We finally made it home! We left the hotel at 5:30 AM on Thursday morning and arrived at our house at 9:30 PM on Thursday evening. With the time change, that is 29 straight hours of travelling. We left Guangzhou and flew into Tokyo and then from Tokyo to Detroit and our final flight was from Detroit to Indianapolis. Once on the ground, we had to drive back from Indianapolis. It seemed like we were never going to get home.
Fiona travelled quite well. She didn't manage to go to sleep until the last 3 hours of our flight into Detroit. She bounced around and played and visited with people for a good 15 hours before she took a nap. That made for a long trip. We all fell asleep on the Detroit to Indianapolis flight.
Detroit has never looked to beautiful! (that is a statement that isn't posted very often). Fiona is now an official US citizen with a temporary green card. Her official citizenship document will be mailed to us and she will then have a permanent green card. It took us nearly 2 hours to get through Customs at Detroit. The process in the US is much slower and tedious than other countries. With Fiona's IR3 Visa, we had to go through 3 different lines before they got all of the necessary stamps and approvals. We had it pretty easy compared to the foreigners entering the country. They were fingerprinted, photographed, grilled with questions, and searched in a database before they were admitted in. If they couldn't answer the questions properly, they were sent off to little rooms to "privately" speak with customs officials. Just another way our world has changed after 9/11.
Our first stop after leaving the Indianapolis airport was McDonald's. You don't realize how much you miss little things such as soft drinks with ice until you don't have them for awhile. Unfortunately, the bartering techniques Helen taught us don't work most places here. McDonald's doesn't budge on their prices.
We are so glad to be home! We all slept a few hours last night. Fiona is enjoying her new home and the cats really appreciate us bringing another kid home. I imagine that we will all feel like we need to go back to bed come mid-afternoon today. We'll post some pictures of Fiona in her new home a little later. We just wanted to let everyone know we have made it back safely.
Where in the world are the Bolligers?
Fiona Anne FuYe Bolliger
Fiona's Referral Picture
Friday, March 28, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Final Day in China
Today was our last day in China. We have to get up at 4:00 AM tomorrow morning (3:00 PM back home) and head to the airport for an 8:20 AM flight. The total flight time is about 20 hours so it is hard telling how messed up our internal clocks will be when we get back home!
The Visa Ceremony went well and Fiona now only needs to go through customs when we land back in the United States and she will be a US citizen. There were 55 families there today and we had met quite a few of them over the last few weeks. The families we have met here have all been wonderful and we will miss talking to them.
Our last day in Guangzhou was pretty uneventful. Lots of packing, purging, organizing and strategizing on how best to wrangle Fiona on flights for 20 hours! We think the best plan is to medicate heavily (ourselves, that is...). The kids are already complaining about jet lag and have decided that they'll need another week or two to recover and school would only add to the recovery time so they need to stay home to make sure they adjust properly. Regan has perked up at the thought of going home and can not wait to get there. She has done well on this trip but has fought homesickness all the time we've been here. She has adopted about a half dozen stuffed animals on this trip and they all had their visa ceremonies today as well.
We have truly appreciated your comments on this blog. It has felt as though we have had a lifeline back to our friends and families and have been able to stay in touch. We would check the comments whenever we made it back to the hotel room. We also think that this blog has given Fiona a jump start getting to know our family since you have gotten to know her and the ordeal she has gone through from our posts. She'll look back one day at the blog and the your comments and how fortunate we all are.
We'll post a final wrap up once we get back home to let everyone know how the long flight went.
The Visa Ceremony went well and Fiona now only needs to go through customs when we land back in the United States and she will be a US citizen. There were 55 families there today and we had met quite a few of them over the last few weeks. The families we have met here have all been wonderful and we will miss talking to them.
Our last day in Guangzhou was pretty uneventful. Lots of packing, purging, organizing and strategizing on how best to wrangle Fiona on flights for 20 hours! We think the best plan is to medicate heavily (ourselves, that is...). The kids are already complaining about jet lag and have decided that they'll need another week or two to recover and school would only add to the recovery time so they need to stay home to make sure they adjust properly. Regan has perked up at the thought of going home and can not wait to get there. She has done well on this trip but has fought homesickness all the time we've been here. She has adopted about a half dozen stuffed animals on this trip and they all had their visa ceremonies today as well.
