Today, my oldest daughter turned seven years old! (Wow, that sounds so strange to say, I guess it’s going to take some getting used to!) Since we are so far from home, we did what we could to make our big girls day as special as possible. A delicious breakfast of french toast ordered from room service was just the thing to get the day started with style. We had to report to the US immigration office this morning at 10:00 to apply for Mia’s visa, which broke up the fun of the morning. Thankfully, everything went smoothly there, after all of our paperwork woes. We’re still a little concerned about this, and will continue to be, until we have passed through the final immigration checkpoint on our way back home. Like everything else, we are taking this one hurdle at a time. After finishing with immigration, we dropped Chris and Mia off at the room for a much needed nap. Sydney and I took this opportunity for some mom and daughter time, and we got out and did a little shopping. We had a wonderful time browsing the shops near our hotel, and we even found some great deals. As in many other places in the world, you are expected to ‘bargain’ with the shopkeepers for the best price, even for everyday items. This is a bit strange, and hard to get used to, at least for me. The language barrier here makes this exchange even trickier. I was amused to see the shopkeeper pull out a large calculator, and type in the price of the item I was interested in. Then, she handed the calculator to me, and I typed in my starting price. This version of haggling worked well, and we either came to a price where we could agree, or I walked away. Sydney was very perplexed by this at first, but quickly got the idea. She even helped me bargain for a pair of traditional Chinese umbrellas, a purple one for her, and a hot pink one for her sister. Since today was (almost) all about Sydney, she decided our afternoon would just be relaxing, hanging out, and watching movies in our room. After watching “Alladin” and most of “Cars”, we all felt like our brains were turning to pudding, and we had to get outside! We took off for a walk, and passed by a shopping center that had (literally) rolled out the red carpet for it’s grand opening today. Just outside the entrance, there were eight different bigger than life-sized transformers! Some were fascinating, a few were a little scary, and this one cracked us up! To top off the fun of the day, we met the other families and took a dinner cruise on the Pearl river. Unlike in the states, this boat allowed us to bring our own food and drink aboard, so we got together and ordered Papa John’s pizza! We have been very surprised by how western China has been, and this is just one example. Not that Papa John’s is our favorite, but we’re getting tired of stir-fry and dumplings. After finishing our pizza, we all made our way to the upper deck of the boat to feel the cool evening breeze, and see the sights of the river. The Chinese are all about the colored lights – on bridges, on buildings – everywhere. Several of the buildings and bridges we saw sported colored lights that rotated in a pattern. First green, then orange, then blue, then teal. All in all, this cruise was one of the more fun and relaxing things we’ve experienced here in Guangzhou. And Sydney says:
My favorite part of the day was the river cruise! It was so fun, and the lights were beautiful.
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Lisa LynchLisa is a world traveling mom that took the ultimate adventure Archives
December 2012
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