Head-Shaking Game

Ellie's new favorite game is to shake her head at someone, and then wait for them to shake back at her. Here is an example! She started by shaking "no" (though of course it is still meaningless; she is just copying gestures she sees us using) and now (about 3 days later) is also doing up-and-down. She seems to be very social, with all this copying of gestures.

Jet Lag

We've been home now for almost 2 days, and one or the other of us has been asleep nearly all of that time. Both boys had unintended naps. Jeremiah mumbled, "sleep is overcoming me" just before he passed out. Ellie is the best sleeper among us. The first night, she'd slept on the last two plane rides, so arrived home and woke right up. The lights were all out and all male beings were asleep, which Ellie did not like at all. She insisted that I carry her at all times. She didn't even want her feet touching the ground in this strange place. I showed her the sleeping men, but she doesn't like seeing people asleep, so that didn't help. I played games with her on our bed, nodding off every few seconds and jerking awake. Finally I fell asleep and woke a couple of hour later to find her asleep next to me on the bed (we've got bedrails, so it isn't as dangerous as it sounds) with my hand still holding onto her. After that, she fell asleep, waking only for bottles. Last night she did the same, getting about the same amount of sleep as she did in China. The boys, however, woke last night between two and three and stayed up until about 4pm...

Home Sweet Home

Jeremiah: Last night we arrived at home. I was sort of glad to be back. The only problem was that it was 12:30 AM (which is the middle of the night). It was a problem because we barely got to play at all. We had to go straight to bed, even though we weren't tired. This is because it was lunchtime in China and we were used to that time. When we got home, we found out that our friends had visited our house and left us some stuff. They also put up a sign that said her name and something in Chinese.

The Return Trip

Leslie: It is about 10pm, and we are packing. Our luggage has to be outside our door at 5am, and we leave the hotel at 5:50am. We fly to Hong Kong with most of our group (a very short hop) and then about 5 families go on the same flight to LA, including little Amelia, who was on the plane out with us, but not with our agency. We lost sight of her in Beijing and we've seen again these last couple of days. The flight is 12 hours, with a three hour layover in LA. We arrive at 10 and leave again at 1:30, for Charlotte. Somehow we don't arrive in Jacksonville until almost midnight, with all the time changes. I think it will turn out to be something like 36 hours, door to door. Yikes! This will be the ordeal. Wish us luck! We might check in at Charlotte, which has free internet, but LA does not.

These pictures were taken on our walk back from the pearl market. The first is a "recycler" at work, taking all the useable bits from an old fridge. The second is the guy carrying a gas cannister on his bike. China!

Red Couch Photos

Leslie: These are the famous "red couch" photos at the White Swan hotel. Our family (the boys and Ellie are in their Chinese traditional clothes), the kids (our kids and their closest friends), and all the babies (crying of course!). Ellie is crying too, not because she was uncomfortable or scared, but because everyone else was, so she thought she'd better cry too. She is reaching for Jeremiah.

Guangzhou Market

Our last day of sightseeing. We walked out of our fantasy-world of Shamian Island and into real Guangzhou. We were warned not to bring much cash and to keep all valuables in our fronts, because there are lots of pick-pockets. We had no trouble with that (it is probably no worse than London or New York)! We walked through a street of spices, beans, mushrooms and other dried food items, (the hanging pile to the left here are dried starfish!), then through a street of live animals (food or pets?) including kittens, puppies, fish, bunnies, and chicks. Finally we were in a big shopping street that looked like nothing so much as.... Chinatown in America. Who knew that the arches and tiny little shops crammed with strange things is exactly like what a shopping street in China looks like?

