Catching Up

Hi everybody - for all of you avid blog readers out there, I bet this posting will be a surprise! It is 3:51am on Saturday morning and I am wide awake - actually I have been awake since 2 but I finally broke down about 1/2 hour ago and decided to get out of bed since I can't sleep. I figured I had better catch up on the last few days before my memory fades completely - 13 1/2 hour plane rides can turn your brain to mush!

On Wednesday after the doctor appointments and before the cruise on the Pearl River we first worked on paperwork. This was the day that Mabel had to take our adoption decree back to the Civil Affairs Office to be corrected - which as you know all worked out smoothly. After we had taken care of the details with her we started to pack our things - we didn't want to leave this big job until the last minute because there was definitely a lot to pack. We did a lot of shopping while we were in Guangzhou - some of the people we had talked with before our trip had shared with us that they had purchased lots of small gifts for their daughter from China while they were there so that on future birthdays and "Gotcha Day" celebrations they would have some remembrances of her country and culture to share with her. This seemed like a great idea to us - so in between other activities we have been searching for and collecting gifts for Chloe in the future. We have also made many interesting Chinese friends along the way.

The island that our hotel - The White Swan - is located on used to be the only place that foreigners were allowed to be. It is still more predominately foreigners here because of the large hotels located on the island. Surrounding the hotel are many small streets with little shops. This is similar to the street shopping in the main city - but many of the workers speak some English and they are much cleaner. Most of the shops are named with an English name like Lucy's Place or Emily's Place. We even have a picture of Benjamin's Place! Most of the people who work here are women although we did meet a few men. They are mostly in their 20's and seem to have an avid interest in practicing their English. I think this area must be a popular one to look for a job if you are trying to improve your English because of the steady stream of Americans and others that you can practice with.

The shop's are privately owned - but during the 10 days we spent in Guangzhou, I only saw one shop owner. It seems that work days here are very long - the shops would be open before we were out in the morning and didn't close until 9 or 10 pm at night. During this time the same people would be working - so that makes for a 12 hour work day - or maybe even longer. Everyone was very friendly - it is interesting the differences that bargaining makes in a shopping experience. I think it is much more important for a personal connection to be made when every transaction has to be negotiated. Especially for foreigners who are used to choosing what they want and paying at a counter - it can be very disconcerting not to be able to even know the price of anything without having a conversation with someone. And then when you do find out the price - it's not the real price. It is just the starting point of the price portion of the conversation. Our guide Peter summed it up very well one of our first days in China. He said that the Chinese people bargain, they expect you to bargain and if you don't you will "lose a lot of money here in China" - after telling us this he laughed and laughed. I'm sure that Chinese people do not understand how difficult the bargaining process is for us. It's like being in a poker game everytime you want to buy something. Some people (like Dave and Melissa!) really entered into the spirit of things and tried their best to bargain Chinese-American style. There were others in our group who found the whole thing so exhausting that they just paid whatever price was first given. I'm sure that the shop owners much prefer this!

Almost every worker around the hotel had an English name. When I asked how they got an English name - usually it was based either on the pronunciation of their Chinese name, or it was a name a visitor had given them along the way somewhere. Just outside the hotel was a shop where the main worker was named Lucy. Lucy is 19 and she became very good friends with Melissa. This was Melissa's favorite spot to visit, Lucy had a badmitton set (no net in case you were wondering) and they spent lots of time playing badmitton or hackysack while Dave and I shopped in her store and the others close by. Lucy spoke English very well and was very interested in improving her language skills. She would like to visit America someday but she said that it is very difficult to get a visa, and very expensive. She and Melissa exchanged email addresses (most of these shops have a computer with internet access).

Millie works in the shop across the street from the hotel. It is called The Ladybug. Ladybugs are a Chinese symbol for good fortune and adoption. When Melissa gave Millie a photograph of the two of them and a note to say goodbye, she was very pleased and gave Melissa a huge hug.

Ann works in the store right next door to the hotel and was a huge help to us. She came with us to the Kodak store and bargained for us in Chinese on the price of picture development. We ended up paying 12 cents a picture :). She was practicing her English by reading the Bible. One of her teachers at the university she attended gave her a Bible with Chinese and English side by side. She told me that her parent's generation trusts in Buddha, but that her generation only trusts in science. I encouraged her to keep reading her Bible to learn more and that God is real and very powerful. We are going to try to keep in touch through email - pray for her!

Minnie and Emily sold us Chinese name chops. A name chop is a stamp that is carved from soapstone with your name and other symbols on it. You dip it in ink and stamp it on paper. Families have chops with their family name and children have their own with their own name. Minnie told me that when kids begin school at 7 they take their name chops with them to help learn how to write their name in Chinese. Minnie also shares Chloe's Chinese name - she let us video her explaining about the name chop and telling Chloe about her name, it was really special and will be fun to show Chloe when she is older. Finally there was Lisa who sold us some traditional Chinese clothes for Chloe and the other kids. All of the people that we met were so friendly and encouraging, they would try to get Chloe to smile and tell her that she was so beautiful. And of course they would try to get her to say mama and baba!

Thanks so much to all of you who came to the airport. It was so wonderful to see your friendly smiling faces when we got off of the plane! Your caring really means a lot to us. And thanks to everyone who has been praying for us and following along - we are blessed to have so many great friends! We'll post more later when we've had more sleep :). ---------Angie