We have truly appreciated your comments on this blog. It has felt as though we have had a lifeline back to our friends and families and have been able to stay in touch. We would check the comments whenever we made it back to the hotel room. We also think that this blog has given Fiona a jump start getting to know our family since you have gotten to know her and the ordeal she has gone through from our posts. She'll look back one day at the blog and the your comments and how fortunate we all are.
We'll post a final wrap up once we get back home to let everyone know how the long flight went.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Hanging Around Guangzhou With Fiona
We didn't get a chance to post yesterday. We just got busy and before we knew it the day was done and we were too tired to post an update on the blog. Sorry about that!
Yesterday was Fiona's medical exam which was required for her US visa. Sue took Fiona to the examination office with Echo where Fiona went through a series of check ups. Everything seems to be in good order and we got her updated medical records all put together.
The adoption process in China seems to be a series of events that all produce various documents and certifications needed for the next part of the process. While in Nanning, we had to go through all of the various processes for us to officially adopt her and get her passport. All of the activities in Guangzhou have been geared towards getting Fiona's US visa and immigration paperwork processed. Tomorrow we have her Visa Ceremony at the US Consulate office in the afternoon which is the last formality before we can take her back to the states and she becomes a US citizen. Echo mentioned that there are 55 US families that will be at the ceremony for their newly adopted kids. We have also run into a number of families from France and other European countries who are adopting.
It has been interesting talking to all of the other families to hear their stories of how their newly adopted kids are adapting. Each family has their ups and downs with their new kids. One family's little girl that is about Fiona's age refuses to be put down. She must be held all of the time -- day or night. Another family indicated that their new son has fits and will spit on them and even bite them. There are quite a few adopting families at our hotel on our floor and you can walk the halls and hear the various laughing, crying, and playing of the kids. You have no idea what the kids have been through and how they will be when you finally get them. We've all decided that patience is the best solution.
We have been fortunate that Fiona hasn't had too many adjustment problems. She has been a bit cranky, but she is cutting new teeth and her diet has changed considerably from what she ate at the orphanage. The biggest obstacle that we've faced is that she has bonded with Sue, but is a bit leery of me. In general, she seems to avoid contact with males and will create attachments with the Sue, Quinn, and Regan. Her caregivers at the orphanage were all women with one male doctor. We suspect that her experiences with the doctor weren't always under the best of circumstances. We decided that it is important that she initially bond with Sue and that we'll be patient and she'll decide that I'm not too bad after all. Tonight she finally let me get her out of her crib and comfort her. This was quite a breakthrough!
We did some shopping today as Echo ran the visa paperwork between the consulate and other various offices. I started talking to one of the vendors and she and her sister were from the same province as Fiona and are familiar with the Ping Po village where Fiona was born. They provided quite a bit of insight into where she was born and her heritage. The village is quite small and poor and is situated in the mountains. They looked at her and thought that based upon her features that it is likely that she is of Zhuang heritage which is an ethnic minority group in the Guangxi region where Ping Po is located. This group is well known for their embroidery skills. If this holds true, Fiona may be the first one in the family that can sew! The most common name in the Zhaung group is Wei. They also indicated that her village had a population of about 30,000 people and that most of the younger people leave the village to go find work. The main occupations in Ping Po are farming rice or doing embroidery work. The rice farms are mainly on terraces in the mountainside. We did a bit of googling tonight and found some pictures of her village which are quite fascinating.
I also included some pictures of our room, the lounge, and lobby at the Holiday Inn Shifu where we are staying. (There isn't any funny smells in the lobby as we've heard may have existed in the past.) We have been extremely happy with the hotel and the accommodations have been outstanding. There are quite a few streets with vendors right outside of the hotel. The streets range from very modern with lots of neon and lights and upscale shops and vendors to others which contain quite "rustic" and traditional shops more geared for the older Chinese culture. We find that both are extremely interesting and fun to wander through. I included some pictures from one of the vendors by the hotel with Chinese fast food -- fried squid tentacles and snake skewers. We went a little more Western tonight and ordered cheese pizza from Papa John's!
During our downtime yesterday we went to the Guangzhou Zoo with a few other LifeLink families. We had a great time and got to see a Panda! The zoo wasn't crowded and the weather was perfect. Today we had some more free time where we walked to the local jade and pearl market. We were able to use some of our bartering skills that we've honed while dealing with our "good friend" Helen to wrap up some good deals.
