Family Day, Weston Cote

This morning at our 6 a.m. breakfast buffet we met a family from Canada that received twin 1 year old girls yesterday. Apparently their special need was premature birth, but as the new parents said, 'they seem perfect to us.'. The girls were tiny and very cute. Couldn't help but think of the twins that Sue & Robert were matched with. Gotta say, you're in for a real 'armful'! :)

Today we went to the Civil Affairs building in Kunming to meet Weston.
The Civil Affairs building was all a-bustle. The Canadian couple & twins were already there doing another day of paperwork. I joked with the mom that she bumped us (explaining her followup paperwork was hardly more important than our Gotcha day). Plus our expectation was high. We knew from 3 years ago they surprised us behind our backs and just walked in Mason for the first time while we were doing paperwork. I was pacing back and forth, trying to peek in each room, getting ready to knock a few doors down to find him.

Anyway, at the insistence of Mason, we eventually broke down and asked our guide if he was there or still in traffic. Still in traffic.

He finally arrived, and we got to hold Weston for the first time. Very quiet boy. The president told us he never cries. He also wanted to keep walking towards the president and hang out with him instead.

The paperwork in this province was much quicker that Jilin's. They had their own photo shoot room, which made that part much easier. Plus, due to "country-side adoption" they put in Weston's passport application a long time ago. The guide will follow up without us to get it. Easy! The only hiccup was they had one of our papers done up incorrectly. My name was spelled wrong and they had some California address on there instead of ours. Even after they fixed it, it was still wrong, so we had them fix it a final time.

Weston is all eyes as he watches everything. After about 30 minutes, he started sniffling and then stopped. Then 10 minutes later sniffled again louder and louder until he had a real cry. That lasted at least 20 minutes, and would have lasted longer but we were able to finally stick a bottle in his mouth and he started eating. So far he's eaten two rounds of formula, a banana, and some softer-than-cheerios cereal.

Weston, mom, and Mason were playing on the bed with his first toy we bought: oversized legos that has some wheels. He had fun making a large tower, and Mason loves being a big brother showing him "the world". Mom eventually had to go to the restroom, and so I hopped behind him in the family circle on the bed. His neck was bending back and forth looking for mom, and he started snifflilng again. He got off the bed, walked towards his socks and shoes, picked them up and walked toward the door. Sat down and put them on. Guess he's done visiting us, and ready to go back to the orphanage. Poor, scared kid.

Mom is back and Weston is feeling better. Lights are off, curtains drawn. He's leaning against her resting, but I don't think he's going to sleep. He wathces everything Mason does, leans against mom, and keeps a wary eye on me. ;)

Pretty interesting, and it's only been the first few hours!

The Stone Forest

So tired! I feel like we've already been here a couple weeks.

Today we met at 8:30 am and drove out to the Stone Forest. It's an amazing national treasure, and we look forward to the day that we can take Weston there to see it.



It rained, stopped, got hot, then sprinkled the rest of the time we were there, but that hardly put a damper on our exploration up and down the steps through these tall towers of cool stone.



Mason was a real trouper. Although he had a lot of fun, without being allowed to explore every fox hole, the whole 'beauty' of the place was lost to him. And it was really crowded. Splashing through the water puddles was his favorite part.

After that, we exchanged some money at the bank for tomorrow's fees, and then took a walk to find somewhere new to eat. When it seemed like we wouldn't find anything besides a street vendor selling pop, we went down an alley that looked promising due to a single sign that said, "Good Coffee". Turns out that you can get a coffee there for $200 a cup. Wow, that must be some good coffee. I ended up getting a $4 cup, and we were able to sign language our way to some food menus. The place had tarps for ceiling, a small bridge & water fountain with goldfish to keep Mason busy, and their "sort of spicy" dish was very very spicy. I ended up eating Heather's choice, and she had Mason's choice.

They put coffee grounds in the ash tray, as a way to put out the ashes? And to have the smell of coffee everywhere?? Mason thought it was dip for the pumpkin seeds. Luckily we caught that after a few minutes.



We wandered around Green Lake, which I am only going to guess is Kunming's version of Central Park. We got turned around in there and had to guess the direction out of there. Even made a circle and felt like I was in a Scooby Doo cartoon.

Walked (dodged traffic) to WalMart again to buy some supplies and a toy-block set for Weston. Surprisingly, the Chinese Walmart as the worst toy section in all the world -- at least what I've noticed at all of them so far. Mason was disappointed, because he thought we'd buy some elaborate gift for Weston that he'd really like. We had to compensate by letting him get something small for himself.

We ate again at Blue Bird across the street and ordered two pizzas. Cheese for Heather, and "Cuttle Fish Sauce & Prawns" pizza for me. The blackness of the cuttlefish sauce was a little off putting, but I did my best not to think about it. I thought it tasted smoky & quite good. Mason fell asleep again after eating, and mom had to carry him home.



We're all trying to get extra sleept tonight. Big day tomorrow starting at 9:30 a.m!

