Other Activities

Tuesday afternoon, we went to a large IKEA/Walmart sort of place (Wal-Zhang-Mart, according to Mr. Cox). A well-intentioned stop by our trusty guide, but not exactly stress-free. The place was teeming with people, and Shiyan took us first to the toy section. Think about that for a minute. 8 kids who just that morning had left the orphanage, had probably not seen so much as a Dollar General, were ushered into a place not as exquisite but every bit as expansive as the Toys R' Us in Times Square. Beautiful. We managed to control the damage, buying some Play-Doh (which Seth of course was not interested in waiting until after checkout to open), the a-fore-pictured stroller, some bottled water*, and some pajamas**.

*More unsolicited advice from Shiyan as we lugged 3 cases of water to the checkout: "don't buy that much, what will you do with it when it is time to leave Beijing?". First off, the cases of 12 bottles cost 7 Yuan = 1 Dollar, so a little undrunk water left at the hotel for the next guest would not exactly rock the scales of benevolence, and second, we're already into the 2nd case, so case #4 appears to be in our future.

**Obviously there was no luggage delivery by that point, so a little sleepwear was desired to complement the 2 outfits we did have. Seth got the short end of this stick, as for all its vastness, Carrefour did not have much for a 4-year old in the way of clothing. For 2 nights and 2 days, he's worn the same outfit he showed up from the orphanage in, or nothing at all.

Wednesday morning, we had a more leisurely shopping experience, as the 4 of us walked on our own to a supermarket a few blocks away. It wasn't nearly as busy, and we enjoyed trying to decipher what things were by observation and from their packaging. We bought (we think) some cookies, bread, jam, soup, and apples. Ok, yes, I think we have now confirmed all that was as expected. As elsewhere, we got lots of looks from people observing these 3 white people with a Chinese child. Seth's chattiness is much noticed by others. He'll say something, which of course we don't understand, and Chinese people around us will often chuckle and smile at us. Oh, to know what he is saying! Take me away from these Crazy Americans!! I want to buy this! Why aren't you listening to me!? I've told you a thousand times....!

Wednesday afternoon, we had a lovely time at the park. 5 families and Shiyan took cabs (12 Yuan - someone should send the US Cab industry a memo) to a large city park called Longtan (the Dragon, I believe). We're hoping to go back at least once to get some more pictures of the lovely landscaping, bridges, and architecture. Seth and Josie, or course, weren't as interested in that, as the rides and playground. All the kids had fun running around and doing a few rides. One mom who had brought bubbles became quite popular, as that turned into a 30-minute activity.

Thursday afternoon when we got back to the hotel, our luggage was finally there. K got very little sleep Wednesday night after we got a (mid)-night phone call (despite my efforts to warn the concierge not to call our room and that we would just come down in the morning to pick it up) saying, we thought, that the luggage had arrived. But alas, when I went down in the morning it was not there. After some mangled English on his part and Chinese on mine, it was determined the bag was still at the airport here. My efforts to extract delivery were unsuccessful, but Shiyan's were not. So today (Friday), we finally get to see if we brought the right sized things for Seth! Delivery also enabled Josie, Seth, and I to have a swim before dinner yesterday. I should have brought the camera there; he enjoyed that a great deal. Josie held him most of the time in the water, and by the end he was jumping off the side into my arms (Yi, Er, San!! = One, Two, Three!).