One day away

Jeremiah: Tomorrow we are going to leave China. First we are going to fly to Hong Kong. Next we are going to get on a different plane and then fly to Los Angeles. When we are in Los Agneles we are going to stay for a while and see uncle Stan. After Los Angeles we are going to fly to Charlotte, and then to Jacksonville. It's going to be a loooong flight. I really want to get home and show Ellie to all my friends. I also want to show her to grandpa. I am looking forward to seeing my house again. But I'm still going to miss China. I think that my favorite part of all of the trip was...getting Ellie!

Chen Family Academy

Phil: After the Buddhis temple we went to the Chen family academy, a beautiful well preserved house (the ancestral temple of the Chen clan) that has been made into a folk arts museum. It is an ornately carved building, and was the only museum we have gone to (the Three Gorges Museum in Chongqing doesn't count, as we arrived there just as it was closing and were just shepherded to the gift shop). The "folk arts" displayed at the museum are far more sophisticated than what is usually suggested by this phrase in the west. The museum showcased the great traditional arts of carving, painting. fan-making and ceramics of Guangzhou. Many of the pieces were incredibly elaborate, including an enormous ship carved out of ivory, with hundreds of tiny figures and windows that opened. Many of the pieces were made within the last three decades, and inevitably, many of them were for sale. We only had a limited amount of time to see it. Ironically, Ellie was perfectly happy to wander around, carried by me in her Baby Bjorn. But the boys have a limited patience for museums; when they started playing hackeysack in the courtyard we knew it was time to go.

Sleeping Bunny

And here is what is in the crib in the Tatami room photo...

Tatami Room

This is the Japanese Tatami room that we upgraded to. It has two rooms, a sitting room and a bedroom. The bedroom has one step up to the tatami area, with a futon on the floor. We are so much happier when we don't have to climb over the bed to get to the door!

Hackey-Sack

Jeremiah:
Jeremiah:
Hackey-sacks are not like the hackey-sacks in America. They look a lot like birdies (from badminton). They have feathers on them, but other than that, you use them in the same way. I got two for 15 Yuan, which is about $2.00. It is hard to play. How you play is you take it and drop it and then kick it in the air. Then someone else kicks it to someone else, and they kick it to someone else. And they just keep on going until one of them drops it. They also do all these tricks like in the video. For instance, one time the hackey sack flew over a man’s head and he kicked it with the heel of his foot.

Three Wishes

Alex: There were also these roofs held up with bamboo, and people put lit incense sticks on them. Our guide said that the people made wishes and the smoke carried the wishes to god. There was also this black pot with a hole the size of a fist and you were supposed to make a wish and throw a coin through the hole. If you made a wish and threw t he coin through the hole you got your wish. If it went through the other side that meant you got another wish. I got three wishes. One was for me living a long and happy life, then another for me to live a long and happy life. It took two tries to get each coin in. Later on, near the end, I took a coin and ran back and made a wish that I wanted my baby sister to be a strong healthy person and live a long and healthy life. That coin went in on the first try.

Baby blessing

Alex: Today we went to a Buddhist temple for our tour. We went into the temple and to a room where there was a monk tapping a hollow gourd. We all went over and knelt down and he started praying and doing strange rituals in front of three giant buddhas. He was blessing the adoptive babies our group had. I noticed that there were cans of pepsi and coke along with food in front of the statues.

Ellie loves to sightsee

Ellie really likes it when we are sightseeing. She loves to climb around on the bus, and visits both those in the seats in front and in back. She is also happy in her carrier, regardless of whether we've got her facing inward or outward. Yes, Phil does most of the carrying, as she is a hefty 18 pounds. Neither of the boys was 18 pounds until he was over a year old.

When she is facing outwards in the carrier, she kicks her little legs and says "amm-ma" or "babababa" or "dadadada" or "bvvvvf" and looks at things. When they come in reach, she makes a grab for them. She was particularly interested in the jade jewelry today.