Tomorrow is our last day here in China. We'll be packing in the morning and going to the Visa Ceremony in the afternoon. We are anxious to get home, but we are also sad to leave here. Guangzhou has been an enjoyable and a wonderful place to stay. We've been building up for this trip for years and it is sad to think that the end is coming soon. We are also sad to think that we are taking Fiona away from her homeland and culture. Her future is certainly brighter where she is going and in many ways she is very fortunate. One day we hope to bring her back to China so she can get a sense of where she came from.
Yesterday was Fiona's medical exam which was required for her US visa. Sue took Fiona to the examination office with Echo where Fiona went through a series of check ups. Everything seems to be in good order and we got her updated medical records all put together.
The adoption process in China seems to be a series of events that all produce various documents and certifications needed for the next part of the process. While in Nanning, we had to go through all of the various processes for us to officially adopt her and get her passport. All of the activities in Guangzhou have been geared towards getting Fiona's US visa and immigration paperwork processed. Tomorrow we have her Visa Ceremony at the US Consulate office in the afternoon which is the last formality before we can take her back to the states and she becomes a US citizen. Echo mentioned that there are 55 US families that will be at the ceremony for their newly adopted kids. We have also run into a number of families from France and other European countries who are adopting.
It has been interesting talking to all of the other families to hear their stories of how their newly adopted kids are adapting. Each family has their ups and downs with their new kids. One family's little girl that is about Fiona's age refuses to be put down. She must be held all of the time -- day or night. Another family indicated that their new son has fits and will spit on them and even bite them. There are quite a few adopting families at our hotel on our floor and you can walk the halls and hear the various laughing, crying, and playing of the kids. You have no idea what the kids have been through and how they will be when you finally get them. We've all decided that patience is the best solution.
We have been fortunate that Fiona hasn't had too many adjustment problems. She has been a bit cranky, but she is cutting new teeth and her diet has changed considerably from what she ate at the orphanage. The biggest obstacle that we've faced is that she has bonded with Sue, but is a bit leery of me. In general, she seems to avoid contact with males and will create attachments with the Sue, Quinn, and Regan. Her caregivers at the orphanage were all women with one male doctor. We suspect that her experiences with the doctor weren't always under the best of circumstances. We decided that it is important that she initially bond with Sue and that we'll be patient and she'll decide that I'm not too bad after all. Tonight she finally let me get her out of her crib and comfort her. This was quite a breakthrough!
We did some shopping today as Echo ran the visa paperwork between the consulate and other various offices. I started talking to one of the vendors and she and her sister were from the same province as Fiona and are familiar with the Ping Po village where Fiona was born. They provided quite a bit of insight into where she was born and her heritage. The village is quite small and poor and is situated in the mountains. They looked at her and thought that based upon her features that it is likely that she is of Zhuang heritage which is an ethnic minority group in the Guangxi region where Ping Po is located. This group is well known for their embroidery skills. If this holds true, Fiona may be the first one in the family that can sew! The most common name in the Zhaung group is Wei. They also indicated that her village had a population of about 30,000 people and that most of the younger people leave the village to go find work. The main occupations in Ping Po are farming rice or doing embroidery work. The rice farms are mainly on terraces in the mountainside. We did a bit of googling tonight and found some pictures of her village which are quite fascinating.
I also included some pictures of our room, the lounge, and lobby at the Holiday Inn Shifu where we are staying. (There isn't any funny smells in the lobby as we've heard may have existed in the past.) We have been extremely happy with the hotel and the accommodations have been outstanding. There are quite a few streets with vendors right outside of the hotel. The streets range from very modern with lots of neon and lights and upscale shops and vendors to others which contain quite "rustic" and traditional shops more geared for the older Chinese culture. We find that both are extremely interesting and fun to wander through. I included some pictures from one of the vendors by the hotel with Chinese fast food -- fried squid tentacles and snake skewers. We went a little more Western tonight and ordered cheese pizza from Papa John's!
During our downtime yesterday we went to the Guangzhou Zoo with a few other LifeLink families. We had a great time and got to see a Panda! The zoo wasn't crowded and the weather was perfect. Today we had some more free time where we walked to the local jade and pearl market. We were able to use some of our bartering skills that we've honed while dealing with our "good friend" Helen to wrap up some good deals.
Tomorrow is our last day here in China. We'll be packing in the morning and going to the Visa Ceremony in the afternoon. We are anxious to get home, but we are also sad to leave here. Guangzhou has been an enjoyable and a wonderful place to stay. We've been building up for this trip for years and it is sad to think that the end is coming soon. We are also sad to think that we are taking Fiona away from her homeland and culture. Her future is certainly brighter where she is going and in many ways she is very fortunate. One day we hope to bring her back to China so she can get a sense of where she came from.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Easter With Fiona
Happy Easter from China!
