Wonderful First Day

I'ts 8:30 pm in China right now on Thursday night.  We have had a wonderful first day here.  I'm going to try to put two photos on the blog.  One is our hotel taken from the street below, complete with two window washers.  One is the view from our room of Guangzhou Restaurant.   The breakfast was elaborate and delicious.  We walked to Shamian Island THREE times.  (For those of you who wonder about the walk to Shamian from Shifu Holiday Inn, it took us 10 minutes at the most, at a fast walk, without a child/stroller.  There is the large overpass you must go up with stairs, and with a stroller we would fold it and carry it and either carry Aaron or let him walk.)  I am SO GLAD we did not stay on the Island.  It's an absolute mess due to the construction for the Asian Games in November.  We found it very hard to navigate and it's noisy and a mess.  I feel awful for the shopkeepers who cater to adoptive families. We went to Jennifer's and found a stroller, and special gifts for Aaron to have as keepsakes from his home country (and a few things for Donovan).  We went to the bank and exchanged our money. I ate lunch in the room and Rupert went just outside of the hotel for congee for lunch.  We went back to Shamian again to pick up more things at Jennifers (the stroller, and they were making chops for both boys, and writing their names on decorative paper in Chinese).  Came back and the hotel staff had delivered fresh fruit (bananas, pears, apples, mangos) to our room :) We did take a short nap from 3-4, but otherwise seem to have no jet lag. Know it will be a different story when we go back to the U.S. and we are exhausted and have two boys on two different time schedules. When Rupert went to get congee, someone was handing out flyers for a new Hot Pot restaurant.  We went to check it out.  WOW! It's in a new shopping section that is being renovated.  VERY NICE, very clean, everything excellent.  Into our hot pot we put shrimp (about 15), thin slices of beef (about 12), bok choy (a big placeful), broccoli (a big plateful), tofu (like the size of an entire package in the U.S., Rupert ate all of it, none for me:) ), rice noodles, wheat noodles, and had two bottles of water...and it came to 51 yuans.  That is SEVEN U.S. DOLLARS!!!!!!! Unbelievable! We are absolutely going back  after we have Aaron!! Tonight we walked on the pedestrian street outside our hotel.  We walked up to Liwan Shopping Mall. WOW! Busy place on a Friday night.  Felt like Times Square in NYC, but no traffic around you.  We are definitely going to go back to that mall when we have more time. We have heard we will get Aaron on Monday, and our guide will meet us here at our hotel at 1:30.  SO EXCITED!! Tomorrow, if it is not raining, Rupert and I will take a taxi to White Cloud Mountain/Baiyun Mountain.  We can take a cable car up the mountain and there is a Buddhist Temple along the way.  Sunday our driver takes us to Lianhua Mountain/Lotus Mountain in Panyu.  We will go to the orphanage on Thursday the 15th.  I'm finding it hard to post to the blog via email, since I can't see the blog and am not sure if I've already told stuff in previous posts.  Oh well, I can edit it once I get home. I am also keeping a blog with my students and luckily that is not blocked by the Great Firewall of China :) Nicole