Guangzhou day 4
The beautiful Guangzhou weather has ended- it rained almost all day today, and will tomorrow as well. Never made it to the pool (except for Kellan that is) but still enjoying our time here very much. Today was the all important consulate appointment. Not an appointment we attend, our facilitator delivered our paperwork to the consulate, where they review it and decide if all is acceptable. This is when they decide to issue a visa or not. We needed to wait in our room from 9:45- 10:45am until our guide called us to say all was ok. We were sweating it out a bit, as our guide in Shanghai told us one of her documents was not really up to the standards the consulate likes, but that she received pre approval from someone, and was sure it would be ok. She could not remember the persons name that she spoke to at the consulate- soooo we were a bit nervous- but it all worked out, she will have her visa! Tomorrow we all go to the consulate to take an oath that all that we have attested to in our paperwork is true. Sounds important, but really a non-event, although always cool to visit the consulate.
After we got the all ok, we headed with our group to the pearl market. My intent was to buy pearls for a friend that asked for them, but got there, and ended up buying a full set for all three girls. They were just beautiful, and a full set with necklace, bracelet, and earings cost just $100 USD. Megan really liked hers, got to pick her own clasp to put on it- Of course she did not like the one I picked- I took one picture inside the mall this pearl market was in, hard to see in the picture, but this mall is about 4 stories high, each store sells just pearls or jade.
From there we went to the DVD market, a small store that sells DVDs and CDs for rediculously cheap. We walked out with 30 DVDs- Megan thought we were a bit nuts I think. Laughed at our stack of DVDs. She has no idea how much these cost at home.
Had lunch at Pizza Hut, it was right next door to the DVD store, and we were starving. Pizza tasted the same, not quite as much sauce as we are used to at home, but still reminded us of home. Megan is not thrilled with pizza, so ordered spaghetti.
It started to rain pretty heavy as we were leaving the market, so we caught a cab home and hung around our room a bit. Jim and I headed to the playroom in the hotel with the girls. I decided to give the hotel massage a try. We were told the place down the street from the hotel was also very good, and much cheaper, but with the heavy rain was not worth the $12 extra dollars it cost me to stay at the hotel. Massage was great- although different from ones at home. The chinese woman actually got up on the table and stood on my back! Thank goodness she was small! Felt great, and much needed after the long week we have had. This 45 minute massage cost a total of $20 for 45 minutes. Down the street it is $8 for one hour! If only I had asked the question about this at the beginning of the week! Many of the families have been going, and have loved it.
For dinner, we went back to Lucy's. Asked about the buffet in the hotel, but is really expensive. So got some umbrellas and headed over. Kristen- our free Lucy's bags for spending over 200 yuan are starting to pile up! Jim ordered a baked potato, which Megan perked right up and asked "whats that??" She ended up eating half of it. She agreed to try Katie's quesadilla tonight, with salsa, loved that too! Other things we are learning about her- she loves brocolli, pork, any kind of noodle, KFC, McDonalds, anything chocolate! She does not like ice cream (go figure) but does love chocolate milk shakes. When she laughs, she laughs with gusto- loves to tease and joke. She is lighthearted and takes things in stride. She is full of energy and gets bored easily- we now know how to say "bored" in mandarin, we hear it a lot. She is pretty wonderful, we feel very lucky! We have just four pictures from today- sorry to dissapoint you- not much to take pictures of in our room! They are here.
Love from Guangzhou!
After we got the all ok, we headed with our group to the pearl market. My intent was to buy pearls for a friend that asked for them, but got there, and ended up buying a full set for all three girls. They were just beautiful, and a full set with necklace, bracelet, and earings cost just $100 USD. Megan really liked hers, got to pick her own clasp to put on it- Of course she did not like the one I picked- I took one picture inside the mall this pearl market was in, hard to see in the picture, but this mall is about 4 stories high, each store sells just pearls or jade.
From there we went to the DVD market, a small store that sells DVDs and CDs for rediculously cheap. We walked out with 30 DVDs- Megan thought we were a bit nuts I think. Laughed at our stack of DVDs. She has no idea how much these cost at home.
Had lunch at Pizza Hut, it was right next door to the DVD store, and we were starving. Pizza tasted the same, not quite as much sauce as we are used to at home, but still reminded us of home. Megan is not thrilled with pizza, so ordered spaghetti.
It started to rain pretty heavy as we were leaving the market, so we caught a cab home and hung around our room a bit. Jim and I headed to the playroom in the hotel with the girls. I decided to give the hotel massage a try. We were told the place down the street from the hotel was also very good, and much cheaper, but with the heavy rain was not worth the $12 extra dollars it cost me to stay at the hotel. Massage was great- although different from ones at home. The chinese woman actually got up on the table and stood on my back! Thank goodness she was small! Felt great, and much needed after the long week we have had. This 45 minute massage cost a total of $20 for 45 minutes. Down the street it is $8 for one hour! If only I had asked the question about this at the beginning of the week! Many of the families have been going, and have loved it.
For dinner, we went back to Lucy's. Asked about the buffet in the hotel, but is really expensive. So got some umbrellas and headed over. Kristen- our free Lucy's bags for spending over 200 yuan are starting to pile up! Jim ordered a baked potato, which Megan perked right up and asked "whats that??" She ended up eating half of it. She agreed to try Katie's quesadilla tonight, with salsa, loved that too! Other things we are learning about her- she loves brocolli, pork, any kind of noodle, KFC, McDonalds, anything chocolate! She does not like ice cream (go figure) but does love chocolate milk shakes. When she laughs, she laughs with gusto- loves to tease and joke. She is lighthearted and takes things in stride. She is full of energy and gets bored easily- we now know how to say "bored" in mandarin, we hear it a lot. She is pretty wonderful, we feel very lucky! We have just four pictures from today- sorry to dissapoint you- not much to take pictures of in our room! They are here.
Love from Guangzhou!
posted by tatoomickey @ 7:35 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home