We had a wonderful Easter today, even though it didn't seem much like Easter in Guangzhou. The hotel did put out an Easter display that consisted of an angry looking Easter Bunny sitting on top of what looks like a dog house surrounded by Easter eggs mixed in with pumpkins on a bed of straw. The display can be used for Easter as well as Halloween in a pinch. The gesture by the hotel was nice and appreciated.
Patrick has found a new talent. He has discovered how to use the cappuccino machines and make a mean cappuccino. The hotel has these cappuccino machines without instructions in the lounge and restaurant that have a dozen buttons, steamers, and nozzles all used to produce a cappuccino. Patrick had a lesson from Jenny (we are now on a first name basis with the servers in the lounge where you get the free food) and he has honed his skills to a fine art. He had a crowd gathered around him in the hotel restaurant this morning as he practiced his new found skills and brewed up some of the finest cappuccinos in all of Asia. We think that there may be a summer job at Starbucks in store for him this summer.
The first part of today was spent shopping at the local markets. We met up with another LifeLink family from Rockford, IL who arrived in Guangzho yesterday as well. We all ventured out to the local shops and had a great time. There are some great deals to be had. The bartering with the vendors is the most fun. The rule of thumb is that you should end up at about half of the original asking price. You negotiate with the vendors using a calculator where they type in their price and then you type in yours. After buying a half of the inventory from one particularly crafty vendor named Helen, she proclaimed that we are now "good friends." It was quite an experience.
We went to mass today to celebrate Easter. There were actually three other LifeLink families here at the hotel that are Catholic and we all went to mass together. We expected that an English speaking Catholic service in China wouldn't be too crowded. We were completely mistaken. There were literally people packed around the outside the church entrances listening to the mass because they couldn't get in. We didn't get there soon enough so we were outside with the crowds as well. The Bishop for Southern China was at the church and we went and had all of our newly adopted kids blessed by him.
After mass, we went and had a Chinese dinner at a nice restaurant in the hotel. We decided to be adventurous and give some new things a try. Patrick tried to order the steamed snow frogs, but they were out unfortunately. We did have fried eel and seafood "surprise" that had a few parts and pieces of unidentified ocean dwelling creatures. It was surprisingly good and we decided not to ask what all was in there. After I launched a shrimp across the table with my chopsticks, the waitresses brought out silverware. We stuck to our guns and used the chopsticks all the way through.
Fiona is cutting some new teeth. With her cleft palette, it is interesting to see where these new teeth come in. We decided that we're going to go ahead and start making payments now to the orthodontist. He'll probably be able to retire after he is through with us. We told Patrick that he had to be careful with the brackets on his braces so that we could hand them down to Fiona when she's ready for them. We'll need some way to cut expenses. Other than the new teeth, she is doing fine. Every day she becomes more comfortable with us and shows us another side of her personality. It seems as though she has been part of the family all along. Tomorrow Sue and Fiona go for Fiona's medical exam. The exam is part of the immigration process and is required for all of the newly adopted kids. After that is complete, we may have to go see Helen again since she promised to restock her inventory by tomorrow for her good friends.
We had a wonderful Easter today, even though it didn't seem much like Easter in Guangzhou. The hotel did put out an Easter display that consisted of an angry looking Easter Bunny sitting on top of what looks like a dog house surrounded by Easter eggs mixed in with pumpkins on a bed of straw. The display can be used for Easter as well as Halloween in a pinch. The gesture by the hotel was nice and appreciated.
Patrick has found a new talent. He has discovered how to use the cappuccino machines and make a mean cappuccino. The hotel has these cappuccino machines without instructions in the lounge and restaurant that have a dozen buttons, steamers, and nozzles all used to produce a cappuccino. Patrick had a lesson from Jenny (we are now on a first name basis with the servers in the lounge where you get the free food) and he has honed his skills to a fine art. He had a crowd gathered around him in the hotel restaurant this morning as he practiced his new found skills and brewed up some of the finest cappuccinos in all of Asia. We think that there may be a summer job at Starbucks in store for him this summer.