The Buddha likes Pepsi

Leslie: We visited a buddhist temple today. There were offerings in front of the statues, mostly food. A lot was what I would expect: fruit and vegetables. But Pepsi? It seemed pretty incongruous to me. To me, Pepsi is a symbol of westernization, of capitalism, of materialism, of man-made things. And it is cheap, cheap, even here, not much of a sacrifice. But there were cans of Pepsi (or Nestea, to be honest) in front of every Buddha. I asked our guide, and she said, "It is a sacrifice." I explained that I understood that, but why Pepsi? She didn't understand why I was so surprised. Phil commented that it was in a way a very telling symbol of 21st century China: the very old Chinese paired with the very modern American.

Ellie-Boo

Here, for you fans of Ellie, some more publicity pictures. She's mastering her crawling skills on the left with Alex's help (I've also posted a short clip, which was interrupted by Jeremiah, who is I think beginning to get a bit jealous of all the attention his sister is getting). I don't know if the video works, and won't find out until we return home.

Romantic Island

Leslie: Shamian Island was built by Europeans and retains a very European feel. The island is a little bubble of 5 story buildings in a sea of high-rises. It is a little adoptive-family bubble, too, as I've said before, so there is no point in trying to pretend we are anything but adoptive-tourists. It is an unreal space for local people, too, because of the unusual architecture. We've seen probably 15 sets of photographers and subjects of various sorts: brides in western dresses, brides in traditional clothes, women in traditional clothes with no grooms, and a pair in what looked like Catholic-school uniforms. The girl had on white knee socks! We westerners with our babies strapped to our chests don't get a second look, except from shopkeepers who want to sell us squeaky shoes. There is an almost disney quality to the place.

Even the trees have a disney quality. There are lots of very old banyan trees that have roots hanging down, looking like Spanish moss. One tree needed to be propped up, like some of the live oaks in Florida, but rather than the usual metal post, they built a concrete trunk so that it would look more natural! There are also lots of parks with statues of colonial figures scattered about. This one is of a Chinese boy in traditional clothing posting a letter in a British-style mail box. There was another of a European couple in 19th century clothes, and another of children and a dog. I don't know how old they are, but I imagine 20th century. It is a lot of fun to walk around, and easy to do it without getting lost as there is almost no traffic and the island is very small. You can circumnavigate in about 1/2 hour. There are two 7-11s, a Starbuck's, and Papa John's delivers. We are now trying to avoid western food as we've got only two full days left.

In Guangzhou

Phil: We have arrived on Shamian Island in Guangzhou. In keeping with the Odyssey theme I began at the start of the blog, I would compare Shamian island t0 the island of the Phaiakians (for those of you up on your Homer): an island that exists between the outer world and the familiar world of home, where the final preparations are made for the return. As Les has said, it is an island of European colonialism in China: it was the earliest European colony and maintains the feel of a European town, even though most of the permanent residents are now Chinese. I'm a bit embarrassed at how comfortable I feel here. We will be doing some tours of Guangzhou in the next two days, and I hope to explore the famous market of Qingping Shichang. But it is comforting to know that there are two 7-Elevens a short walk from the hotel--even if they do sell spicy squid snack along with soda and chips!

Doctor's office

Phil:

Here we are in a crowded doctor's office, waiting for Ellie's official checkup. The boys quickly got restless, so I took them with their friend Max out to a playground. Ellie passed with flying colors.

Thai Restaurant

April 21, 2008
Jeremiah: Today we went to a Thai restaurant. They had lots of Thai food. It was mostly squid. There was fried squid with orange juice sauce. I had chicken on a stick (satay). It was so good. Right next to me there was a little girl named Margot. She is one and a half. She kept on saying “yummy!” I said “yummy” back! At one point I gave her some water. She spilled it all over herself. At the end she kept on saying “droller”. We couldn’t understand what she was talking about. Then I took her on a little walk. She walked towards the exit. Then I noticed a pile of strollers. She went over and touched it and said “droller.” That’s when she realized what she was talking about.

