Hot and Humid in Guangzhou

Last night was not good for little Miss Meredith. She woke up SCREAMING at midnight. She pushed her bottle away and just screamed. Nothing I did could console her. I don't think she was even awake. I was about to call our guide to see if he could take us to the hospital, as I was certain it was something with her belly, then all of a sudden it stopped. I am not sure if this is the night terrors they tell us about or not. Rebecca never had these issues. She often waked throughout the night and will cry, but after about 10-30 seconds, she is right back asleep. Lets hope tonight goes better. On the bright side, She only wore ONE outfit yesterday and only One outfit today! The better news is that today she had not signs of the issues we were dealing with. Yeah! The Chinese medicine does work! Oh and she ate a french fry, then choked on it, but she at least put it in her mouth and tried!

Well today was a very HUMID day.. I think 90% humidity. As soon as you got outside you were soaked with sweat... not fun!

You will not see pictures of our morning outing because I forgot to bring my camera. I know... me... forgot to bring my camera... I was so mad! My friends took pictures for me, but I don't have them to share just yet. We had been to some of these places before so I figured I can use the photos we got them and photo shop Meredith in.

We went to the Buddhist Temple today and some of us were had a buddhist blessing. I am not sure what the Catholic priest will think about this, but we will just keep it our little secret ok? We saw the 500 year old pagoda that you are no longer to walk up because it has started to lean. It looks like there are 9 floors from the outside but inside there is double that. It was SO hot that it was hard to truely enjoy it. Luckily we had been here with Rebecca 5 years ago, so other than a few changes it wasn't that different.

Our next visit was to the Provincial Folk Art Museum also called the Chen Clan Academy. It is the best preserved Qing Dynasty buildijng in the Guangdong Province. It was build 100 years ago. It had colored porcelain and line sculptures on the roof, stone carving and wood carvings all over the house. There were different kinds of Cantonese folk arts in each room, including the ivory carving, Qing Dynasty furniture, embroidery, and Chinese painting. We had been here with Rebecca to. The only difference was we were dropped off further away because of construction and had to walk through some very interesting "neighborhoods". I am amazed everytime I see it how people live with such simplicity and muck. It was depressing, yet there were some awesome camera shots which I didn't get! Many house put pieces of glass into the roof of their house for security. Check bak because as soon as I get some pitcures from my friends I will post them. You will want to see these!

Our final destination was tot he Gunagzhou local arts and crafts stores. They had hand painted pocelain (some painted while you were there), dresses, quilts, pretty much anything you need. the most interesting was a bottle of wine with a dead snake in it. Our guide said that they drink it like that... ewww gross!

By the time we got home we were dripping with sweat and decided after nap to meet up at the pool for a cool swim. Rebecca and I went shopping with other mommies to pick up a few things we needed for Meredith. I am so over shopping, so I went quick, I hope I didn't forget anything. If you had special requests, you may not get them. It is hard to be in the shopping mood when you are SO hot! While we were out and about a thunderstorm hit so we ended up walking home in the rain. We did buy an extra suitcase again... but I am not sure how we will get it from the airport... and then how we will get it home in our car. But it is way cheaper to buy the suitcase than to have a suitcase be over in weight. The suitcase was only $20... an over weight bag can be anywhere from $50-100 depending on where you are.

We had our RED COUCH pictures. I don't know when this tradition got started, but every adoption group had their picture taken on the red couches on the 2nd floor of the White Swan. I remember Rebecca's red couch pictures, trying to get 12 babies to kind of look at the camera. It was a little easier this time with 4. They all dressed up in their cute little Chinese dresses. I DID bring my camera to this, so I can post some pictures today!

Tomorrow we will be packing to come home. We have to stay in our room from 9:30-11 while our guide, Jason goes to the visa interview for us just in case there are questions. Then we are off to the Pearl Market!

We leave Tuesday night to go to Hong Kong and then Wednesday we are homeward bound! HOORAY!