Flickr Pictures

Just a reminder that our Flickr Picture icon on the right is a working link to our Flickr page. And (so far) I have been able to upload all of our pictures there every day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theseussfamily/

Goodbye Beijing, Hello Kunming!

Not much on our list to do today, but we're exhausted anyway!

We went to the Silk Market this morning, and haggled some dragons for Mason to play with. Heather said I did a great job, but it was way too much work. I think I prefer a price tag on a shelf.


We left the hotel at 11:30, drove to the airport. Had my breath taken away when walking into that big, big Beijing Airport. Got through a slow security checkpoint, and had a fun lunch at a noodle place (Ajisen Ramen, or something like that). I shared a bowl with Mason, and I'm not sure I even got half.


Heather caught some ZZZ's while Mason played video games and colored with crayons with dad. At one point he asked me how much of our 3 hour flight was left, and I said, "2 hours". He said "GOOD!". Having too much fun.

Kunming is much smaller. We're back in the land of dodging mopeds!

The Wal-Mart here was nuts, and the line was ancient. We scoured the place for some bottled water and fresh fruit, finally able to find both, we made our way to the check out line, where we waited forever and a day to pay.

Afterward we had a small supper at a Thai restaurant (Blue Bird) across the street. Not sure why it's considered Thai, it mostly had Italian and Hamurgers. Mason ate well, dipping into my plate when he was done with his. Then curled up and slept on mom's lap. Had to carry him home. My back is only 1/2 a piggyback ride away from breaking.

Tomorrow we go to the Stone Forest. The day after that, we meet Weston!

HuTong Tour

Today we started with a Hutong tour at the entrance to the Drum and Bell towers. The Drum & Bell towers were used long ago to tell the non-imperials what time it was. Instead of every hour, it was every two hours. The work day started at 5 a.m., and finished at 7 p.m. They used drums in the morning, and bells at night (or vica versa).

We climbed the 69 steps to the top of the Drum tower, and with great timing, got to watch a loud, big drum show with minutes to spare. We then took a short tour around the balcony. Apparently access to it has been severely restricted due to an individual who brought a short sword up there and killed a few tourists and then jumped off - back during the Beijing Olympics. All of which the guide explained to us, and now Mason wants to know why someone would kill themselves.

Back at the bottom we jumped in the back of two rickshaws, and got a street level Hutong tour. Hutong means narrow alley way. It was explained to us that we were in the "real" downtown Beijing, and that 10's of thousands of these used to hook up to each other until the government destroyed most of them (800 left?) to make Beijing more modern with the high rises. We were told that some rich people still live in these areas, and you can tell by the expensive cars parked on the side of some of the alleyways. By living close to the earth, with a courtyard, one can expect longevity, etc. The people living in the high rises are lost and soulless. Everything you could want is within walking distance: groceries, medical, school, etc. However, the alleyways were in rough shape, with a lot of people selling whatever they could, and looking for recyclebles. But beyond each courtyard door - who knows what one could find.

We ended our Hutong tour with a walk inside someone's home. This must be something he does on the side. The owner of the house is a kung fu master, and was very proud to show off his sons working in the States (as kung fu teachers), pictures on water bottle advertisements & calendars. He gave us a business card that was basically a picture of a local ABC news station interviewing his son in Texas. I asked and he said his family has been kung fu masters for 4 or 5 generations. I believe his brother either taught or was taught side by side with Jet Li as boys. Very cramped rooms, the tiniest kitchen in the world, an amazingly thin but perfect window aquarium, and furniture that would put Ikea to shame -- it was still very lovingly decked out and peaceful. They aren't kidding about fung shui.

After the Hutong tour we went to the Summer Palace. We walked through the long corridor and climbed the stairs to see the Tower of the Buddhist Incense.

After walking through the park for a bit, we enjoyed a snack on the dragon boat, before it took off to take us across Kunming Lake. Mason was getting upset, but after finally accepting a chocolate laced granola bar, he was raring to go. At the final bridge & island he kept mentioning how hot it was and we bought him a bottle of Sprite. The kid practically glowed. "Hey mom, you know how crazy I'm going to get now?"

Very enjoyable, somewhat short day. Mom took a nap at about 2 pm, while I uploaded photos & video to our home computer and Mason watched a movie on my phone. After the movie was over, and he ate leftover spaghetti, we both closed our eyes for "just a quick nap", and ended up being awoken by mom at 6pm. I didn't want to get up but forced myself to, and we could not get Mason to wake up. He screamed bloody murder, and eventually we gave up and let him sleep. Heather and I called it quits for the day and ordered some room service for supper. I'm hoping we can oversleep our way through this jetlag.

We leave the hotel at 11:30am tomorrow, and fly to Kunming at about 2pm. Arrive 3 hours and 20 minutes later.

Great Wall

Today Mason woke up at 3 a.m., which of course meant Dustin was awake at 3 a.m. We both found out Heather was awake at 12:30 a.m. I guess we're still getting used to our jet lag and time zone change.