A few steps closer

Leslie: We spent the day here in Guangzhou, which has been nice because we’ve been able to walk everywhere. In the morning, we had the babies’ visa physical, where they checked to be sure that the babies didn’t need to be quarantined. We heard a story about a baby who had chicken pox. For awhile, it looked like one parent was going to have to stay an extra couple of weeks with her, even though chicken pox wouldn’t keep a child out of school anymore! Ours was diagnosed with a sore throat, and it looks like we will be able to leave. The adoption business is such a big deal here (and only for the Americans!) that the local medical clinic has its own adoption clinic room! After the physical, we took a walk and bought some souvenirs, then had lunch, then the boys played on their games while Ellie napped and I did almost 2 hours of paperwork. They totally walked us through the paperwork. Everyone filled out number 1, then number two, while the facilitators ran around with white out. I had only one mistake, but one person had 10 or so. Our brains are fried!
After paperwork, we took another walk and did some shopping. The shopping here is very easy, as everyone speaks some English, and are very eager to talk about adoption and the babies. At “Susan’s” one salesperson commandeered Phil with conversation while the boys and I shopped. She was asking about why Americans would take a special needs child, especially one with cleft lip, because they look so ugly. We tried to explain about our health care system, and how many of those things can be taken care of pretty easily in the US. It made us think about the other adoptive families. They don’t fit our expectations. Most already have kids, either intentionally or accidentally during the long wait. Several have more than two kids already. Many of those are adopting special needs kids. Everyone has their own reasons for their choices, but infertility is not even often the motivation. We’ve met probably a quarter who have adopted older kids, aged 2-6, kids who wouldn’t be adopted otherwise.

In Guangzhou

Alex: Today we arrived in Guangzhou. We stayed in a 4-star hotel, but the room was really tiny, so we decided to upgrade to a suite, which is where we are now. The suite room is big and has two rooms and it really is sweet. It is a tatami room, which is a Japanese room. There are Japanese tatami mats and a bed that is on the floor, like a mattress, which is great for the baby, because when she is on the bed, if she falls off, she doesn’t get hurt. All the adoptive families are here at this one hotel. We’ve seen everybody we already knew, including Paige, the 2 ½ year old, the two Megans, Nick, Max, Margo, and even Amelia who was in another group. I got two metal balls that I sit on my hand and rotate. It is supposed to be good for your blood and your hands. When you shake them, they make music with bells. We don’t know how they make the balls as they are seamless and yet there are bells inside.

Book-lover

Alex: Today I was sitting on the couch reading my book and my dad was holding Ellie and she got away on the couch. She crawled over and tried to take my book. I had to put it behind her head so she crawled backwards, and then I hid it under my leg. When she looked away, I started reading it again. I think when she gets older and learns to read, she will be a very interested reader.

She likes to chew on everything from a piece of paper to a suitcase. It is hard to have her at dinner because she is always grabbing food, plates and toys and throwing them onto the floor. She hates high chairs, so we constantly have to take her out and walk around with her until she clams down.

Guangzhou

Leslie: We made it. The flight was not too bad -- all the babies cried for at least part of it, but no one cried the whole time. Ellie was pretty good and only cried when we landed. A biter biscuit kept her busy for most of take-off. Her little busy hands went through our bags, our pockets, our meals, and she got rice all over everything, but it kept her happy! Phil and I sat in one 3-person row, with a Chinese businesswoman next to us. Across the aisle was another adoptive family with a two adults and a 4 year old, a 17 month old, and a new 8 month old all in three seats. This poor woman was trapped! Our boys sat with their friend Max behind us. When Ellie cried, we held her up so she could see her brothers and that worked a lot of the time.

