Author: Louanne

Nadia woke up on Sunday with her 8th tooth popping out and that explains why she was a little fussy the couple days beforehand. Nadia and I just played in the morning while Mike worked and after Nadia’s morning nap and some noodles by Lou, we all bundled up and headed out to take the subway to the shopping district in East Beijing. Our main goal was to visit the New China Children’s Store. We read about it in a guide book and decided to check it out. We wanted to get Nadia a new toy since she’s been so good in the small space of the living area and just playing with the few toys we brought with us. We decided on the piano above and she just LOVES it. It lights up and has drum sounds and a ton of little songs. She has been totally jamming to the drum beats too. She loves to dance which is just totally cute!

So the main floor of this place is all toys. One whole side is imports and you would not believe the prices for the American toy brands. We are talking $50 for something you would pay about $20 for at home. This is a store for the wealthy of Beijing. All the Chinese toys like her piano were prices that you would expect. Cheap! The bottom floor is all shoes. I have never in my life seen so many children’s shoes in one place. So. Many. Shoes. And once again the imports were so expensive. We got Nadia the cutest pair of red gingham tennis shoes, they are a Chinese brand and way cute. She got up this morning and wanted to wear them with her jammies. The top floor of the place is all children’s clothes. My tutor Kiki had told me that jammies like we brought for Nadia were very expensive here and she was right. $14 – 25 a pair in this import store. We bought Nadia a totally cute pair of mittens for $2. She thinks those are funny and was wearing them around last night.

So we avoided everything imported and got Nadia some little goodies yesterday and walked up and down the shopping area with tons of people. We took the subway to the area and had to change lines twice. The subway was so crowded that it was unbelievable to me. I have never been so jammed up against so many people – pushing and shoving. Claustrophobic people must just have to take cabs here or get over it because the buses are just as crowded. We took a cab home because Nadia was due for a nap. I plan on doing all my real shopping at the silk market, but we wanted to go down and see this other area of Beijing. The street is calling Wangfujing and the Oriental Plaza is there and it takes up a whole city block. It has all the ritzy stores in there and so we just looked in and came back out. The guide books say it has a fabulous food court, but I had to laugh about the “Sizzler”. How that made it all the way to China I will never know.

I was joking with Mike that if we were selling tickets for all the looks and people tripping over themselves to see Nadia we could have this trip paid for. People crane their necks and grab their friends to look and make silly faces and smile at her. Elementary age children are fascinated with her too, waving and smiling and grabbing their parents to look. Here are a few shots of the shopping area.

Click on the photo above to see the slideshow of our day. These are just the photos that Louanne took, we have not uploaded Mike’s yet.

I want to start by saying that Nadia was the real tourist attraction yesterday. We get noticed wherever we go, but she really got a lot of attention at the Summer Palace. All I have to say is that in adoption circles it “seems” like adoption from China is so common, but it’s just not. We are a totally bizarre anomaly here. I am so thankful that I made up the laminated cards with our photo on one side and a little information translated into Chinese on the other side (thanks Nancy – you rule!). Especially the Chinese who can speak a bit of English, they have lots of questions. 10- 15,000 girls being adopted out globally is just a spec of sand to a country with 1.3 billion people. It reminded me of the woman from Shanghai that I met last year in Nanchang that was just fascinated that we were there to adopt. She spoke great English, was obviously a very affluent business woman and she had no idea that China allowed their orphans to be adopted. She thought it was great and that Nadia was lucky to go to be an American.

In the photo below you can clearly see how we have Nadia dressed. The temperature outside is in the low 60’s. She is completely covered except her face and hands. Even so we continually had people coming up and grabbing her legs saying, “Lao bu lao”. Which basically translates to – Is she cold or not cold? Many, many people were concerned about this. Men and women and we know it’s a cultural thing, but it just cracked us up. Nadia was clearly fine and her hands were a little cold by the end, but she was toasty and not complaining all snuggled up in the carrier with Mike. It was even suggested to us that Mike take her out of the carrier and hold her and she would be warmer 🙂 She is in the photo with Mike’s language partner David. David learned English from the school we are attending last year, so he went with us to the Summer Palace to guide us and to talk with us. He just loved Nadia too!

Now see the photo below of the typical toddler visiting the Summer Palace at the same time as us. Don’t you think they are cold with their booty hanging out??? Holy cow, that would be far worse in my mind than my hands being chilly. I had to take a photo – notice how bundled the kid is, but with the wide split pants opening. While Mike and the other guys climbed to the very top of the temple to see the view, Nadia and I sat down at the bottom because my knee was starting to hurt from all the walking and climbing. I sat her next to me and this older woman came up and gave me a map of the summer palace and gestured that I should put Nadia on it. So I just put Nadia in my lap. Then the lady started in about her legs (which were totally covered) and her hands and her jacket and her hood. You get the idea. I fussed with Nadia until the lady thought it was okay and then the lady started playing peek a boo with Nadia and all was well with the world. All the while people are coming up and pointing and smiling at Nadia and making comments in Chinese.

