Sat, Oct 12th

EK woke up only at a little before 5am, but she was up for the day so it was an early morning for all.  We played with her a while and then hit the breakfast buffet.  Pretty much after breakfast, she was ready for a nap.  I needed to pack since we were flying out later in the day, but took a nap instead since I had to be quiet (good excuse anyway;).

Then, Tanya and Aubrey came over to ask if we wanted to go find a baby store that a guy in our group had discovered the day before.  I tagged along and we walked the streets close to our hotel and found it fairly easily, although it was a bit farther away than we expected.  The workers in there spoke no English at all. The people in Nanchang also don't see Americans very often, so we had quite a large number of curious stares.  On the way back, I was walking in front and we skipped the street that we were supposed to turn down to go back to our hotel.   (Poor Tanya did not know yet, but quickly found out that I have NO sense of direction).  Then, a very funny thing happened.  We had gotten turned around and wanted to ask how to get back to the hotel, so Tanya walked up to a traffic policewoman and thought she was showing her the side of her card around her neck that said, "I am staying at Crown Plaza. Please send me back to my hotel". (Our agency had prepared these cards for us to be worn around our neck). The lady looked back and forth between us looking very perplexed and not offering any directional help.  We realized that Tanya had accidentally showed her the wrong side of the card which said, "I am adopting this child from China and plan to give her much love, etc".  The funny part was that we didn't have our babies with us (they were napping) - only Aubrey, who with her pretty red hair is clearly not Chinese.  So it looked like we were randomly walking up to her telling her our adoptions, but we didn't have the babies which made it very confusing for her.   (After we flipped the card, she was very helpful). We got a good laugh over that on the walk back to the hotel.

We went back to the hotel for packing up to prepare for our flight to Gaunghzou.  After packing up, we joined Tanya and Jason for one last taste of the girls' provincial food at the local Chinese restaurant in the hotel.  It was steaming hot in there while we were getting seated (so much so we almost didn't stay). I think it had to be in the upper 90s at least!  (In Beijing and Nanchang, the Chinese are wearing coats while we are sweating). We asked them as best as we could if they could turn on the air, which they did and they brought us a big oscillating fan to our table.  Once they brought us the menu, we considered leaving again but decided to be brave. :). They brought us a picture version of the menu fortunately, but what we saw was pictures of bunnies, snakes, eels, and things such as goose head soup and bull frog soup.   We scoured the menu and finally decided on pork and peppers, fried beef, fried rice, and ginger chicken.  I think I mentioned a previous post that Jiangxi province is known for spicy food.  Well, they aren't kidding!  And Matt and I are pretty tolerant of spicy food.  But this was spicy!  Jason was a good sport and ate it even though he doesn't normally eat spicy foods.  We ate the meal with burning mouths, runny noses, and watering eyes.  The chicken was every part I think.  It was cut up in chunks, but they didn't debone at all, so every bite we got mouthfuls of bone.  Then Matt and Tanya  found whole chicken feet in theirs.  It was at least a memorable meal for us.  :)

We got checked out of the hotel and our guide took us to the airport. It was time to say goodbye to our sweet guide, Evelyn, who had done so much for us and taught us so much.  Checking in was easy this time because of her help.  The flight was on time and all babies did great on the short flight.

We arrived in Guangzhou (which is our last stop) and were met at the airport by our guide here, Cathy.  She seems very sweet.  After only a 15 minute walk with our luggage to the bus and a 40 minute drive to the hotel, we arrived at the hotel past babies' bedtimes.  We unpacked essentials and hit the sack.