Guangzhou is lovely, but Florida-humid. We had a quick walking tour of the Shamain Island where our hotel is located. For years, adoptive families from all agencies stayed in the White Swan Hotel because it was next to the American consulate. The consulate has now moved 45 minutes away, but tradition demands that adoptive families stay in this neighborhood. Even if not staying at the White Swan Hotel, all families visit for the "red couch" photo, where they line the babies up on these red couches and take pictures. I have always been interested in the ways ex-patriot communities distinguish themselves, and this community is no different. In Greece, people at the American School for Classical Studies had a set of pet names for restaurants that were transmitted from generation to generation: the Green Door, the Flaming Weenie. Here, we have the red couch picture, the squeaky shoes, the silk traditional clothes that are bought and saved for our American Chinese New Year celebrations. All adoptive families come through Guangzhou, and all know the traditions before we even get here. We are disappointed at not staying at the White Swan, but the couch photos are on our schedule nonetheless. Our hotel is the Victory Hotel. After the enormous room on the 30th floor in Chongqing, the regular size room and Chinese double beds (smaller than American) feel cramped. But it is a lovely walking neighborhood, with familiar European architecture and shops that cater specifically to adoptive families, so we won't spend much time in the room. It is a beautiful room, with what seem to be the standard Chinese hotel architecture with windows into the bathroom, dark wood cabinets, marble in the bath and foyer, and a view onto a courtyard below.

But we are tired; Ellie didn't sleep well last night. I was packing until 10:30, then at 10:40 she woke for a bottle and seemed to think her sleep had been a nap, so was happy and awake for an hour and a half. I walked her in the room, sat with her on the chair, walked with her in the hallways and the lounge, tried to get her to sleep on my tummy, tried to put her in her own crib, nothing worked. At one point, she was saying "dadadadadada" in her sweet voice and woke up Phil, who could do nothing but smile at her cuteness, even though he was exhausted and has a cold. She got up again at 2:30 for a bottle with Phil and then again at 4. The boys slept through, happily, but we are all under the weather today. Each day for the next three we have at least one appointment for the American government: a visa physical, visa paperwork, then an oath at the consulate. Then we leave for our 36 hour ordeal home...but we are in the home stretch now!

Phil:
Since we are about to leave Chongqing, and who knows when we will return, I thought I should post a picture of us and our wonderful guides, Marie and Anita. As I said before, they were not so much tour guides as adoption guides, and they had an excellent sense of what new parents would need at every stage of the adoption process. They also tried their hardest to make us feel comfortable in their city, which they were clearly proud of--Marie even showed us her apartment, for goodness sake! I can't imagine what the process would have been like without them.

Tomorrow we fly

Leslie: We spent the day today hanging around. We've been twice to an arcade we found in the "underground sleepless city" and spent a lot of the day just passing the time with friends. Tomorrow we fly to Guangzhou, where the American Consulate is. We've jumped all the Chinese hoops and now we jump the American ones. All fourteen families fly together, so it is going to be a flight with many, many lap-babies, probably half of them crying. We aren't allowed ANY liquids in our carry-ons, so our guide has equipped us with papers in English and Chinese asking for hot water and bottled cold water to make our babies their formula. This will be an adventure!

There is a typhoon brewing between Guangzhou and Hong Kong, so we may well be delayed, so if there are no postings for the next 24-36 hours, it is because we are enroute and getting our internet set up in the next hotel. Every hotel is different. This one has had unlimited free internet access, so we post whenever we feel like it; Beijing charged us by the minute, so we composed on word and then uploaded all at once. We are addicted, so we will definitely find a way, but there may be a lull.

Babies

Jeremiah: Last night all the babies got on a mat and played together. The one in the striped shirt is Amy. The one with her arm in the air is Ella. And the baby in the orange dress with her thumb in her mouth is Ellie. We brought out some toys. They all played while we ate pizza. We showed them how Ellie could crawl.

Friends

Jeremiah: Our friends are Nick who is 14, Max who is 9, Megan who is 11, and another Megan who is 7. They are very good friends. My best friend is Max. We play our DS's together a lot. Today we went to the arcade (Nick came, too) in an underground mall under the hotel.

