Today was a low-key day. We didn’t have any meetings, so our guide (Amy—who is WONDERFUL) scheduled a trip to the zoo. So after our regular morning activities (skype, clean up, breakfast) we boarded a bus and motored our way to the Guangzhou (gwaung-joe) Zoo. It’s a great zoo, right in the middle of this city of 10 million people. We saw all kinds monkeys, big cats, and crazy animals with antlers. I had a few of them broadside at less than 20 yards (Paul, do you hear me?) We took lots of pictures and video, and snapped a few shots for Sadie’s next presentation on China for her class.
On our way to the zoo, we were finally able to help Annabelle make that phone call back to the orphanage. She chatted away with her nanny. I’m sure that meant a lot to her. Amy said that she was glad to make that call, and that she’s doing really well. She’s happy, and she loves us. It’s got to be tough surrounded by people who don’t speak your language and keep trying to talk to you.
We grabbed some McDonald’s for lunch and ate in the Roux room, then headed back to our room to relax a bit. Annabelle watched some Chinese tv while Kim caught up on email and I napped. Kim and Stephanie orchestrated our plans for the evening—a trip to the Sha Main Island for some shopping. Talk about a crazy cab ride! The traffic laws are apparently pretty loose, and the lines on the road are mere suggestions. It’s pretty much a “force your way through” situation when it comes to the road. There have been several instances where a neighboring bus was only inches away from ours. Yikes.
We’d heard such great things about the White Swan hotel and the island. The hotel was impressive, but they have the whole island area under construction for the upcoming Asian Games, which are being held in Guangzhou. There’s also a persistant haze around here. I’m not sure if it’s always like this, but the pollution, humidity, and construction took away from the beauty of the water and greenery.
We did some shopping at the market on the island. We made some new friends in the market, and they gave us good deals on the stuff we bought. Maybe…
After supper at Lucy’s, where you can get just about every kind of food from Asian to Western, we grabbed a cab back to the hotel. The kids parked themselves in front of the computer to watch some shows on the Chinese equivalent of hulu while Stephanie and I went for a run on the treadmills in the fitness room.
Before tucking Annabelle in, Kim and I showed her pictures of Levi, Lilly, Sadie and the rest of the family. We’re trying to get her to learn names so that she is familiar with them. We’ll be headed back in about a week, and it’ll be good for her to have names and faces memorized.
We’ve had fun skyping with the kids, Erin, and Kim’s folks everyday. Our kids seem to be doing well without us. Delma is a God-send. We had a roof leak the other day—right above the computer table! Thanks to Dean Christian for dropping by to make sure the computer was ok. I have no idea what to do about the leaky roof, but I guess that’s the way things go!
I’ve got a load of laundry in the bathtub, so I’d better go scrub ’em up.
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