Today was our first full day in Guangzhou, Sunday. I have to keep asking Mom what day of the week it is (in addition to asking her what time it is, because I broke my watch on the first day of our trip when I was removing the backpack and then broke Mom's watchband the day we got Ahn-Bao when I was removing the baby backpack carrier) because Mom has the only wearable watch at this point and the days are all running together so it's hard to remember.
We had breakfast at the Victory Hotel, a fairly nice buffet with some Western and some Chinese items - the same idea as the Sofitel, but this hotel is no Sofitel. We were a little spoiled there. Ahn-Bao loves scrambled eggs but will not even look at a banana (even though his paperwork from the orphanage workers indicated that he liked bananas). Also, had some really great dim sum (a steamed bun, sometimes with various fillings) here, and Ahn-Bao usually likes that, although he can be a bit fickle about food.
It was about a 4 block walk to meet Molly and 3 other families at the White Swan Hotel. We met in Molly's room where we all received instruction on filling out the various forms required for the U.S. Consulate issuance of a Visa for Ahn-Bao to enter the U.S. as a new immigrant. We met 3 other families there who were all working with our adoption agency and who have Consulate appointments on the same day as us (1-29) or the next. One family is from Michigan, one is from Utah (I think), one family is from Eden Prairie, MN and I am not sure about the other one.
We spent about an hour and a half filling out forms with our name, address, Ahn-Bao's name and particulars and assembling the multitude of paperwork that we brought with us from home or received in Xi'an during the adoption finalization process. Not terribly complicated or hard, just critical and didn't want to make any mistakes. After the paperwork was finished, we made plans for the remainder of our stay, including official appointments and tourist activities. We then broke for lunch with an appointment to meet the group back at the White Swan Hotel at 3 p.m. for photos on the red couch (an adoptive family tradition) and to get visa photos of our kids at a nearby photo shop.
We made a plan to go back to our hotel to pick up and drop off a few things (forgot to bring Ahn-Bao's brand new passport and I needed my magical decongestant pill for a major sinus headache) and then meet Alayne and Joel and their new 3-year old daughter, Mimzie to get lunch and do a little shopping. We also took the general advice from the other families we met, some of whom had adopted before and had been to Guangzhou, to use any of the stores near the hotel that offered laundry services as they were reasonably priced and fairly reliable. We picked "Susan's" store just a half-a-block from the White Swan. She had a very small store but offered laundry. She looked at our Walmart bag of laundry and estimated about 20 RMB (around $3 USD) to launder and offered us a 45% discount and could have it ready for us by 8 p.m. the same day. Sounded o.k. so we left a bag of laundry there and went on our way (this part of the story will have an ending later).
After meeting up with Alayne, Joel and Mimzie, we found a well-known (on the internet to former adoptive families) cafe nearby called "Lucy's" that serves American food. There were many adoptive families in the restaurant and we had hamburgers and fries and broccoli (I'll post another entry to explain our newfound attraction to broccoli).
After lunch, we browsed in several of the small shops to find the obligatory traditional Chinese clothing to dress our kids in for the red couch photo shoot. The shops are fairly nice in the area, but you still need to bargain with them on price so that you don't pay full retail. We offered a lowball offer in one store for an outfit for Ahn-Bao but when they didn't come down enough in price, we said we would look elsewhere. They didn't come after us when we really did walk out and so I felt a little more confident that I had hit the low price. We found a beautiful silk outfit in another store and when I agreed to buy one other item (a dress for Kia but don't tell her), they gave me a more reasonable price for two items.
By this time, Ahn-Bao was asleep in the backpack and we made our way walking back to the White Swan Hotel. We let him sleep for another 15 minutes before we had to meet our group. We eventually roused Ahn-Bao from his nap, which he was not at all happy about, and put the top part of the outfit we had just purchased on him and put him on the couch. You can see from the photos, he hated it -- and for all the right reasons. It will be a fun story to tease him about someday.
