FAMILY OF 4EVER: Shopping Day

Today our guide Wei met us at 9 AM in the hotel lobby, and took us out shopping for a few necessities for Hope. A few blocks down the street and around the corner is a very large department store, and grocery. We hit the grocery store first. We bought some Chinese diapers, which we discovered later may be a little big for Hope, in fact, they may just fit me (Just kidding, but they are a little bigger than we expected. We're going to try them, though). We also bought some wipes, snack items for Hope, a couple of jars of the baby food that we are used to, and a couple of boxes of the type that Hope is used to, which is a powdered baby food that you add water to. We bought "ice cream" flavored Oreos, which are just a little bit off, but not too bad.

I wanted to explore the store a little bit more, but was sensitive not to take up too much of our guide's time. I did, however, wander over to the seafood area....Big tanks filled with all assortments of fish. One tank had turtles (not intended to be pets), and another had some sort of eels. Yummy.

We then headed to the department store...Very modern, at least 7 floors (that's as far as we got). It had all the designer names. Things were actually more expensive, at least as far as clothing was concerned, than here in the U.S. A pair of Levi's was about 75 US dollars. Toys, though, were less expensive, and we picked up a few for Hope. A Sea Horse plush thingy that lights up and plays music, some stacking cups, a little toy car thing with bells in the wheels, and toy cell phone. You pay for things a little differently here. You tell the sales clerk what you want to purchase, they give you a ticket. When you're done shopping, you take your hand full of tickets to a counter and pay. You then go back to each department, show the clerk your receipt, and they give you the item(s).

We saw a couple of kids in split pants. If you don't know what these are, Google them. I wanted to take a photo, but couldn't take one on the sly, so I didn't get one. It's definitely a little strange to see, as is the rack of split pant outfits that we saw in the children's section. No adult sizes, though, which is a good thing.

Back at the hotel, our guide gave us a run down of how much money we needed to exchange for the orphanage donation, and other fees. It's not a small chunk of change, and hence was the reason that each of us wore money belts on the trip over (also to keep the money crisp and new looking - they are very particular about their American dollars here). Our guide said farewell, we gathered the cash together, and nervously walked to the bank a couple of blocks down the street. I said something like "exchange money" to the girl that greeted us, and fortunately, she seemed to understand, and we were escorted upstairs. The exchange took about an hour. Now, a stack of U.S. dollars translates into an even bigger stack of Chinese Yuan, so we loaded up the back pack with our stack, and again, nervously, retraced our route back to the hotel. Whew, what a process.

We rested then rested a little bit, and headed back out to pick up a passport photo that I had taken earlier. We then found the local Pizza Hut, and decided to eat there. It seemed to be a popular spot for the younger crowd, and we didn't get as many stares. There was a lot more on the menu than just pizza, with plenty of pictures for us to point to, so we'll probably revisit. On the wall, in English, in big letters it read "Let's share and have". Not sure what they were actually trying to say there, but we ordered a Cheese Lovers pizza. There was barely any sauce, but I washed it down with my Ice Milk (sort of like a watered down milkshake), and it was fine. We both realized after a few sips of our respective beverages that they contained ice. Foreigners are cautioned against drinking anything with ice, because the water can have unpleasant side effects on our sensitive tummies. We'll see how we fare tomorrow, I guess.

Tomorrow is the big day. At 3:00 PM, we will we meet Hope. 4 1/2 years in the making. Not sure how to put it all into words. Both of us are very nervous, but very excited at the same time. I hope that we sleep tonight, but I doubt that we will get much, which has been the trend lately. Anyway, stay tuned. Tomorrow I'll be posting pictures of Hope!