A little about Mississippi, a little about Louisiana, a little about New Orleans and A LOT about our adoption story. This blog and our adoption story is dedicated to Camryn and Matthew Cassreino so that you both will know. Copyright 2021 by Terry R. Cassreino
GUANGZHOU, China (Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008, 10:45 a.m.) – With overnight temperatures in the low 60s and an afternoon in the upper 70s here in Guangzhou, it finally feels like home.
I know South Mississippi and Southeast Louisiana had a blast on winter weather while we’ve been gone, but Pam and I just aren’t used to sub-freezing weather every day like we experienced in Beijing and Zhengzhou.
I doubt I could ever live up north.
Today, I begin completing mounds of paperwork to obtain Matthew’s visa for entry in the United States. That task begins at 10 a.m. in a meeting at the Holt International Children’s Services office here at the White Swan.
After that, I’m not sure what we’ll do. We might take Matthew in town to shop for supplies. Or we might just stay around the hotel to relax after an emotional and stressful few days.
I know Pam and I are ready to come home now.
We love to travel, but are tired of living out of suitcases s long as we have and are ready for home-cooked meals. Plus, we need to get Matthew home and we STILL have to decorate the house for Christmas.
And did I mention Christmas shopping?
With the extremely short notice for this trip to China, Pam and I have had no time to do advance Christmas shopping to avoid the last-minute rush. We hope to do some shopping here in China.
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
GUANGZHOU, China (Friday, Dec. 12, 2008, 10:45 p.m.) – Whenever I stumbled on a new dish as a child and wanted to know what it was like – frog legs quickly comes to mind as a good example – I would hear “Oh, it tastes just like chicken.”
And for someone who loves chicken (I can eat chicken seven days a week), telling him that another dish tastes like chicken is more than faint praise.
So there we were, Pam, Matthew and I, sitting down for dinner at the Chinese restaurant about a block away from our room at the White Swan Hotel. We tried feverishly to communicate with a staff that spoke perfect Mandarin.
After a few minutes, the manager, who spoke perfect English, stopped by our table, handed us menus with large photos of every dish and listened as I placed our order.
“This is what we want,” I said, pointing to a full-color photo in the menu of roasted pigeon, priced at the equivalent of about $4 each. “We were here three years ago and loved the food. We want to try this.”
“OK,” the man said.
“So, what’s it taste like?” I asked.
The man looked confused.
“I mean, does it taste like chicken?” I asked
“No,” he said. “It tastes like pigeon.”
“I mean, does it taste like chicken? You know, like chicken? Or how about duck? Does it taste like duck?” Iasked.
“Um, it tastes like pigeon.”
“Oh,” I said, pausing as I decided whether to go forward and order pigeon. What the hell, I thought. “Well, we want two of those, one for me and one for my wife.”
We also ordered fried noodles with vegetables, steamed seasoned broccoli, a huge bowl of congee for Matthew and fried sweet potato balls. We learned later they were out of sweet potato balls, an indication they were popular (do they taste like chicken, I wondered). Dinner cost us less than $20.
A few minutes after I ordered, our first dish arrived: Two, piping hot, roasted pigeons. As soon as I pulled out my camera, the English-speaking manager suddenly appeared from nowhere. He looked puzzled as I snapped a photo of the roasted pigeons.
“Goofy Americans,” I muttered to him and smiled awkwardly.
Then Pam and I quickly took a bite, chewing away at a sweet-tasting meat that had the consistency of dark-meat chicken. I was a little greasy, a little fatty and full of bones.
And no: It didn’t taste likechicken. It tasted exactly like pigeon.
Matthew had nothing to do with the roasted pigeon. Our son was a combination of wired and tired after a full day of traveling from Zhengzhou.
He was more interested in screaming as loudly as possible (in an otherwise quiet restaurant), playing with his chopsticks and throwing things on the floor. Once Pam and I finished our roasted pigeons, Matthew, of course, wanted to play with the pigeon heads.
Matthew’s protests didn’t last, though, because we politely paid our bill, complimented the manager on the food, told him we will return and said we loved the pigeon.
He smiled: “That’s our specialty.”
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
GUANGZHOU, China (Friday, Dec. 12, 2008, 6:35 p.m.) – An hour long stroll through the area surrounding the White Swan Hotel here in Guangzhou quickly brought back many memories of our 2006 trip to adopt our daughter, Camryn.
The streets near the hotel are filled with gift shops catering to Americans staying at the White Swan to complete their adoption paperwork and obtain their child’s U.S. visa.
Authentic Chinese restaurants also line the streets, including one we ate at in April 2006 and plan to eat at again tonight. One restaurant serves American food and specially caters to homesick U.S. residents.
But the scenes that caught our eye Friday afternoon were the brides who were out in force to take their formal wedding pictures.
A beautifully landscaped, tree-lined avenue sits about a block from our hotel – and it made the perfect backdrop for what likely will be beautiful professional wedding photos.
I snapped away, taking picture after picture on our stroll. And I’ve included photos of the soon-to-be-wed couples in my new photo gallery you can find in the left-hand column of this blog.
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
DIRECTIONS: Click photo to enlarge. Toggle photo captions with button in left-hand corner of photo gallery slide show.
GUANGZHOU, China (Friday, Dec. 12, 2008, 3:35 p.m.) – The final leg of our adoption journey began today when Pam, Matthew and I landed in Guangzhou – where we’ll be until Thursday taking care of final paperwork to bring our son home.
Our two-hour flight was pleasant – and Matthew was a stark contrast to our daughter, Camryn. When Pam, Camryn and I flew from Nanchang to Guangzhou in April 2006, Camryn cried much of the way.
This time around, Matthew would sit still. He climbed. He babbled. He threw his sippy cup filled with water, He made friends with a man from Malaysia who sat behind us.
And when our lunch was delivered half way through the flight – chicken and rice – Matthew refused to eat it. Well, he took a couple of bites of rice and then ate little else.
Today, it was all Momma. Matthew wanted his Momma rather than his Baba. And when Pam got up mid-flight to use the restroom, Matthew had a major-league, lung-clearing conniption fit.
He wound up spilled part of as small plastic bottle of milk all over his new outfit. He was so hysterical, one of the flight attendants on China Southern Airlines stopped by to console him.
She even gave Matthew two small children’s books with large pictures and as story in Chinese characters. I., of course, still can’t read Chinese so I’ll just have to make up a story when I read the book to him.
We arrived at our hotel, the White Swan, at about 2 p.m. and now relaxing in our room – happy and thrilled t o have broadband Internet in our hotel room for the first time in China.
I got tired of going to the lobby to use wireless.
Not much has changed here since we stayed at the White Swan in April 2006. The rest of the day is free for us, so we’ll relax before heading to what I think is the Kiume Restaurant for roasted pigeon tonight
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino. All rights reserved.
GUANGZHOU, China (Saturday, Dec. 13, 2008, 10:45 a.m.) – With overnight temperatures in the low 60s and an afternoon in the upper 70s here in Guangzhou, it finally feels like home.