Leslie: From left to right: Jeremiah with Ellie on his lap, Alex, Megan, Ella and Max. Nick is in the other picture, by himself.

Chinese birthday candles

Jeremiah: This is a Chinese birthday candle. It looks like a flower with a bunch of candles on the side and one in the middle. You light the middle and it looks like the picture above. Then the candles on the side catch and it opens up and rotates and sings happy birthday music. We got four of them to bring home. We can't bring them to school because they are like fireworks.

Ellie-Belly

Alex: We found out that if you stick your face in Ellie's belly and move it back and forth really fast, she laughs really hard. Ellie is really cute and she likes me. I am her favorite person in the family.

Here's the whole gang at the Chongqing People's Hall. Sorry the picture is small. You should be able to make out the boys in front, with their friends Max and Megan. Phil, Les and Ellie are up on the left.

Kanga and her three Roos at the Chongqing People's Hall.

Bonding

The last few days in Chonqing have had an outing each day, but they've really been time for family bonding. To be honest, it's a bit hard to tell how it is going. Ellie is such a good-tempered baby--she hardly fussed even when she had her fever yesterday--that we can't tell if she's accepted us, or if she's just taken us in stride. With Les and me she has tended to be intense and serious--she stares at our faces intently, or busily explores them with her hands (she is very tactile, and would often stick her hand in my mouth, and firmly pull my lower teeth. I guess she's never heard the proverb about not looking a gift horse in the mouth!). But we get more and more smiles now, and she is happy to sit in our laps while she explores the world around her. I'm pretty sure she knows we are her parents. As for the boys, it has been a different story. Every time they come close to her, she lights up into an enormous smile. They've figured out several different ways of making her laugh, including the game of "jelly belly," where they stick their faces in her tummy and shake it until she screams with laughter. Her favorite activity is to roll around on the bed with them. And it's not just because they play with her, and we do all the unpleasant stuff like change diapers and put drops in her ears. Alex learned an enormous amount from his babysitting course, and has become proficient in feeding her and changing diapers. But she knows that Alex and Jeremiah are her brothers, and doesn't feel totally secure unless they are around.

Future parents in need of a babysitter, or girlfriends looking for potential husband material, note Alex's technique!

Babies

Leslie:
This is Ellie and some of her buds. Ellie is in the orange and blue. Ella is sitting up, and although she was at a different orphanage, her family has two kids the same age as Alex and Jeremiah and so we've spent a lot of time together. Lying down is Amy, who was at the same orphanage as Ellie, and is in some pictures we've got of life at the orphanage. The babies seem to like to be together on a blanket. They roll, grab toys and poke at each other.








This is a picture of one of the kinds of baby-carriers we've seen people use in China.








This is another kind of baby-carrier, a bamboo basket. Ellie was found in a bamboo carrier, probably very much like this one.

Ellie pix

Leslie: Here are a couple of pictures on our "getting lost" walk. One is of Ellie smiling, and is another picture of smiles for my dad. If you jiggle her tummy, she'll almost always smile. This is with a 101 fever! We also tried her on dad's shoulders, as she refused to sit in her stroller, and we got tired carrying her. She liked it, but can REALLY pull hair!

