Gotcha!

She's here. She is adorable and smiling. She's 15 pounds, and has the wildest hairdo! She seems healthy aside from a little cough and stuffy nose. We all took pictures for each other, but our CAMERA STOPPED WORKING today at the Gotcha ceremony. I'll have to post those pictures once someone emails copies to us, but here are a few for now!

She's not even cried yet, she is so delighted by the attention, particularly from her bearded father...

The Hotel

Leslie: We've got only a few minutes before I run down to start the first phase of the last paperwork. We spent the last hour walking around Chongqing. We are in a 5-star, 32 story hotel, bursting with marble and uniformed helpers. Our room is on the 30th floor and these are pictures of our room (silk coverlet on the beds!) and the view from our window. Yikes! I've never stayed in such a place before!!

There is a huge park outside, full of families. When we walk around even before we get the baby, everyone stares at us, and anyone with any English tries to talk to us. They are most interested in the two boys, wanting to know if they are my sons. Underneath the hotel is the "sleepless underground city" which is where the young people hang out. We get fewer stares.

Two hours and 35 minutes...

Later Today!

Leslie: It is Gotcha Day today. We’ve arrived to Chongqing, which is the capital of our baby’s province. Today at 5:30 we will be given the baby. Energy is running high, as are nerves. I have to go unpack and find all the baby paraphernalia that is currently scattered in every suitcase (insurance in case something got lost). More later!

It Certainly Is a Great Wall

Philip: Our trip to the Great Wall has apparently made men out of us. It was a tough climb to the high point, up steep uneven steps, with crowds of other tourists (mainly Chinese, as elsewhere). As I went up, it occurred to me that the Wall is a great symbol of China’s identity dilemma. National identity is constructed out of a process of selective remembering and forgetting: countries choose to forget or remember key moments and passages in their collective past in order to emphasize elements of their current character. The Great Wall is now serving that purpose: it represents Chinese strength and unity, the great barrier that kept out the barbarians of the north and brought the country together. But, as we read, the wall has failed this purpose more often than it has served it. The wall itself was only as effective a barrier as the soldiers who manned it, and as the emperors who stationed them there. It was not capable of keeping out the Mongols (admittedly, they invaded centuries before much of the wall was built), or the Manchu after them. And the wall was powerless against the western barbarians, the Germans, Russians and English who imposed their will on the Chinese in more recent times. But the Chinese are now trying to forget those periods of weakness, and have created the modern myth of one strong united country. Well may the wall serve them.

Alex’s addendum to the rickshaw trip after a good night’s sleep

Rickshaw drivers are usually very strong because of all the biking they do. The also go very fast. We were going through very narrow streets and he was shouting at the other drivers because it was hard to go around the sharp curves especially since there was usually construction going on right where they had to bike. There was one part where the drivers sped up really fast and shot through the street while cars went screaming past. My mom kept gasping every time she saw a car. It was like a roller coaster with all the sharp twists and turns. There were a few people and a few cars they h ad to avoid. Sometimes the rickshaw driver had to bike double the amount because the drivers behind his would hold on to get a free ride. My driver did a lot of shouting in Chinese. We think he was teasing the other drivers. The rickshaw seats were made of red velvet and were very comfortable but creaky. There were a lot of bumps in the road. Some of the other people on the rickshaw were lucky and got blankets so they didn’t get cold, because it was freezing. I had to take off my sweatshirt and use it like a blanket so I didn’t get cold.

Alex’s addendum to the Great Wall post after a good night’s sleep

I wish I had gone all the way up by my mom kept freaking out because she got vertigo which is what it is called when you legs go to jelly (not literally). The wall was built to keep their northern enemies from invading. It used to cover the whole border of China in the old days, but now China has outgrown the wall. It didn’t work. I don’t know what they were thinking because it is in the mountains and if the mountains didn’t keep them out, the wall sure wouldn’t.

When we first got to the wall, it was ok, but then we came to a part with steps. The wall is almost all steps. Some were small but others were bigger, almost up to my knee. It made it hard to walk because if you looked back you would be scared out of your skin because it was so steep. My mom almost gave up because she was too afraid. When my mom and I were coming back down, she was even more afraid because she would have to look down. I gave her my hat so she wouldn’t have to see more than the next step and I told her to only look at the next step. It really helped her.

Symbolism

Leslie: Many stories about China seem to work on a deep symbolic level. We were told that our baby’s Chinese name is Hua Man which means “brilliant/prosperous” and “soft and sweet." They aren’t names in the sense that we use the term in the US, they are hopes or prayers for her character or future. We also heard a story about the emperor’s bed, which is long and narrow because the Chinese characters put together mean “longevity” and so the bed is a physical representation of that hope. These are fairly typical examples. English literature uses symbolism and metaphor and requires extensive analysis, but in China, symbolism goes throughout all culture.