The Big Day approaches

Thursday, March 30, 10:22 a.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

BEIJING – This is just a reminder to everyone reading this Blog: The reason Pam and I flew halfway around the world will happen in just four short days in the city of Nanchang in Jiangxi Province.
Sometime that afternoon we will meet our daughter for the first time, take her in our arms and welcome her into our family.
We'll have paperwork and meetings to do the rest of the day and through much of next week. And we'll fly to Guangzhou to the United States consulate the final week to complete the baby's travel requirements.
But for all practical purposes, we'll have Cao Ai Hua beginning Monday.
Now, for everyone wondering about the time factor, I'll try to help. So pay close attention.
Normally, China is 14 hours ahead of Mississippi, Louisiana and all other states and cities in the Central time zone. With Daylight Savings Time kicking in this weekend, you'll jump ahead an hour beginning Sunday. So, that means China will be 13 hours ahead.
Here's the deal: We plan to leave Beijing on Monday, April 3, 2006, at around noon local time. Translate that into Central time, and we will leave Beijing at about 11 p.m. Sunday night. That, therefore, has us getting Cao Ai Hua sometime in the middle of the night for you (early Monday morning) but late Monday afternoon for us.
Got it?
Let's try again: We leave Beijing around noon Monday (about 11 p.m. Sunday in Hattiesburg). We'll get Cao Ai Hua on Monday afternoon shortly after we arrive at our hotel in Nanchang (early Monday morning in Hattiesburg). We'll try to update our Blog with photos Monday night (late Monday morning for you).

Families arrive

We've been meeting several families from Holt International Children's Services as they arrive in town for their own adoption. Some are adopting their first child, just like us; others are adding to their own family of adopted children.
Either way, they all feel the same way we do – that this is what God has led us to do. We couldn't have children naturally, so we believe after much thought and prayer that this is what God wants us to do: Help children who otherwise would be left parentless.

Welcome arms

The Chinese people are some of the happiest and friendliest people Pam and I have met on our travels.
They are extremely helpful. And they seem thrilled when we try to speak the limited amount of Mandarin that Pam and I know.
We have been using the Pimsleur method of learning a foreign language, a compact disc course that stresses conversational Mandarin and trashes workbooks and reference books. Lessons are 30 minutes long and come two to a disc.
As you learn words and phrases and repeat them over and over, you actually walk away with an pretty good Chinese accent. Then when you repeat some phrases, your speech is so good the Chinese people think you are fluent and start chattering away to your complete dismay.
It happened that way in Mexico after we used the same method for Spanish. And like the Mexicans we met in Cancun, Cozumel and Nuevo Laredo, the Chinese seem to love that you actually have enough respect for their culture that you took time to try to speak their native language.

Copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino

More photos from China

Thursday, March 30, 7:05 a.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

BEIJING – Good morning. It'sThursday morning here.
Ever try finding an English language newspaper in an Asian country? Well, it's difficult at best. And what's available has news I'm not particularly interested in. I could try the Internet, but the connection is slow and sometimes unreliable. I can't even rely on CNN because we get CNN International.
Oh well, such is life.
Here are a couple of extra photos I thought I'd post.


PHOTO 1
Here is a shot of our room at the Kunlun Hotel. As I said earlier, this is a nice hotel with good service and accommodations. Right now it is hosting some kind of business meeting/seminar with, I think, Polish and Chinese companies. I don't quite understand exactly what it is about.






PHOTO 2
Here is Pam outside the hotel. She liked the sign in Chinese. I did, too. Pam also thought it might make an interesting photo. I agreed.










Well, I've got to run. I'll check in a little later.


Text and photos copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino

Jet lag, shopping and photos, too

Wednesday, March 29, 2006, 10:05 p.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

BEIJING – It's amazing what a little jet lag will do.
Spend 24 hours in the air crossing a zillion time zones and the Intenational Date Line, then you'll probably wind up like us: drained, tired and not up to full speed. Pam seems to be taking it harder than me. But, to tell you the truth, I'm starting to feel it, too, tonight.
Now that I think about it, Holt International Children's Services was right when officials there suggested people consider leaving a few days earlier so we can be fully rested and over jet lag by the time we get our child. Besides Pam and me, a few other families took that advice and came here early.
As for the adoption, Pam and I still have a lot of work to do. I have to complete some additional paperwork (I thought I had finished last week before we left, but apparently I didn't) and Pam and I have to buy gifts for the orphanage staff when we met them and Cao Ai Hua on Monday in Nanchange.
I guess we'll go gift hunting on Thursday, possibly at the flea market across the steet from the hotel. The flea market is similar in many ways to the ones Pam and I visited in Cancun when we were there for a week about five years ago. Vendors can be pushy at these businesses,but they are still fun.
Not much else to report today, so I'll leave you with a few new photos we took Wednesday.


