Taylor and I (and probably everyone else) are starting to count down the days until we return home, 2 more sleeps and we return to Guangzhou and the White Swan hotel, just 5 more sleeps and we board the planes to head home!
Here is my post from Friday that never made it up onto the blog...
Friday, October 26th. We’ve been in China for one week today!
We’re off to the Provential County Museum today to see the “most beautiful woman” who, by the way has been dead for 2000+ years - won’t that be fun with a 3 ½ and a 2 ½ year old!
Andy will have more of the details about the museum, I’m going to write and complain about the pollution, its hard to walk across the street (or under the street since you really REALLY don’t want to cross 6 lanes of this traffic, but once you get down to the tunnel, its so filled with smoke you just want to run across it and by the time you reach the other side your throat is burning and your lungs hurt. This morning we can see blue sky above - way above, but there is no way we’ll have a bright sunny day unless the smog burns off or gets blown away. Its like in layers. Taylor asked me yesterday why the sun looked so funny, it was a pink/orange ball and we could see it clearly through the smog. Its just aweful.
Changsha may be the Capitol of the Hunan province, but there are no areas for children other than the schools. Around here the children wear uniforms of White & Blue sweat suites and go to school from 7:00 to 5:30 with a two hour “recess” mid day in order to go and get something for lunch. The high school children may have to return to school from 7 - 9 pm to prepare for the University Entrance Exams, otherwise the will do homework sometimes until mid-night. They are extremely regimented and you don’t see/hear the type of disrespect that you hear about in larger city schools in the US. Yes, I’m sure they’re some wise guys but we’ve heard they save that for the 2 hour recess. School is a serious business. Younger children, 3-5 years old who are not in school are already taking lessons in either English, piano, violin or mathematics. The parents of these children feel that they need to start as early as possible to become smarter and more capable to taking care of things then their generation or previous generations.
Babies are an oddity, there’s no where to be seen, nor are pregnant women, though I did see one or two this week. While we were shopping I noticed the cost of a stroller from the larger department stores was about 300 yuan - rather expensive compared to other items like Doug found the scooters that everyone drives around here for 400 yuan - the maternity section of the store was the size of our kitchen (maybe 12 x 12) and there wasn’t a lot to choose from. Unlike our Babies R Us, there was limited options for cribs and furnishings. I imagine a lot of the baby items are passed down from generation to generation and are probably not purchased new by the larger population and only by those Dual Income newer generation who can afford them.
As we walk along the streets everyone looks, some stop and stare at the children, some even take pictures. One man came up to us and started smiling and talking and laughing and pointing at the children then at the parents and walked off smiling and laughing at some personal opinion about the situation. We haven’t run into anyone who has made derogatory statements or gestures - at least not that we can tell - and EVERYONE just love’s to stare at one of our Mom’s. Alice is a curly blonde blue eyed beautiful woman - the younger generation openly oogle at her and the older generation quietly and discretely stare.
Saturday, October 27th - We have a free day today so we walked to the park with another family and walked around what we mistook for a small park which in reality was huge! It was filled with families out for the day, what looked like a talent competition, a small zoo area (which you had to pay to get into), games and rides for the children and street vendors with snack foods (cotton candy, ice cream), it was a pleasant but uneventful morning. We did actually see at least 3 pregnant ladies and many more children, most with split pants going potty anywhere they happened to have to go! I’ll see how my pictures came out on that since I didn’t want to be noticeable. The music in the park was provided by groups of people playing various instruments, all beautiful and all relaxing.
We’ll have dinner in tonight (YES!) The Italian resturaunt - haven’t found a steak dinner yet, but would be a little weary of it anyway since we haven't heard of any cow farmers. The fruits and vegetables are very fresh and we've taken to carrying around an apple (which we wash in the sink with bottled water and carry a knive to peel it just in case).
Teresa tried peanut butter and jelly today and didn't like it. That's one of the first things she really hasn't liked. We're going to try the pool again this afternoon, Taylor wants to go we just don't know what reaction Teresa will have after what happened last time, but we're going to try it and hopefully Taylor will pull through as the big sister once again and help Teresa realize there is nothing scary about it.
Today is also Lunenburg's home coming (where I grew up and where most of my family still lives) and we have a Sophmore and Junior who are part of the floats, so we wish them both the best at winning (Chelsea & Alex are Doug's two oldest) I'm sure they'll all be at the parade and we want them to know we're routing for you and can't wait to see the pictures of the floats! Good luck at the football game Alex!
I'll send some pictures next of our day at the park!
Andy, DON'T YOU DARE... They said he didn't do it, but what do you think?
Lunch is served in a very upscale resturaunt...
Yes, this is a squatty potty, but this one is GORGEOUS and clean and easily washed, the public ones are nothing like this. Andy's sleeping but I'm going to assume this was the resturaunt they ate lunch at...
The new appliances. Andy said the salesman was shaking their hands and saying thank you over and over again. Same as the director. 
This is the typical crib in the orphanage, more importantly the woman in the brown leather coat is the one that brought Teresa to us and the one that when Teresa saw she started to scream and kick to get away from me. We have some beautiful pictures of her and the director that we will show Teresa when the timing is appropriate.
The orphanage...
They display the families and children that have come through Hengshan SWI
Our local guide Winnie (yes as in Pooh) demonstrates how small the individual play pens are, obviously you can see that they're in storage and not readily used any more.
Nothing but rice paddies on the way to the orphanage.
Mommy Alice, Buddy Paul and Baby Colin (he may be hiding but he's a beautiful little boy, full of life and wants FOOD!!!!
Daddy Ken with Travis, Mom is somewhere handling the luggage... .
Taylor and Teresa get to ride the luggage cart, they LOVED it (despite Teresa's face...)
WE're ready to go shopping now!
Arriving at yet anothter Hotel... Can we play yet?
Sorry its the wrong direction, but we're on another magic bus... Taylor obviously LOVES Teresa sitting with her this time!
This is split pants that all the babies seem to wear, it makes it easier to just have them squat along the sidewalk...
China's version of a talent competition
Jamming in the park
Aren't we the cool ones! this is Colin, Teresa and Taylor on a clear day heading to the park...