Chinese apartment

Leslie: Our guide took us to see her apartment today! Chongqing is an immense city, with an unreal population density. Marie told us that no one but the very rich own houses; everyone else lives in an apartment. She described herself as "average" in terms of socio-economic status. She is an English teacher at one of Chongqing's TWENTY-TWO universities (that ought to give a sense of the size of this city!) and her husband works for the government. They have one daughter who is in high school. Their apartment is in a new area of Chongqing, very close to our hotel. We'd thought that the architecture in this area was late-century cement block, but learned that Marie's neighborhood is only 7-8 years old. The grime of the pollution ages things. Below the 20-some-odd story apartment building is a lovely garden shared by several buildings. The apartment is sunny and bright and very efficient, with three bedrooms, a livingroom/dining room, small kitchen, two baths and a balcony. What struck me was the lack of stuff. She had a couple of couches, a coffee table and a big screen tv in the living room, but no shelves or cabinets. The dining room had one set of shelves. They just don't have stuff. Having moved a year ago and cleaned out my whole house probably 3-4 times trying to pare down, I've begun to appreciate that every purchase you make is a responsibility: every vase needs to be dusted, every book needs a place on the shelf, every toy needs its batteries changed. How much extra time we might have if we had less stuff that needed looking after! They've got no yard to be mowed, no things to get dusty, or junk to be put away. We have more stuff in our hotel room, I think!

Day 10

Leslie: We are still waiting on paperwork to finalize the adoption; our last contact with the Chinese government. We spent the morning, as Alex requested, "getting lost" and buying tee-shirts with crazy phrases on them. Our theory is that someone places a custom order, and when they go wrong, the rejects are sold here, since most people can't read English. I've got one that has arrows pointing in two directions proclaiming one way as "right" and the other "lint." Another says, "It GDING TO BE INTERESTING." A third has a monkey with the caption, "Shall Aluca Kjlll This is very lovey midfwbo." Alex bought one that says, "super boy like Lest good go come on baby Beckham like." Maybe we will start a new fashion craze.

Ellie had a fever and was fussy overnight, so we've started her on antibiotics figuring it is probably her ears. A doctor told us she probably had an ear infection when we got her the first day. Did I mention that the doctor came to our hotel room to check out the babies?!?! Later on, the bell rang again and our guide brought us the antibiotics and ear drops. House calls! The rest of us were fussy today, too, and without the excuse of our ears. We all woke up a lot with Ellie's restlessness, and no one has quite caught up on sleep anyway. The day turned out to be very polluted, so it was unpleasant outside. Our getting-lost shopping trip was all underground, so that was fine. In the afternoon we went to see the Jialing and Yangtze rivers converge at the spot that was originally Chongqing. Tomorrow is our last full day in Chongqing, and then we leave for Guangzhou where we deal with the US government.

Hot Pot

Alex: Last night I went to a hot pot dinner. A hot pot dinner is where they stick a huge pot on a tiny fire and you sit around it, and it's in the table. You get ingredients, and you put them in the outer ring of the pot, which is spicy, and the inner part is mild. They had stuff like bamboo, pigeon eggs, pork, beef, lotus, and fish. I only ate out of the mild part and I had the pork, beef, and a little bit of fish (but it didn't taste good). Also I had pigeon eggs. They tasted like regular eggs but there is a difference I couldn't name. They looked like mini-eggs and the whiter part was thinner than a chicken's egg. For drinks I had Pepsi because the water isn't good. I asked my dad if I could have beer but he said no. After I tried the beef I had to leave because the beef was spicy and they said it would get spicier and spicier, so I went up to my room. I will try hot pot again because I liked it, even the pigeon eggs!

Cluster of Mutton

Alex: Today, we went to an old town to go shopping for souvenirs and we saw this sign above a food shop. We think it means "flock of sheep." I saw weird little white blobs that looked like dough that had crab legs and pincers sticking out of it. Also we saw things like octopus on a stick and strange Chinese cookies that looked like a yellow spring but didn't taste so good. There was a guy who made candy into sculptures like dragons and things that you could eat. Also there were little animals and dragons made out of reeds you find in ponds that you could buy. I bought a clay buddha that you soak upside-down in hot water for 10 seconds. Then you stand him up and pour hot water on his head. He pees water at you. I also bought a little car that drives and flips over when it bumps into something, and a necklace with some kind of tooth at the end. We tried to buy Chinese clothes but all the clothes were either too big or too small. In World War II, China was bombed by the Japanese, and Chongqing was bombed really badly, but this little part of it didn't, and was the old buildings.