** Adoption countdown: 2 days until Pam, Terry and Matthew return home **
GUANGZHOU, China (Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008, 11 a.m.) – I thought Shanghai food was supposed to be sweet.
Well, one dish Pam and I ordered at a restaurant that specialized in Shanghai food was very spicy. Good, but spicy despite what I thought was the waitress’ assurance it was mild.
The joy and challenge of communicating with people using broken, minimal, elementary Chinese; seemingly goofy sign language; and smiles. Sometimes it works, more often it doesn’t.
On Monday night, it worked to a degree.
Even though the shredded pork dish was spicy, it was very good – As was the chicken won ton soup (a huge bowl that would work as meal in itself), the fried rice and the fried dumplings.
Matthew, however, didn’t much care for it.
Instead, he was interested in throwing things to the floor – first his chop sticks, then my chop sticks, then Pam’s chop sticks, then a few crackers, then his sippy cup filled with watermelon juice and then some fried rice.
Smoking remains popular
Everyone smokes here – or it seems that way.
No matter where you go or eat, everyone smokes. And they don’t smoke a single cigarette now and then; many Chinese and foreign visitors chain smoke cigarette after cigarette after cigarette.
In Beijing, for example, one American family we met told us they could smell the heavy smokers who were staying in the room on the floor just below them. Smoke from cigarettes in the room below leaked into theirs.
On our final night at the same hotel, the Novotel Peace Hotel, I could have sworn I smelled cigarette smoke entering our room even though it was clearly designated a non-smoking room.
International and in-country flights are about the only place you won’t find smokers.
Chinese apartment buildings
One of the more interesting things you notice as you travel along the elevated roadways in Guangzhou is how close apartment buildings are to the street.
They are so close it looks like you could touch them from the window of your car. And the high-rise apartment buildings are all over the place – probably more popular than traditional homes in the United States.
Consulate appointment
We head to the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou for a swearing-in ceremony with Matthew. We will meet at the tour desk in the White Swan at 2:45 p.m. for a quick bus trip to the consulate.
After that, the next step is returning home.
We hoped to return Wednesday, Dec. 17. But our travel agent couldn’t get us a flight home until Thursday, Dec. 18 – probably because we pulled this trip together at the last minute.
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
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