5 star room service

Greetings from Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. ZhuZhu has her wings! We had a successful flight after roughly a 1/2 hour delay. Several of the other families we met while in Nanning were on the same flight with us to Guangzhou, and many are staying here at the White Swan. ZhuZhu did great for the first half of the the flight. It was only about an hour long, so not much time to get antsy. She wanted to get out of the seat belt about 45 minutes into the flight, but we were able to convince here this was not a good idea by showing her the "fasten seat belt sign". She did have a hard time with the decent, or maybe she was just tired. We gave here a sucker for the departure, but with the short flight length didn't give her another for the decent. Anyway, we ended up waiting to be last off the plane to give her some time to settle down. Nothing major, just some tears.

ZhuZhu ended up falling asleep on the way to the hotel, so maybe her mood was more related to being tired and hungry than issues with the plane ride. We will see when we fly next week if planes are the problem! We rode to the hotel with one of the travel group families, Steve and Christine. It was like hooking up with life long friends when we saw them. We had so much to talk about, sharing our experiences. I also ran into a few others from the travel group as I snooped around the hotel looking for something to eat.

Now to explain the title of this post. When we arrived, we were very hungry. It had been about 9 hours since we had eaten. Our plan was to eat at the airport in Nanning, but there wasn't really anything to eat once you got through security. We said, "why not get room service?" I'll tell you why, a hamburger and a coke would have cost 188 RMB plus a 15% service charge. For those unfamiliar with the exchange rate, this equals about $31.80. Yes, I did the math right and that is only for one. If we both wanted to eat our own, it would have been over $60. Getting hot dogs would have saved us about $3.00! Needless to say I went on a snack mission but it was too late and all the shops in the hotel were closed. We had crackers, granola bars, and water; nice Chinese meal.

This morning was great fun getting to see most all of the travel group again with their new additions. Each child is so darling. I think awesome is an over used word, but I have to admit it is truly awesome to see how much love all of these families have to share with their newest members. There are MANY adoptive families here, most with infants (11-15 months) from all parts of the world. The entire area we are in (Shamian Island) caters to the adoptive community.

ZhuZhu had to test us a few times today to see where the boundaries are. She did not want to put on her dress - the dress we had been trying to get her into all week. We did finally manage and she went to breakfast pouting. She perked up when she saw all the babies. We met the group at 10am and walked a few blocks to have ZhuZhu's photo taken for her visa application and then around the corner for the medical exam. It cracked us up to see the signs in the medical clinic "Quiet, Please". There were probably 20-25 children plus parents and other family member in this quite small office. Plus, there was a lot of crying. ZhuZhu was great in all the exam rooms.

Had lunch at Lucy's - a small restaurant with Western style food. ZhuZhu wanted french fries - again. We'll start the nutritional program at home and make sure we have the waitress tell her next time that they are out of french fries (we did that in Nanning). Vince took care of paperwork this afternoon and the girls went shopping. ZhuZhu needed shoes! Really, she did! Found a pair of squeaky sandals that fit her (most of the items here are for the infants - there is not very much for toddlers or older children unless you are looking for the traditional dress). Some time since then, she has removed the squeakers and tossed them somewhere - the little stinker! The squeakers are actually cute at first, but get to be quite annoying.

After dinner, we went to the toy room here at the White Swan. It has just been renovated and is a great room for the kids to blow off some steam. ZhuZhu went right for the Duplos! Keegan, better put your Legos on a higher shelf or just get used to some new designs created by your sister!

Played with Bao Bao, also. His parents, Janet and Kevin, were our "neighbors" in Beijing and are right down the hall here. I don't know if dinner ever got on the table - too many cooks in the kitchen!

ZhuZhu got her first dose of neon tonight, as we ventured out of the hotel to check out the night scenery. The White Swan sits right on the Pearl river. The photo shows one of the hotels on the other side of the river.