China day 2 sight seeing and pizza hut!

Three more sleeps for Tahlia in her orphan’s crib!!! In the meantime we have been getting acquainted with her birth land.
This morning we all popped up at 4:45 am and we were wide awake! It was pretty funny! We were both hungry and excited to go sightseeing!
At 6:45 we went down to the breakfast buffet and it was just glorious!!!! Every food you can Imagine for breakfast with chinese flair thrown in. There were eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon, cereal, croissants, toast, pastries, fruit, yogurt, sausage, muffins, ……and, rice, congee, noodles, chicken, pork dumplings, soup, and wontons…pretty amazing!!!
We even asked if we were allowed to come down twice, since our guide wasn’t coming to pick us up till 11pm! They said no ( they must be thinking: glutinous Americans!) lol…so, we stayed extra long, and just ate a lot…since we were going to be skipping lunch! Isabella got her first taste of the language barriers when every time we asked for something they gave us a spoon! Lol
Grace, is our guide…she is wonderful!! she brought coats for all of us since we didn’t pack any (we didn’t realize it was going to be THIS cold…brrrrrr) we thought we could get away with many layers!
Our first stop was the Tianamen square! 1 million people can fit in this square! She told us more interesting facts, but I’m too tired to remember right now. I do know that the body of a leader is in one of the buildings.
We then walked into the “forbidden city”. This used to be closed off up until 50 or so years ago and it was opened to tourists. Before it was open to tourists, if you stepped on it…your head was cut off. There are 9999 rooms in it. 9 is the number for greatest power. It took us almost three hours to walk through it. The architecture was amazing…gold, color, animals, the hardest woods, the best quality bricks….I was overwhelmed by all the detail and symbolism that went into building it. Our guide was amazingly knowledgeable and we learned so many fascinating details. My favorite part was the garden in the middle. I can only imagine how much more beautiful it is in the spring summer months.
After the Forbidden city we went to the famous Pearl Market. There are four floors, the highest floor has the most expensive items. The sales people never let you browse, they are pushy….but, in a funny way. We went in one store to buy traditional Chinese silk dresses and Brian and Grace were haggling for the best price. Grace was a huge help in telling us what and wasn’t a fair price. The Chinese lady selling the dresses finally took our final offer as we started to walk out. isabella and I were cracking up at the whole scenario!
We came back to the hotel room and went to sleep for three hours (stupid jet lag) and woke up hungry. So, we went to the mall just 5 minutes away where there was a Chinese Pizza Hut! Don’t think we werent getting our fair share of culture sitting in an American restaurant…cause the menu was so awesome! There were escargot, red bean smoothies, exotic pizzas with shrimp, salmon. There was, of course, rice of all varieties!
We were boring and just got cheese pizza. The portions here are so much smaller, you must wonder what the Chinese think when they come to America and see our “cheese fries” compared to the plate of fries we got!! They were playing Christmas music!
china city at night is a lot like NY city! Lots of lights!And, many Christmas decorations (surprisingly)

Ok, observances today about china:
1) many people ride scooters and bikes
2) you hardly see pregnant women
3) people love to take their picture with us
4) they drive like crazy people, no seat belts…horns beeping all the time!
5) they stare…it’s super funny
6) no personal space (crowded elevators)
7) many people wear face masks
8) it’s cold
9) they sell corn on the cob on the street like its hot dogs
10) the Chinese are very nice for the most part…but, you can tell we americans sometimes annoy them
11) many women wear jade bracelets and jewelry
12) china women are very fashionable
13) Its very hard to just browse in a store, the salespeople kinda breathe down your neck…..LOL 14) The signs say “mind your step” instead of “watch your step” funny.
15) a lot of people smoke here
16) you can find tea anywhere!!!
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Here is our photo album from today! Just click on the photo to go to the collection! My favorite photo is of the one that I took when a Chinese girl ran up to Brian to ask to get a pic with him. Hilarious!!!

12/9/11 china day 2

…..this experience has been amazing! China is fascinating and so wonderful in so many ways. Tomorrow we get to see one of the seven wonders of the world! The Great Wall.

Oh, and PRAISE GOD FOR SKYPING!!! Seeing my babies faces two times a day has made being half way around the world away from them a little more bearable! They are doing so well. I am so proud of them!

Like, I said…We will get to Tahlia in just three days….it’s a miracle that we are so close to her!!!!
Every time we see a Chinese little girl, our heart melts as we ponder the reality of just how close we are!

Thank you for all your prayers ….please continue to pray that the Lord would be preparing her heart for us!!!!