The first part of today was spent shopping at the local markets. We met up with another LifeLink family from Rockford, IL who arrived in Guangzho yesterday as well. We all ventured out to the local shops and had a great time. There are some great deals to be had. The bartering with the vendors is the most fun. The rule of thumb is that you should end up at about half of the original asking price. You negotiate with the vendors using a calculator where they type in their price and then you type in yours. After buying a half of the inventory from one particularly crafty vendor named Helen, she proclaimed that we are now "good friends." It was quite an experience.
We went to mass today to celebrate Easter. There were actually three other LifeLink families here at the hotel that are Catholic and we all went to mass together. We expected that an English speaking Catholic service in China wouldn't be too crowded. We were completely mistaken. There were literally people packed around the outside the church entrances listening to the mass because they couldn't get in. We didn't get there soon enough so we were outside with the crowds as well. The Bishop for Southern China was at the church and we went and had all of our newly adopted kids blessed by him.
After mass, we went and had a Chinese dinner at a nice restaurant in the hotel. We decided to be adventurous and give some new things a try. Patrick tried to order the steamed snow frogs, but they were out unfortunately. We did have fried eel and seafood "surprise" that had a few parts and pieces of unidentified ocean dwelling creatures. It was surprisingly good and we decided not to ask what all was in there. After I launched a shrimp across the table with my chopsticks, the waitresses brought out silverware. We stuck to our guns and used the chopsticks all the way through.
Fiona is cutting some new teeth. With her cleft palette, it is interesting to see where these new teeth come in. We decided that we're going to go ahead and start making payments now to the orthodontist. He'll probably be able to retire after he is through with us. We told Patrick that he had to be careful with the brackets on his braces so that we could hand them down to Fiona when she's ready for them. We'll need some way to cut expenses. Other than the new teeth, she is doing fine. Every day she becomes more comfortable with us and shows us another side of her personality. It seems as though she has been part of the family all along. Tomorrow Sue and Fiona go for Fiona's medical exam. The exam is part of the immigration process and is required for all of the newly adopted kids. After that is complete, we may have to go see Helen again since she promised to restock her inventory by tomorrow for her good friends.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Last Day in Nanning
Sorry we missed posting yesterday. We left Nanning and flew to Guangzhou and it was no easy task getting all of us packed, transported, and unpacked. I will say that being in Gunagzhou is like a breath of fresh air; the hotel is wonderful and the city is much more up and coming than Nanning.
Most of the other American families left Nanning on Friday. We stayed until Saturday. We didn't get Fiona's passport until late Friday afternoon when it was ready. The last flight out of Nanning was 6:00 PM so Echo recommended we stay in Nanning the extra day to avoid the stress of rushing to the airport if there were delays with the passport.
We spent Friday morning going to a park in Nanning. It was a beautiful park with temples that we visited -- there were even a couple of wandering monks sprinkled in. Friday was apparently field trip day at the park because there were all sorts of grade school kids on field trips there. Patrick, Quinn, and Regan were treated like rock stars. Everywhere they went, they were greeted with a chorus of "Hello" from all of these kids. We were probably the first Americans that many of them have ever seen and we were quite the sight. It reached the highpoint when we were driving these little boats around the lake and a number of classes spied the kids out on the boats and ran to the shoreline. They literally surrounded half of the lake and waved and shouted "Hello!" Regan and Quinn were also the subjects of a number of "photo shoots" with the local people as well. We told the kids that they better enjoy it now!
We get mixed responses from people with Fiona. We have many Chinese people come up to us and thank us for adopting Fiona and say that she is a lucky girl. There are many others who don't understand why we would adopt her and find her cleft lip and palette to be a curiosity. They also don't know that it all can be repaired. We get a lot of people pointing at us and Fiona and making comments to themselves. Some of the Chinese can be rather rude and intrusive. We just politely smile and move on. The majority of the people are supportive. We just have to realize that an American family with a Chinese baby is a rather unusual sight for many of the Chinese people and we don't let it bother us.
Fiona had her first flight yesterday from Nanning to Guangzhou. We flew on China Southern Air. I didn't think it was possible, but the seats are even closer together than the airplanes in the US. Fiona did pretty well on the flight, but was a bit fussy. We aren't looking forward to the 20 hour flight back home. We are anxious to get home, though.
