nice to leave wishing we could have stayed longer, as opposed to feeling like we are crawling the walls of our hotel room.
Tomorrow morning is unplanned and maybe we will shop some more before our afternoon meeting and swearing in ceremony at the Consulate. And then one more dinner in China before our grand adventure back to the U.S. It will be an odd change to be in a place where I can understand the background conversation, as opposed to the din of unintelligible voices that I have become accustomed to hearing lately.
Today is a low key day according to our schedule. Cordelia is taking all of our paperwork to the U.S. Consulate for review. We are required to stay in our hotel rooms from 10am to 11:30am in case there is a paperwork snafu, in which case Cordelia can call us and try to clear things up. She will give us a confirmatory phone call when all is done to let us know that we are free to enjoy the day and leave the room.
We have breakfast in the hotel and then I quickly set out to try and change some money into RMB (yuan) at the local bank. I have heard the process is slow – but what does that mean? I have about 30 minutes until the 10am witching hour – surely this is enough time.
I walk in the door and take a number. I see – now serving number 29. My number: 67. Hmm – not looking so good, but there are three different tellers working, so this could work out.
I look glance around – there are rows of chairs for sitting. Not a good sign. I decide to browse a local shop across the street to kill time for 10 minutes before returning to the bank. As I walk in the door I hear an announcement “Now Serving Number 31 at Window 3.” Hmm – I return to the hotel defeated and am back at the room at 10 on the dot.
We spend some family time in the room playing a bit – updating the blog, etc. Cordelia finally calls at 11:35 and tells us Congratulations – all paperwork is clear. We will be officially sworn in tomorrow at the US Consulate in the afternoon. Our final hurdle has been crossed in the paperwork odyssey.
I set out again to change money and see that they have already passed my number 67 while I was waiting in the hotel room. But there is still a queue 30 deep. Then I start to wander the island and find another bank, this one with a queue only 15 deep and three tellers working. 45 minutes later I am out the door with more RMB for shopping today.
Karen, Emma, Amy and Randy are going to walk to the clothes shopping area near the hotel. I am going to spend some QT with Zoe in the room – have lunch and maybe take a walk – just bonding. They head out while we feed on noodles and prunes. She makes a mess of herself, but generally is pretty happy. After all, it’s noodles!
After lunch, she reluctantly allows me to towel her off. Then I get out the baby carrier. She looks at it in terror and sees me putting it on, and immediately goes ballistic calling for mommy. I get her in the carrier – walk into the hallway to her piercing screams echoing off the walls. Geez – I am afraid we’ll wake the dead and am a bit embarrassed to walk through the lobby with her this way. I try to duck into a stairwell marked “Exit” but this hardly seems like a good solution. The concrete walls and stairs seem to amplify her screams, and now it seems like I am some sort of shady character, ducking down a back stairway with a screaming baby. So, back to the hallway, back to the room, and a quick deep breath for me.
Okay, we need to do this thing. I am not going to sit in the hotel room all afternoon. I will just deal with the stares from everyone as we go screaming through the lobby. So, back to the hallway, walk to the elevators. Hope nobody is taking a noontime nap. Then, magically when Zoe sees the elevator she calms down and studies the buttons. We board and ride down to the lobby, and walk out the door all calm and grace.
Zoe likes being outside. She tucks herself close to me as we walk, and holds my arm with one hand. We took an hour long walk through the streets (across the river and off the island) to see what was selling in the local shops. Mostly clothing in an open-air mall that was teeming with people. I’m the only westerner that I see during my entire walk.
We take some side streets and loop around back toward the island. See shops with cured meat hanging from hooks, and a smell I don’t need to experience again. Guys sitting around with a band saw carving up some sort of meat slab. Strange exotic dried scorpions and snakes, and other delicacies that I would rather not know too much about.
Then back to the hotel, where we get return to the cool of the A/C. Zoe and I have completely sweated through our outfits during this journey. We play a few games in the room (lots of pass-the-ball and such), and it dawns on her that she has not seen Karen for the last 2 hours. Suddenly the flood gates burst. She is inconsolable. Crying at the top of her lungs. Hoping that somewhere, somehow, Karen can hear her screams for help. She is exhausted but giving it all she’s got. We lie on the bed and attempt to sleep. She is alternately quiet, and then full-bore screaming. You’d think this was a Hollywood murder mystery with the blood-curdling cries emanating from this room. I’ve resigned myself to a kid that will not calm down until she passes out from exhaustion, or…
At this moment I hear the key card “beep bop bee bop” at the door. Karen and Emma have returned with all sorts of goodies (fantastic deals as usual) but the best goody of all, as far as Zoe is concerned, is that Karen can lay by her side and she calms down immediately.
My walk with Zoe was a great success. I never thought she would go for it, but she did and I enjoyed spending that time with her. But it is still clear that her primary comfort and sense of security is Karen. I am feeling better about the airplane ride home now (except for the 5:20 am departure from the hotel in two days).
Cordelia asked the group to assemble at 4:30pm to walk over to the White Swan hotel for group and kid photos on the “red couch” and in front of the waterfall there. It’s a tradition, and the kids are mostly game but Zoe is tired enough that all of her photos include her crying. The White Swan is the fancy hotel on the island – much more expensive than the Victory – with nice shops, an indoor waterfall with coy pond, and expensive restaurants.
We then head to a group dinner at a Chinese restaurant down the street. The menu reads disgusting (lots of pig ears, tripe, silk worms, etc.) but Cordelia does an excellent job of ordering tasty food like fried rice, dumplings, noodle soup, sweet and sour chicken, black pepper steak, green beans and drinks. We ate family style, which is the way it’s done at all of these restaurants. Take a bit from a dish on the lazy Susan, spin it a bit, and take something else that passes you by and looks interesting. We fed 10 people in this fancy place (with food left over) for just over $40 U.S. total. Even on this mostly tourist haven of an island.
Karen, Emma, Zoe, and I return to the hotel for an after-dark swim in the rooftop pool. The moon and stars are out, and it is still warm. Amy, Randy, and Naomi join us a few minutes later and we splash around and take in the nighttime city views.
It’s hard to believe we’ve been here almost two weeks. Karen and I spoke of how we thought by this time we would be dying to return to Seattle. But we have really only spent what feel like a few days in each city, and with all of the meetings and paperwork, we feel like there is so much more to explore. I suppose that’s a good sign. It will be nice to leave wishing we could have stayed longer, as opposed to feeling like we are crawling the walls of our hotel room.
Tomorrow morning is unplanned and maybe we will shop some more before our afternoon meeting and swearing in ceremony at the Consulate. And then one more dinner in China before our grand adventure back to the U.S. It will be an odd change to be in a place where I can understand the background conversation, as opposed to the din of unintelligible voices that I have become accustomed to hearing lately.
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