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.