As I mentioned before, Guangzhou is a much nicer place than Nanning. Although we were staying at the Majestic in Nanning which is supposed to be one of the nicest hotels in Nanning, we were getting tired of it. Things are much nicer and cleaner here in Guangzhou. We are staying at the Holiday Inn Shifu which is right in the heart of Guangzhou. It is not a typical Holiday Inn. It is a new hotel and we have rooms in the Executive level. The rooms are spacious and as nice as any five star hotel in the states. There is a 24 hour lounge on this level that has free soft drinks and food all of the time. The kids are already on a first name basis with the waitresses! We suspect that they will be posting a sign by the end of our stay here that indicates that "This is not an all-you-can-eat buffet." There are also a number of American restaurants just outside of the hotel including KFC, McDonalds, and Papa Johns if we get tired of the Chinese cuisine.
Today is Easter Sunday. Echo found an English speaking Catholic church in Guangzhou so we are going to go to mass this afternoon. The Easter Bunny didn't make it all of the way to China, but we're hoping he made it to our house back home. He probably avoids making too many stops over here otherwise he may end up on the menu!
We'll post again later to let everyone know how our first day in Guangzhou went.
Most of the other American families left Nanning on Friday. We stayed until Saturday. We didn't get Fiona's passport until late Friday afternoon when it was ready. The last flight out of Nanning was 6:00 PM so Echo recommended we stay in Nanning the extra day to avoid the stress of rushing to the airport if there were delays with the passport.
We spent Friday morning going to a park in Nanning. It was a beautiful park with temples that we visited -- there were even a couple of wandering monks sprinkled in. Friday was apparently field trip day at the park because there were all sorts of grade school kids on field trips there. Patrick, Quinn, and Regan were treated like rock stars. Everywhere they went, they were greeted with a chorus of "Hello" from all of these kids. We were probably the first Americans that many of them have ever seen and we were quite the sight. It reached the highpoint when we were driving these little boats around the lake and a number of classes spied the kids out on the boats and ran to the shoreline. They literally surrounded half of the lake and waved and shouted "Hello!" Regan and Quinn were also the subjects of a number of "photo shoots" with the local people as well. We told the kids that they better enjoy it now!
We get mixed responses from people with Fiona. We have many Chinese people come up to us and thank us for adopting Fiona and say that she is a lucky girl. There are many others who don't understand why we would adopt her and find her cleft lip and palette to be a curiosity. They also don't know that it all can be repaired. We get a lot of people pointing at us and Fiona and making comments to themselves. Some of the Chinese can be rather rude and intrusive. We just politely smile and move on. The majority of the people are supportive. We just have to realize that an American family with a Chinese baby is a rather unusual sight for many of the Chinese people and we don't let it bother us.
Fiona had her first flight yesterday from Nanning to Guangzhou. We flew on China Southern Air. I didn't think it was possible, but the seats are even closer together than the airplanes in the US. Fiona did pretty well on the flight, but was a bit fussy. We aren't looking forward to the 20 hour flight back home. We are anxious to get home, though.
As I mentioned before, Guangzhou is a much nicer place than Nanning. Although we were staying at the Majestic in Nanning which is supposed to be one of the nicest hotels in Nanning, we were getting tired of it. Things are much nicer and cleaner here in Guangzhou. We are staying at the Holiday Inn Shifu which is right in the heart of Guangzhou. It is not a typical Holiday Inn. It is a new hotel and we have rooms in the Executive level. The rooms are spacious and as nice as any five star hotel in the states. There is a 24 hour lounge on this level that has free soft drinks and food all of the time. The kids are already on a first name basis with the waitresses! We suspect that they will be posting a sign by the end of our stay here that indicates that "This is not an all-you-can-eat buffet." There are also a number of American restaurants just outside of the hotel including KFC, McDonalds, and Papa Johns if we get tired of the Chinese cuisine.
Today is Easter Sunday. Echo found an English speaking Catholic church in Guangzhou so we are going to go to mass this afternoon. The Easter Bunny didn't make it all of the way to China, but we're hoping he made it to our house back home. He probably avoids making too many stops over here otherwise he may end up on the menu!
We'll post again later to let everyone know how our first day in Guangzhou went.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Trip to the Mountains with Fiona
Today was our second day with a lot of free time to take in the sights. Echo had to run some paperwork between government agencies. Other than that, we had some time to make it out into the countryside to do some sightseeing.
Fiona is doing extremely well and is getting used to us and feeling like part of the family. She has started singing and we don't know if it is in Chinese or if it is in her own language. She has also started walking 6 or 7 steps at a time. It is amazing to watch her progress so quickly. The additional attention and stimulus from the environment is doing wonders for her. The trips with the family to various places are really helping her as well.