PHOTO 1
Here I am sitting at the table at the reastaurant in the Hotel Kunlun just after breakfast on Wednesday. This was an impressive meal that kind of reminded me – but on a much smaller scale – of Kalby's at the Hilton on Poydras Street in New Orleans.










PHOTO 2
Here is the scene just outside our hotel, the Kunlun Hotel. The construction cranes are common in Beijing as many new buildings are being built all over town as we speak. Ths is a growing city.











PHOTO 3
Pam stands outside our hotel, the Kunlun Hotel.


















Text and photos copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino

Always low prices – even in China

Wednesday, March 29, 4:02 p.m.

By Terry R. Cassreino

BEIJING – Hattiesburg has two, Jackson has two, Meridian has one.
We’ve visited them in nearly every place we’ve been including Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas – and even Mexico.
And now we can stand up and proudly say we’ve visited one in China.
What am I talking about? That sales giant that has re-written the book on how to be a major worldwide success in retailing, the company that has helped change the face of America and now has its sights set on the world.
Wal-Mart, of course.
Pam and I took a taxi from our Beijing hotel for a 45-minute drive darting in-and-out of bumper-to-bumper expressway traffic to spend a couple of hours exploring that ever growing monument to Sam Walton's business prowess.
And after stepping inside, the first thing that struck me was it looked exactly like the Wal-Mart in Hattiesburg not too far from our Lamar County house. Sure, the exterior is a little different with Chinese characters beneath the English name.
But just about everything else is the same, including large signs that hang from the ceiling proclaiming that Wal-Mart has the lowest price always. And the store also features the Great Values generic line of products.
There are, however, a few cultural differences – some of which seem, and are, obvious.

• American products dominate the shelves, from Nestle products to Budweiser imported beer. The only catch is that Chinese characters replace much of the English labels, giving them a strange, surreal look.
• Coca-Cola products don't dominate the soft drink shelves in Wal-Mart like they do in Hattiesburg, Jackson, New Orleans and other parts of the South. Coke shares a small but equal space with Pepsi products.
• While Coke's English names are replaced with Chinese characters, the company managed somehow to retain its trademark “wave swish” in its name. And the 12-ounce cans are a throw back to the 1970s with pull-tab pop-tops.
• Potato chips are the only snack chips you can find; don’t look for tortilla chips because you’ll be there forever. Lays even has flavors you can’t find in the United States such as Swiss cheese potato chips, beef potato chips and chicken potato chips.
• Rows and rows of ramen noodles line the shelves along with more brands of soy sauce then you thought existed. I thought La Choy was the biggest brand name; heck, you can't find any La Choy products here.
• Want really fresh seafood? You came to the right place because Wal-Mart has two rows of tanks filled with live fish, eels, lobsters and crabs swimming around ready for you to buy, scale, gut and cook at home.
• One display case had fresh shrimp sitting on piles of crushed ice. As I stood and watched, one shopper casually searched through the shrimp and hand-picked the perfect dozen for some dish I imagine she planned to cook that night.
• Piles of small baby octopus sat open in one bin waiting for shoppers to take them home for dinner; fresh fish sat on dislay atop ice much like they did when Pam and I visited the Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Cancun, Mexico, about five years ago.
  
• And don't forget about the roasted ducks. While Wal-Mart has found a niche in the United States selling roasted chikens for less than $5 each (or something like that), here they sell roasted duck complete with the neck and head (but no eyes) for about the same price.

While some visitors head for the commercial spots – which I'm sure Pam and I will do before we leave China – we also like to get a taste of local life, find out what people buy and eat on a daily basis, look at some of the items you can't buy back home.
We've found that fascinating whenever we traveled to Mexico, Roatan, Belize and Jamaica on cruises we’ve taken since we've been married. And even though it's easy to take jabs at Wal-Mart, its Beijing store nevertheless offers a different glimpse at Chinese life.
One thing is clear, though. As much as we complain in the United States about how we are losing our identity, our own brand-name products have a strong presence on shelves in China, Mexico, Belize, Roatan and other countries.
That also goes for American pop culture. Flip on the television in a Chinese hotel room and you likely will see the latest episode of such American TV hit series as “Alias,” “Lost” and even reality shows like “Fear Factor” and “The Amazing Race.”
As for Wal-Mart in China, the Beijing store won’t be the last one we visit.
Holt International Children's Services plans to take us to the Wal-Mart SuperCenter in Nanchang on Tuesday so we can buy supplies for our baby – and Pam and I more than likely will keep our eyes open for any interesting differences between that store and the one in Beijing.

Text and photos copyright 2006 by Terry R. Cassreino.