We’ve spent the last two days preparing for our departure. Everyone is anxious to head home. Aside from just being away too long, a number of us have battled stomach bugs and sinus infections during this last week. Today, there is packing to be done, last minute souviners to pick up and photos to snap. Along with the excitement about heading home, there is a sense of nostalgia for our time spent in China with our new friends.
We met yesterday for our final organized group activity at The White Swan Hotel, our “Red Couch Photo”. The red couch is a rite of passage for internationally adopted children, a way to memoralize and celebrate the important connection these kids share. Dressed in traditional Chinese attire, the kids are photographed together on the couch. Ours may not have been the most picture perfect red couch photo, since many of the kids including Liam wouldn’t stay on the couch, but it may be the cutest.
We’re packed and spent most of today strolling Shaiman Island and taking in the sites and sounds of this area one last time. We started out in The People’s Park on the Pearl River. As I mentioned before the Chinese gather in public spaces to hang out with friends, exercise, dance, and play games. On our walk we see more games of hacky sack than you can count. In China hacky sack is game played by all ages. There are lots of other folks ballroom dancing but to Chinese sounding music. Some are quite good and seem pleased we are photographing them. Additionally there are the typical groups of singers, mahjong enthusiasts, tai chi practitioners and variations of what looks like tai chi done with swords and badminton rackets.
As I mentioned before Shaiman Island, is like a little oasis, full of British Colonial architecture, tropical foliage, shady narrow streets and parks. Perhaps I should say it was an oasis before it began undergoing major construction. The Pan Asian Games will be held here in November and in what I imagine was 2008 Olympic style, the government has decided to give the city a complete and total facelift. In a quest for perfection they are resurfacing or refacing every street, sidewalk, and building, whether they need it or not. This wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy, except unlike us, safety obsessed litigious Americans, the Chinese do things a bit differently. Instead of ripping up a street and say leaving a sidewalk for pedestrians, they do the whole thing at once. Where we would close off the street and create a detour, the Chinese pedestrians walk right through the construction zone. Backhoes zip inches from your head, unknown objects fall from the bamboo scaffolding above. Chinese women in heels walk gingerly through minefields of ankle snapping holes. In their favor, their methods seem rather efficient. Unlike certain US highways, which seem to perennially be under construction, the Chinese actually seem to get stuff done.
Anyway, after the park, we make our way through the construction and cross the bridge to Guangzhou City. We walk through Qing Ping Market which covers a number of city blocks and is one of China’s largest and most famous markets. This is the China you might imagine. Stall after stall of dried everything including herbs, meats, fish and live animals. The highlight is probably the baskets of live scorpions that are being picked up with chopsticks, deposited into plastic bags and taken home by patrons for dinner. We also decide to stop in the pet section of the market for Liam. Today we made the unfortunate discovery that he is afraid of dogs. Yikes! All through the trip he loved saying, “hello doggie”, so who knew? Well today at Starbucks, yeah I said Starbucks, a cute itty-bitty dog stopped by to say hi and he lost it. So back at the Pet Market, we stop and look at the puppies. He won’t touch them, but he doesn’t cry and seems interested when we play with them. Baby steps!
We are headed out tonight for a final dinner of traditional Cantonese food, which promises to be interesting.
We leave tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM. Liam is still under the weather so, keep us in your thoughts and prayers for a safe and uneventful trip home.
Hi, it's me again. Liam, on my way to Catonsville.
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