The big trip for today was to head to the mountains and see the Yiling Cave which is supposed to be one of the 10 largest caves in the world. The cave is situated about an hour from Nanning in a very rural area. It is like stepping back in time with farmers in rice fields with their oxen and small villages literally made from bamboo. We couldn't help but think that these villages must be similar to where Fiona was born. The mountains are beautiful and unlike any mountains we've ever seen before. They are giant rocks jutting out of the earth with a canopy of jungle covering them.
As part of the cave tour, we had a guide take us through traditional buildings and temples with performers dressed in ceremonial garments performing various songs and dances and rituals. We also had to participate by singing, doing a bamboo pole dance, and drinking rice wine. It was a great chance to see the historical life of rural China.
One of the most interesting encounters of the day was with the monkeys that make the hills their home. We purchased bags of small fruits from ladies selling them along the road to feed to the monkeys. After we had purchased the fruit, the lady started calling the monkeys and they came bursting out of the hillside. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by these little guys and one of them decided that he wouldn't mind having a whole bag. He went up Patrick's leg, grabbed his arm and started fighting for the bag. As usual, Echo came to the rescue and sparred with the monkey until it gave up and fled. Echo has many talents! After feeding the monkeys, we went and had lunch at an old amphitheatre outside the cave. The monkeys returned and we had to take turns fending them off as we tried to eat our lunch.
Tomorrow is our last day in Nanning. We are heading back to the mountains to do some more sightseeing in the morning and then getting Fiona's passport in the afternoon. Nanning has been nice, but we are ready to leave. We'll be flying from Nanning to Guangzhou on Saturday where we'll begin the immigration process for Fiona.
Fiona is doing extremely well and is getting used to us and feeling like part of the family. She has started singing and we don't know if it is in Chinese or if it is in her own language. She has also started walking 6 or 7 steps at a time. It is amazing to watch her progress so quickly. The additional attention and stimulus from the environment is doing wonders for her. The trips with the family to various places are really helping her as well.
The big trip for today was to head to the mountains and see the Yiling Cave which is supposed to be one of the 10 largest caves in the world. The cave is situated about an hour from Nanning in a very rural area. It is like stepping back in time with farmers in rice fields with their oxen and small villages literally made from bamboo. We couldn't help but think that these villages must be similar to where Fiona was born. The mountains are beautiful and unlike any mountains we've ever seen before. They are giant rocks jutting out of the earth with a canopy of jungle covering them.
As part of the cave tour, we had a guide take us through traditional buildings and temples with performers dressed in ceremonial garments performing various songs and dances and rituals. We also had to participate by singing, doing a bamboo pole dance, and drinking rice wine. It was a great chance to see the historical life of rural China.
One of the most interesting encounters of the day was with the monkeys that make the hills their home. We purchased bags of small fruits from ladies selling them along the road to feed to the monkeys. After we had purchased the fruit, the lady started calling the monkeys and they came bursting out of the hillside. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by these little guys and one of them decided that he wouldn't mind having a whole bag. He went up Patrick's leg, grabbed his arm and started fighting for the bag. As usual, Echo came to the rescue and sparred with the monkey until it gave up and fled. Echo has many talents! After feeding the monkeys, we went and had lunch at an old amphitheatre outside the cave. The monkeys returned and we had to take turns fending them off as we tried to eat our lunch.
Tomorrow is our last day in Nanning. We are heading back to the mountains to do some more sightseeing in the morning and then getting Fiona's passport in the afternoon. Nanning has been nice, but we are ready to leave. We'll be flying from Nanning to Guangzhou on Saturday where we'll begin the immigration process for Fiona.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Day 2 With Fiona
We've had another great day with Fiona. Sue ventured out with Fiona and Echo this morning and did some shopping. It is great to have Echo on this trip. She translates for us and keeps us out of harm's way. She is the Chinese ISS worker that is assigned to us and spends her time either helping us out or navigating the way through the maze of paperwork and government bureaus here in China.
Nanning is a much more traditional Chinese city than Beijing. The hotel staff does speak some English, but it is rough at best. Outside of the hotel, English speaking people are few and far between. For example, we ordered prawns for dinner tonight and got fried rice with pork (we think). We're not sure quite how that happened; and this was in the hotel with the English speaking staff. It is always an adventure to call the front desk and ask them a question. Their motto is "when confused, have another person talk to them." Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 staff members to piece together what we're asking. If we really have a problem, we can always count on Echo to come to the rescue. You can only imagine how many staff members it took for us to get a 110 volt electrical transformer with a three prong adapter for our laptop (this was in done before Echo had arrived).