After the red couch photos, it was off to a landing in front of an indoor waterfall in the hotel for family and group photos. Ahn-Bao was awake by this time, but since he stayed with me for the photos, he was not nearly so traumatized by the picture-taking. The group then walked to a nearby photo shop and each child sat on a stool for a quick photo to be delivered to the Consulate for issuance of their visa's.
Following this, it was one more stop in the White Swan to use a credit card to pay some of the fees for our guides and hotels in China to this point and then we were back on our own. We came back to our hotel room and worked on a couple of things, including making copies of medical information received on Ahn-Bao to have a copy at the ready in case it was required for his medical exam tomorrow -- all a part of the process and got a crib brought to our room for Ahn-Bao to sleep in tonight.
Last night, I had the idea that we could make up a bed on the floor for Ahn-Bao with a couple of fluffy blankets and an extra sheet brought by housekeeping. He did not sleep well and I couldn't quite tell if it was the bed or just the change in hotel rooms and surroundings. So tonight, he sleeps in his own crib - that should allow me to also have a better sleep.
We decided to order pizza in the room for supper and had been given a flyer by Molly for Papa Murphy's delivery that she suggested was available to be delivered to your hotel and that the staff spoke English. We decided to order a pepperoni pizza but when I tried to call the restaurant from the phone in our room, I couldn't quite figure out the code for dialing out of the hotel and eventually went down to the front desk to ask for help making the phone call. One of the bellman agreed to call and order for me and then call me when it was delivered. Very nice of him to solve my problem in this way. The pizza cost 85 RMB, or about $12 US.
We thought it would be an interesting new experience for Ahn-Bao to try pizza for the first time -- he refused. It was likely his first time to try out a fork and he was a little stymied by it at first and then intrigued to play with it, but still no pizza would touch his lips. Another day he might be more inclined.
So then at about 7:45 p.m. we decided to walk back to Susan's to pick up our laundry. We got to her store, but were told the laundry would not be done until 8 p.m. We walked back to the hotel and got Ahn-Bao ready for bed with a plan for me to go back alone to pick up the laundry. When I went back to Susan's at 8:10 p.m., the woman who seemed to be in charge said the laundry was back, but I would need to pick it up at her bigger store which was a block and a half away behind the church. This same woman had told me about the bigger store earlier in the day with the suggestion that she had lots more to sell there and I should go and look, but I declined saying then that I would look later. There were 3 girls working in the store at this time, and the owner said that one of the girls would take me to the bigger store which was close by.
I was hesitant but it was a well-lit area, there was lots of pedestrian and vehicle traffic, it was near the White Swan Hotel and there were other businesses still open nearby -- but there was that little voice suggesting that maybe this was some kind of scam. I got to the store and there were a couple of American women sitting at a table and talking with someone who appeared to work at the store and it seemed to be on the up and up. And they really did have my laundry, cleaned and folded (the pairs of socks were even attached to each other with threads to keep them together).
I paid the clerk 60 RMB (about $8 U.S.) after questioning him about how the girl who had taken the laundry had estimated the cost at about 20 RMB, to which he responded, quite politely, that she had probably not considered the cost of the individual pieces. After I paid in RMB (including getting 40 RMB in change and refusing one of his 20 RMB bills for a replacement because it looked too worn and I wasn't sure it would be accepted when I used it later) the clerk there suggested that he had a big store and I should look around and see what all he had that I might like to buy. I said again that it was late and I had family to get back to but I would return to shop in the daytime (fat chance!)
When I got back to my hotel room, Ahn-Bao had conked out asleep in Grandma's arms and is now sleeping peacefully (I'm hoping it will last all night) in his crib. We also discovered in looking through our clean laundry, that Mom's pajamas are missing and we have an extra blouse that doesn't belong to us. Maybe we'll be going back to that store after all -- and maybe it is all really a scam!
Headed for sleep and will try to fill in the time from our days in Xi'an with some additional entries when I get time again.
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