my brother, Jason, asked if we had taken her out much, so i will talk about that a little. we have taken her out, mostly with our guide/translator and once on our own. let me tell you, this is a unique experience. first of all, insanely HOT. had to be like 100 F out there today with a lot of humidity and traffic to heat things up more. second, with the Chinese people wanting to adopt so much of the western culture, i wish they would adopt the politeness of not straing at people. parents, please keep teaching your kids this becuase you don't want to see what happens when everyone stops doing it. chaos of discomfort.
i spoke a little before aobut them staring at Amy, but now it is 10 fold. everyone sees Natalie with two white people and with the brace on her feet and they can't stop staring. i am not talking about the once look. this is full on i am watching TV staring. i understand that they don't see anything wrong with it, but dang, they should. it makes Amy and I very uncomfortable.
when they are polite and wave and interact with her, we enjoy that. but the staring like we are zoo animals has got to stop. our guide gave us cards that say who we are and that we came to adopt Xue Er, but we have had little oportunity to show anyone. oh well.
we do like looking around at the sites and culture and it is good for Natalie to see people like her, so we endure occasionally. most everyone in the hotel is great. all very friendly and all wanting to speak a little English. believe me, i appreciate that becuase I know they don't have to cater to us. i will say that we are looking foward to our stay in Guangzho. there should be a lot of adoptive familes there and a bit more socialization.
also, i spoke a bit earlier about having to raise a child in a strange environment. an example of that is we can't wash and of her dishes or give her any water without boiling it or using bottled water. do you realize how big of a pain in the butt that is? spekaing of butt, and this is just gross, we aren't allowed to flush toilet paper here. pipes are too old and small in the city. it has to be just thrown away. enjoy the comforts of home folks.
finally, i took a cab ride to the Wal-mart, yes they have Wal-marts here, and it cost me $1. it was about a 10 minute cab ride. how much would that cost me in NYC, $15-20?
Stephen and Amy: Natalie has the sweetest face. I just want to hug her and whisper to her how lucky she is to have you guys. I am so impressed she got a full night's sleep--hope you got a repeat performance of that, or something close, last night.
ReplyDeleteThe staring...ugh. That sounds very uncomfortable. I guess it'll subside a little bit when you get back to the States, although cute babies with cute parents draw some attention ; )
Love reading your updates--it's the first thing I ask Jamie when he gets on the computer pretty much anytime of day--did Steve post something new? Love to you all! Chris
Chris, we are 14 hours ahead of you in MO. so, she just went down about 20 minutes ago. keep your fingers crossed. it is starting to thunderstorm here, but she shoulld be used to that. hope so anyway.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should just get whatever it says on that card printed on t-shirts and wear them around town? You can have that idea for free.
ReplyDeleteDavid
The toilet paper thing is way more common than you might think. Be careful, and fold it very tightly before tossing into the basket...
ReplyDelete~~jason
Hot in Sonora today going to be close to 100. Thanks for the blog. Keeping them coming.
ReplyDeleteTheir not actually staring at you, their probably just wondering how the tall white pasty guy got so lucky to be with two beautiful ladies. Great pics, looking forward to the videos (let me know if I can help)! And I don't feel bad about the heat, it was 100+ here yesterday (as it is most places this summer)!
ReplyDeleteJamie - you're funny! Thanks for the chuckle at Stephens expense.
ReplyDeleteLook! It's Nicole Kidman, a grizzly bear, and a really cute baby! Let's stare. Kids, stare or you'll regret it for the rest of your lives!
ReplyDeleteInsane heat, humidity, and staring are all part of the East Asian experience.
More pictures of Natalie! (and of that Wal-Mart if you took them...just wondering if they sell Dr. Thunder)
Stephen, Joe emailed me after I sent him pics of Natalie. He said to tell you they think of you guys everyday. "You will like the White Swan, lots of Americans here, food is great...Eat at Lucy's" They can't wait for you guys to get together when all are home and settled in. Have fun. I will post this to your FB too just to increase chance that you will see it.
ReplyDeleteBe safe and God bless
rhonda
pasty? how do you know i haven't tanned out Asian style?
ReplyDeleteBrian, didn't get pictures of Wal-mart this time. maybe next time. the meat just laying out in the open on crushed was interesting. great smell too.
one little girl next to me started frantically tapping her friend to look at me then followed me around the store. i did have a toy basketball in my hand. maybe she thought is was Greg Ostertag.
thanks Rhonda. we think about them everyday as well. i am sure they are excited to be going home soon.