There are a number of families staying in the hotel who are adopting. We were the first to check into the hotel. We seemed to have come a day earlier than the rest. The other families all showed up Sunday and we met them down in the hotel restaurant on Monday morning before we all went to the Civil Affairs Office for the adoption ceremonies. We decided that the hotel restaurant staff must wonder what in the world is going on when all of a sudden all of these American families are in the hotel one day and then the next day they come back with Chinese kids in tow. It is nice in the mornings to catch up with the other families and talk to them. Fortunately, the hotel is pretty kid friendly and they cater to adoptive families. They even have a section in the gift shop that carries all sorts of supplies such as formula, bottles, clothes, etc. That store carries pretty much everything we need and is unbelievably cheap.
The big event for today was a trip to the Nanning zoo. It was a gorgeous zoo with very few people. Fiona had her first experience with a stroller and being out and about with her new family. She went right along with it and had a great time. Everything is so new to her. She tends to like to take things and keep them with her. By the time we were done at the zoo, she had 3 water bottles, a camera bag, 4 toys, and 2 maps all nicely tucked around her in the stroller.
The zoo also had a lake that had an attraction that we'd never seen before. You could basically rent a clear rubber bubble and go inside and maneuver it across the lake. Patrick, Quinn, and Regan gave this a try and had a blast. You could also rent these motorized inner tubes with seats and drive all over the lake. It was a nice afternoon at the zoo.
Tomorrow we are planning on going to some caves out in the country. We are looking forward to seeing the countryside around here. It seems to be mountainous with a tropical jungle like climate. We also saw a lot of rice fields in the flat lands when we flew in. We will have Echo leading the way.
To wrap up this post, here are a few items from the local restaurant menu that are rather intriguing. I don't think we'll be adventurous enough to give these a try.
Nanning is a much more traditional Chinese city than Beijing. The hotel staff does speak some English, but it is rough at best. Outside of the hotel, English speaking people are few and far between. For example, we ordered prawns for dinner tonight and got fried rice with pork (we think). We're not sure quite how that happened; and this was in the hotel with the English speaking staff. It is always an adventure to call the front desk and ask them a question. Their motto is "when confused, have another person talk to them." Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 staff members to piece together what we're asking. If we really have a problem, we can always count on Echo to come to the rescue. You can only imagine how many staff members it took for us to get a 110 volt electrical transformer with a three prong adapter for our laptop (this was in done before Echo had arrived).
There are a number of families staying in the hotel who are adopting. We were the first to check into the hotel. We seemed to have come a day earlier than the rest. The other families all showed up Sunday and we met them down in the hotel restaurant on Monday morning before we all went to the Civil Affairs Office for the adoption ceremonies. We decided that the hotel restaurant staff must wonder what in the world is going on when all of a sudden all of these American families are in the hotel one day and then the next day they come back with Chinese kids in tow. It is nice in the mornings to catch up with the other families and talk to them. Fortunately, the hotel is pretty kid friendly and they cater to adoptive families. They even have a section in the gift shop that carries all sorts of supplies such as formula, bottles, clothes, etc. That store carries pretty much everything we need and is unbelievably cheap.
The big event for today was a trip to the Nanning zoo. It was a gorgeous zoo with very few people. Fiona had her first experience with a stroller and being out and about with her new family. She went right along with it and had a great time. Everything is so new to her. She tends to like to take things and keep them with her. By the time we were done at the zoo, she had 3 water bottles, a camera bag, 4 toys, and 2 maps all nicely tucked around her in the stroller.
The zoo also had a lake that had an attraction that we'd never seen before. You could basically rent a clear rubber bubble and go inside and maneuver it across the lake. Patrick, Quinn, and Regan gave this a try and had a blast. You could also rent these motorized inner tubes with seats and drive all over the lake. It was a nice afternoon at the zoo.
Tomorrow we are planning on going to some caves out in the country. We are looking forward to seeing the countryside around here. It seems to be mountainous with a tropical jungle like climate. We also saw a lot of rice fields in the flat lands when we flew in. We will have Echo leading the way.
To wrap up this post, here are a few items from the local restaurant menu that are rather intriguing. I don't think we'll be adventurous enough to give these a try.
- stewed shark's fin with chicken and sea cucumber
- cabbage with salted pig fore shank
- boiled fish lips with leaf mustard
- deep fried spring pigeon
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