Holy step count! Today was so much fun - and so much walking!
We started off the day with breakfast at our hotel - where I met my facebook-friend-turned-real-life-friend — Sarah! Sarah and I met and bonded over facebook months ago when I happened to post a question on an adoption board where hundreds - if not thousands of people all over the world post questions about adoption from China and she happened to post a response. Small talked turned in to us realizing that not only are we randomly with the same agency - but also had the same global social worker and if that wasn’t crazy enough - here we are traveling together to get our girls - same age and everything! Sarah is getting her first baby as a single mom and I can’t wait to see her rock her new title of “Mama”.
After breakfast, we attempted to get a taxi to the another hotel where all of the other families are staying (we had points so we chose to use those and stay somewhere else) - and the first taxi driver that the hotel got for us wouldn’t take us — because it was too far — because it was THREE MILES. Y’all. In Jacksonville, I have to go three miles to get gas — so this makes me laugh! One cab ride later we met up with the other families in our group. This has been such an amazing community of support and it’s literally been less than 24 hours. There were 9 families today - one family came to Beijing a day early and already has their new son since his orphanage was here - and another family will join us over the weekend. Ten total! Ten total families means that ten babies are going to meet their forever families this weekend!
We took a bus to Teineman Square - where we were able to see lots of government buildings, learn about Chinese government and its history - and start our trek through the Forbidden City.
We had heard this was huge - and we totally believed the people who told us - but it was INSANE. We walked for hours and we were only half-way through. There were gates, and temples, and a moat, and gardens - so much history to try to remember and absorb. This country is so beautiful - the architecture is amazing - and despite sounding like they are really mad when they talk - the people are very kind (and very hard working)!
From the Forbidden City we took a bus to another portion of Beijing where we rode a rickshaw to lunch! I thought the car-riding yesterday was crazy - being in a rickshaw with a crazy driver pulling me behind their bike in the middle of traffc - THAT was crazy. It probably didn’t help that we were cheering him on which made him think we liked going through the traffic the crazy way he was - I could literally touch the car next to me without even putting my entire arm out the side of the rickshaw. It really was so much fun.
We took our rickshaw and had lunch at someone’s house today. Ten of us sat in a room that literally only had room for us and the table we were around. We sat down and there were dates, sesame cookies, honey and sesame treats and fried “chips” (wontons maybe?). Our lunch was cooked for us by the former chairman’s chef. He made rice, chicken with onions and peppers, broccoli, green beans, chicken wings, pork meatballs, veggi dumplings and pork dumplings. It was DELICIOUS. Y’all who know me well know what a stretch this was for me - (a) eating Chinese food to begin with would never be my first choice - and (2) eating Chinese food in someone’s house I don’t know being cooked by someone I don’t know - even BIGGER and (3) chopsticks. Yes, I didn’t ask for a fork because I didn’t want to be the only one at the table to accept the fork. So...when in China, right?. In all seriousness, I could have eaten the entire plate of broccoli by myself - and the food was wonderful. Definitely makes me want to try cooking a few more authentic dishes when we come home.
In this part of Beijing we visited today -the houses look NOTHING like what we would live in in America - but they sell for MILLIONS of dollars because of their location. They are built on a quadrant system. Basically, they look like a giant square with a garden or courtyard in the middle. The parents live on the north side, the sons live on the east side, daughters on the west and the help on the south side. This is because the sun rises and sets and the north side of the building - the parents and elders in the family live here because it is the “easiest living” not too much sun and no too little. Lots of these houses have been in the families for generations - and some owned by the government - even when the parents in the families pass away - the children can still take advantage of the low government rent payment and continue to live there.
After visiting the families in Beijing we made our way to a tea room where they taught us how to make tea the “right” way. We were able to sample five different kinds of Chinese tea. Three of which I loved - one of them was “function over flavor” - (it cleans out your blood and helps diabetics maintain their blood sugar) - and one of them - the fruit tea - is made with leaves and dried fruits and literally tastes and looks like cool-aid! At this tea house there is a little tiny figurine that is shaped like a little boy - you pour the water over the figurine to see if the water is hot enough for tea. If the water is hot enough - it literally shoots out of his lower belly and looks as if he is using the bathroom. The girl giving the tea testing couldn’t stop laughing as she told us “no pee - no tea!”
Best thing ever - with the purchase of tea - apparently this figurine come free - so yes, Wyatt will not have a little pee toy. (Eye roll).
Our final organized stop for the day was an acrobatic show. It was so amazing to watch these girls bend and flip and stack their bodies on top of each other. They did all kinds of amazing tricks and stunts. At the end - they had 8 motorcycles in a giant metal ball and racing around together. It was probably the single most stressful 20 minutes of my life. Jet lag started to set in and I somehow lost my sunglasses that I had in my hand - so afterwards we found a “mall” where we had pizza (delish!) for dinner and I bought some “authentic” RayBans.
We are exhausted - but so excited to see what tomorrow holds!!
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