These photos are from the Summer Palace as this was the day the school had set up for the field trip. Of course it was the first very overcast day since we got here. So the visibility wasn’t the greatest, but it was still a very neat place to see. There were tons and tons of Chinese tourists and quite a few Europeans. For dinner we went to a place called Tafi (table and fellow indispensable), I think it looses something in the translation. It’s a really nice Italian restaurant that reminded me of Italiani’s at home (you know it’s good if you have been there with me). I took a couple of photos of Nadia because we got there and they asked us where we wanted to sit, then did we want a baby-chair? Once we got settled they brought Nadia her own plate, bowl and silver ware set. It was SO CUTE! She had fun playing with it until the food came and thought it was fun to look through the plate. We got an appetizer, 2 entrees, 2 sodas and a dessert for $17 US. Crazy cheap for some awesome food in a fancy restaurant. I want to go back while we are here. Mike ordered their pizza special and it had parma ham, mushrooms, cheese and sliced hard-boiled eggs. It was yummy. Then I got the Spaghetti Carbonara and Nadia went absolutely NUTS for it. I mean gobble it up until we thought her tummy would explode. (Randy and Jess, think how she was at lunch in Colorado springs). This was after having garlic bread. I brought the leftovers home for her lunch today. Something we have noticed here is that in restaurants they bring the food when it’s ready. They don’t wait for a whole table’s food to finish. You get it fresh from the kitchen.

As we were waiting to cross the street on the way home from the restaurant there was a couple next to us and the man said, “Whose baby is that?” I said, “It’s our baby.” He said, “She’s cute, but she looks…..” He didn’t finish so I said, “She is Chinese, she’s from Jiangxi.” Then Mike said she was adopted and they guy said, “Fantastic. Where are you from?” I said, “Texas in the United States.” He thought it was great and we also told him that we were here to learn Chinese which you could tell he thought was really cool.

 

We can’t believe a week has already gone by….this time last week I was in tears because there wasn’t any toilet paper. Or towels. Or dishes. Of course we had some travel tissue packets, but I was delirious from being tired and not thinking rationally. Hee hee. A nights sleep and a trip to the store solved all those issues.

School was rough for both of us this week because the language is really overwhelming to learn. There are so many words that sound the same because the difference in tones is so slight. Mike is really enjoying learning the characters because the teacher gives him the history of the character. The last half hour of class was rough for me today because it was like my mind just couldn’t take anymore. Then my tutor gave me gobs of homework that I am in denial about. Hee hee.

Today we trekked it over by subway to Wal-Mart again where I was able to get Land O Lakes butter and sliced American cheese. That was great so we can make sandwiches in the apartment and have butter on our noodles. The cheese was the most expensive grocery purchase yet because cheese really isn’t popular in China. I also found lemon creme filled Ritz which are totally yummy like the orange ones. They really need to make these in America! We tried to get some dinner at KFC, but they didn’t have a menu in English or a picture menu like some other places around here. The Pizza Hut here is very fancy and there was a huge line of people waiting outside for a table, so we didn’t attempt that on a Friday night. It’s funny how serious the Chinese are about pizza.

This weekend we are going to play tourist a little bit and I will put photos up of our adventures. We are going to some places that we paid for last time, but didn’t go too because I was sick when we first got to Beijing. It’s supposed to be in the low 70’s this weekend, so it should be nice. I leave you with some photos of the gridlock on the corner by our apartment when we went out to grab some dinner tonight.

Self portrait of Nadia and I…

Just a few things to start this post off:

A) If you have ever come to visit me;

B) Or I have come to visit you;

C) Or if we have ever gone on vacation together, you have heard me say, “It’s all about the food!”

So of course I did some research on food in Beijing. We have walked all around our area checking out the choices. I have been to the store every day trying to get the kitchen stocked up with some basic foods that you can cook in the microwave or the one pot that I bought ( for a whopping $6 thank you very much).

And the Chinese really like oranges – in any form. Juice, jello, candy, soda….you get the idea. Well I have become addicted to these Orange Cream filled Ritz. They are SO GOOD! And also very tasty are orange Chips Ahoy! They are just like the regular, but with orange flavored chips mixed in. The Ritz crackers here are better than at home and Nadia has been enjoying them too.

Yesterday we went to a place called Bravo Italian Restaurant (don’t say it – I know we are in China, but I needed some comfort pasta after my rough day of language lessons – hee hee). For $7 we got an appetizer and 2 entrees. The appetizer was fried mashed potatoes and they were so tasty. Nadia was loving them too. Then I got pesto spaghetti with pine nuts and green beans and Mike got a penne pasta with spicy tomato with bacon.

Today Mike was craving a burger and I told him I saw a place on my walk with Nadia the night before called “New York House – Coffee and Burgers” so we headed over there. I kid you not people – those were possibly the best burgers either of us has ever had. I have no idea what they seasoned them with, but on signs at the restaurant and on the menu it said, ‘Never frozen patties’. The fries were done perfect for me….extra crispy and salty. Total price with tip? $13! And the burgers were giant! We will be going back there during our stay here.

On the way back to the apartment we stopped at this bakery that caught our eye. The following photos are for Jessica P. especially! My friend – we would be all over this place every day if you were here with me. Today Mike got a piece of cheesecake and I got their version of a swiss cake roll with sprinkles. YUM! I will find my favorite item there by the end of this trip. And learn how to say the name of the place.

Here’s the cute girl reading her book to us.