Out and About

Last night after dinner we went for a walk in nearby Renmin Park with the other CHSFS family. The park's only a couple blocks from our hotel, and it's absolutely lovely: lots of shade trees, a lake, all kinds of exotic plants and flowers. We both said that it was like walking in the Como Park Conservatory - without the glass dome. The people of Nanning go to this park to relax and escape the traffic and crowds. There were young couples sitting together in the pavillion, families out for a stroll, and some older folks practicing their tai chi. We tried putting Wynn in the baby carrier for the first time - success! She rode along cooperatively, and Scott's arms got a much needed break.

We got back from our walk at about 7:15 last night, and Wynn promptly passed out on the bed. She slept straight through until 5 AM. Scott changed her diaper around 10 o'clock, and she slept right through it. Ahh.

Since she has no interest in the crib and is a heavy duty "roller" in the bed, we finally came up with a system where we can ALL relax and sleep through the night. It involves all three of us sleeping in a twin bed together, but it works! Scott sleeps in the normal position, my pillow and head go down by his feet, and Wynn is tucked safely in the "nest" between us. (We're REALLY hoping the hotel in Guangzhou has bigger beds.)

Hannah took us on a tour of the countryside today. It was like nothing we've ever seen. Lush green farmlands are punctuated with massive slices of mountain that suddenly shoot up from the ground. (We keep saying, "I feel like I'm on location for a James Bond movie," to each other.) When we got to Guangzhou we should be able to download pictures again, so check back to see them.

Hannah took us to a small farming village. She knew the villagers there and took us on a walking tour so we could take pictures of the people, their homes, their farms, and the scenery that surrounds them. Everyone there was friendly and smiling at us, cooing at the little girls being carried around by their big American fathers. It was definitely exotic, but strangely familiar since, even though we're city folks, we've spent enough time near farmlands at home to be able to tell the difference between the pig barn and the cow barn based on smell alone. The temperature today was ninety-eight degrees with a dewpoint around eighty, and we Westerners were certainly feeling it. Hannah looked at our beet red faces and innocently asked, "Oh, is it too hot?" (We have discovered that, even though she comes from the tropics, Wynn is a Minnesotan at heart. She's happiest when we're riding in the van with the air conditioning cranked, and she kicks all the covers off of her at night. This girl likes to be COOL - just like Mama.)

Wynn has decided that riding in her stroller is okay by her - another break for Daddy's arms. :-)

We can't get her to drink the formula the orphanage sent with her, but she'll definitely have a bite of whatever we're having. She ate an ENORMOUS bowl of congee at noon today. We were both amazed that such a tiny person could pack away so much food. She's also figured out that I'm the one who's packing snacks, so we're doing a lot of our initial bonding by her asking me for food and me giving it to her. She still wants to sit on Scott's lap when she's eating, but she figured out that I'm the one holding the spoon.

Tomorrow we're going with Hannah to buy some souvenirs of Guangxi in the morning; then we'll just relax for the afternoon. We're getting tired of hotel food - there's no grocery store or Western food near our hotel - so we're looking forward to moving on to life on Shamian Island in Guangzhou starting Saturday. Word on the street is they have a place where you can get real burgers and fries. :-)

One week from today we'll be home.
With a fridge full of food.
And a queen-sized bed.
And tap water we can drink.
And our friends and family around us.

Ann