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First off – Travis and Chrissie, you are in our prayers for everything this week. We love you and I am sending a giant HUG from China!

Here is my painting for week 2 of my elective “Chinese Painting” It’s a Lotus Plant and for my first shot at Chinese Watercolor I like how it turned out. Next week the teacher says we are going to do another traditional flower and for the last week she said we are going to do fish. She said fish are very hard, but we are going to go for it. She painted the sample flower for me today and then said, “See, easy right?” I said, “NO!” She started laughing and said, “Good, most students say it’s so easy and then they see it’s not.” My teacher is very sweet and a bit shy. She is in her 4th year at University as an art student and told me that she just took the test for graduate work and hasn’t heard back yet to see if she will get in for next year.

Today we hung out around the apartment as Mike was working like crazy. He will not be going to school this whole week because he needs to get a lot of work done and 20 hours of school plus homework is just too much. He has been able to get a lot done in the last few days which is great. Nadia and I ran to the grocery store at lunch to grab a couple things. And then in the evening when Mike needed a break we took the subway to Wal-mart to look for some odds and ends that we haven’t been able to find around here. I can tell you if we do this again I am going to have the packing list perfected!

The photo above is acceptable dress for Nadia as no clothing police said anything today. She just loves the mittens too. The last 2 photos Mike snapped while I was getting Nadia’s jammies on tonight. Now for something a little different, I am going to answer some questions/and make comments on things that have been said in prior posts.

• Okay, the shower. First get the water hot in the sink. Then soak yourself down. Turn off water. Soap up. Rinse off. Dry off as fast as possible because the apartment is so stinkin’ cold. (I add an extra step because I also put conditioner in my hair. So 2 rinses.) We have learned to be careful so the water doesn’t spray over all over the place, but there is nothing to be done for the floor. It gets REALLY slick, so we just have to be careful getting out and while getting dry. I told Mike I am going to take like 4 showers the first day we get home just to have one in an enclosed space where I am not trying to hold the handle up at the correct angle while freezing during the soap part. To Tahni – I KNOW that even this is better than what you went through in China last year *wink*
• Jacquleyn – we are totally up for Mexican food at your casa!
• CTG- I really hope you get to come back to China in the fall. I know you will love it!
• Brandi – I have never been on a cruise, so I don’t know about their bathrooms.
• Tricia – Hug Elliott for Nadia 🙂
• Beating the jet lag – Mike’s idea worked for us and this time it was much easier than the adoption trip. We still felt the jet lag a bit, but we wanted the transition for Nadia to be as easy as possible. What we did before we left was to start keeping her up an hour later. Then every 4 days or so we added an hour. So by the time we left, she was going to bed at 1am and waking at noon. Our flight left Chicago at 12:30 and landed in China at 4:30pm. So by the time we got settled it was her normal bedtime 8:30. And so we all slept through the night and were able to get her on China time within a day. I took a nap at the same time she did in the afternoon everyday for a week. I needed it because I was feeling the shift and starting school was wearing my brain out in the morning.
• Staci – thanks for the prayers and no joke about the “secret spice” in the burger.
• Tracy – you can NEVER have too many desserts. I have a month and don’t have time to try them all. LOL! Also, I would never survive that cold. We live in the South for a reason. Nadia and Charlotte would definately have a good time together. Surely one day they can meet!
• Laura – at least if I was in the Texas pandarias I could understand the writing and a bit of the Spanish. HA HA. And you know how you are always talking about peoples facial characteristics? I saw your Mom’s Chinese double yesterday. No joke, if I had my camera I would have asked her for a photo just for you.
• Alan- we got the Lemon Ritz at Wal-mart and you are right, they are much more like a cookie. Sweeter than the orange ones. And LOL about the “original recipe”.
• Kathy – Have you tried the pizza excuse on your hubby yet? Our guide on the adoption trip told us that it’s a very big deal to get pizza here in Beijing. And oh my gosh you teaser about leaving Nadia alone when I went out to run errands!!! What kills me is that there are people who DO leave their kids when they run over to the store.
• Gina – glad that your little one is feeling better. I will do a future post about the tenacious ANTS that live with us on the 14th floor to take away your envy! ROFL!!
• Mom – I’ll try to call you again later this week.
• And just a random note here – the Land O Lakes sliced American cheese has security tags in it. Like a DVD or something. That cracks me up!
• And in case I missed anyone else…..thanks for posting and letting us know that you are thinking of us.

The weather was awesome today and Nadia and I enjoyed it while Mike worked away in the apartment. During Nadia’s first nap I ran to the bank and the grocery store. And because I am leaving no Ritz in China untested I bought the peanut butter filled ones today. They are much like you would expect, but the peanut butter is a little lighter than at home and of course the Ritz are light and fluffy like the others in China. For lunch I ran down to the pastry shop and got us some tasty stuff. I got us each a hot-dog wrapped in a sweet bun, then topped with pizza toppings. YUM! Then I got a cheese filled sandwich on a nutty wheat bread. The cheese tasted like Brie and was delicious. Then for myself I got a little custard tart. It was wrapped in the same bread as our lunch and filled with an egg custard with a little blob of blueberry jelly in the middle. Total for all that – $2.80!! As others have commented, you would think I would gain 10 pounds, but my jeans still fit! I think it’s because we walk everywhere instead of drive like at home.

After Nadia’s nap I took her down to the playground near us and she had a grand old time. This was a momentous occasion, since it was her first trip ever to a playground! We met 4 boy babies, 1 little boy and 2 girl toddlers. Girls were clearly outnumbered today, but one little girl shared her toys with Nadia including this very cool bike in the photo. 3 of the kids there had these and I have never seen one like it in America, although I have never looked.

Those poor babies were bundled to the hilt even though it was in the low 70’s. I had Nadia in a hoodie just to try and escape the comments. I was in a short sleeved shirt and people were asking me if I was cold. Even I can’t escape the clothing police! Look at Nadia checking out this boy on the merry go round. Her face is like, “Why is he dressed like that?” His mom looked Nadia over and then took off one of his 3 pairs of shoes/slippers and unzipped his jacket…a little. The baby probably wanted to have a party!

And here is Nadia from this morning when she wanted her new mittens and shoes on with her jammies. She is too funny!

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.