BEIJING, China (Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008, 6:55 a.m.) – Pam and I decided from the start of our second Chinese adoption that we wanted to prepare for this in the same way we did for Camryn’s adoption.
That meant arriving in Beijing a few days before our orientation meeting with Holt International Children’s Services staffers – giving us time to overcome jet lag and also allow us to experience as much local culture as possible.
We continue to battle jet lag, which, I believe, is worse than it was in March and April 2006. But we have tried hard to brave the cold weather to take in the sights and sounds that make up this sprawling city.
So, once again, I offer a few random thoughts and observations about our trip.
Language barrier
Pam and I hopped into a taxi Thursday outside the Carrefour grocery and department store in Beijing and showed our driver a card we had from our hotel with a request in Chinese to take us to the Lama Temple.
The driver, who I guess was in his late 60s, smiled, nodded his head, spoke Mandarin and indicated he understood. Then he sped off, dodging cars, bikes and pedestrians along the way to the Lama Temple.
That’s when I decided to try my hand at simple Mandarin: “Do you speak English?” I asked. “A little,” he said in Mandarin with a smile as he turned his head and gazed briefly at me in the back seat.
“I speak a little Mandarin, but not very well,” I told him in one of the few polished sentences in which I sound like an authentic, accented speaker of the language.
Our driver smiled and spoke. And we quickly hit a dead end.
I didn’t understand the driver and he didn’t understand me. I stammered. I fumbled for words. I tried to find something in English he knew. Nothing worked.
Then Pam and I arrived outside the temple and the driver pointed to the fare.
I opened my wallet and paid with crisp, new Chinese Yuan. Then our driver held his finger up and motioned me to wait before I hopped out with my wife.
He flashed a wide grin, nodded his head up-and-down, spoke clear, plain and in halting English: “Welcome to China.”
Neighboring rivals
As I placed fresh fruit on my plate at the Novotel Peace Hotel breakfast buffet on Friday, a lady saw my Ole Miss sweat shirt and immediately stopped me.
“Ole Miss,” she said, with a laugh. “You beat us. I’m from Little Rock here for an adoption. And you all beat us.”
“Yeah, with your old coach,” I said and returned the laugh, referring, of course, to Ole Miss Coach Houston Nutt – who led our football team to an 8-4 record and a bowl appearance.
The Arkansas resident, whose name I didn’t get because I was holding a plate in one hand and juice in another (plus, I had no notebook anyway), was beginning her adoption trip in Beijing before heading Nanchang.
Her daughter is a Jiangxi child, the same province Camryn is from. They will stay in the Gloria Plaza Hotel, where Pam and I stayed in April 2006 when we adopted Camryn.
We likely will meet up with the family in Guangzhou, where all Americans adopting children must go to finalize the American part of the adoption and get the necessary visa so their children can enter the United States.
Friday dinner
We returned Friday night to the Xiu Lan Restaurant two doors down from our hotel, where Pam and I dined quietly among locals in a small, quaint restaurant that serves good food at a great price.
For 118 Yuan, or about $17.35, Pam and I ate sweet and sour chicken (which also had a spicy touch to it), an order of fried rice and sesame seed balls. Just like our experiences in 2006, the wait staff brought our dishes one at a time rather than together.
The food was generous, filling and good. With just one person at the restaurant speaking semi-fluent English, it helped immensely that the menus had photos of the dishes we wanted to order. A nice touch.
The restaurant was decorated for Christmas, with paper bells hanging from the ceiling and a small table-top Christmas tree. At the entrance, a statute of the Buddha sat atop a table with burning incense sticks in front.
Christmas music filled the room – much like it did when we visited Wal-Mart (“Frosty the Snowman” and “Silent Night” played on the store’s sound system) and a huge, seven-story mall near our hotel (“Winter Wonderland” played there among others).
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
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