Saturday, January 18, 2014

Some details about our final day in Lanzhou and the trip to Guangzhou

Well, I will try to catch up and describe what and how we have been doing.   On Thursday morning we went to a museum in Lanzhou.  It was a very nicely done, modern museum with exhibits about dinosaur bones found in the province, Buddhist art and history, and relics from the Silk Road.

After the museum we had beef noodles at a nice little restaurant.  It is interesting that the restaurants have like only 4-5 tables in them.  The beef noodles are long skinny noodles like spaghetti only thinner and longer.  At this restaurant they were in a beef broth soup with one piece of beef in the soup.  They also brought out several different plates of different vegetables to add to the soup.  They also serve this for breakfast at the hotel.  I had it once for breakfast, very yummy.  These beef noodles are the famous food for the Lanzhou region.

Thursday morning we saw the first of Rachel expressing her own opinion.  When we were leaving breakfast she was not ready, so she cried a little.  Amanda and I were so surprised by the tears welling up in her eyes and spilling over onto her cute little cheeks that we tried to take a picture, we missed it though.  I was so glad that she finally expressed some opinion.  She seemed to finally trust us enough to tell us what she liked and didn't like.

Those tears were just the beginning of many more to come.  Thursday evening we were at Pizza Hut and she dropped a cracker on the floor.  We picked it up and threw it away and she just lost it, even though she had more crackers in front of her.  She cried and cried loudly, so I took her outside and let Amanda stay and pay.  Outside, I am sure everyone passing by thought there was a crazy white lady trying to abduct a screaming cute Chinese girl.  Several stopped to try and help me.  But it is hard when I can't talk to them and explain what she is going through.  Amanda finally was able to pay our bill, and we got Rachel back in the backpack and started moving.  She felt better about that and quieted down.

Since Thursday she has had a harder time sleeping also.  I put her orphanage clothes back on to see if that would make her more comfortable and she has not let me take them off since.  So much for the very cute clothes I brought for her, maybe we will get there.

One of the big things that causes her anxiety is food.  She always wants food in her hands.  If she has to let go of it, she gets very upset.  We went to a grocery store and got m and m's and she kept putting the package up to my mouth because she knows that you have to open these packages with your teeth.  She would not let them go nor would she stop putting the package in my mouth.  I finally opened them and she about went crazy eating them!  She loved them so much!   She did not want to share.  Raisins however, she shares.  She finds a raisin mixed in with the cheerios in her little cup, and she feeds it to me.

We arrived in Guangzhou yesterday (Friday) and the trip basically took all day because of driving to the airport on one end, the flight, and getting to the hotel on the other end.  We were exhausted,  especially after very little sleep the night before.

There is a McDonald's next door to the hotel, a bonus.  This is a very nice hotel, the Marriott.  The internet is much better.  The beds are very nice.  It has a great big tub and it has English TV stations.

This morning (Saturday) was the medical exam, which went smoothly.  We went shopping a little then home for the afternoon.  Rachel has just been happy and playing all afternoon.  I gave up on making her take a nap today, she made it yesterday without one, and I just didn't want to fight it.

Overall she is still about the cutest little person I have every seen.  I am very thankful for her and she is worth all the effort.  But it will be good to get home!

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