The Old City

When I wrote my blog yesterday, I thought we saw real China.  Then today our guide took us to the "old city."

Interesting doesn't begin to describe it.  I'm going to give a fair warning: there may be a few pictures that will make you squeamish.  But I encourage you to look anyway.  It's just life in this area.  Step outside your comfort zone for a moment and walk with me through this city.  I promise it will be entertaining...

When we first started walking through this area, it's not what I expected.  This reminded me a bit of home with all the crazy Christmas shopping.

Xinhua Bookstore is a chain here in China.  It's also where Zoe was found.  This is not the exact same bookstore where she was found as we didn't get to visit her home town, but at least we have a picture of the sign.

And then you literally turn a corner and enter the "old city."

The first two streets were basically pet stores selling all kinds of animals and animal food.  These were not for eating.  Love that I have to clarify that.

Then we entered the spice street.

I guess things get a little spicy on spice street because this was one of the first things we saw on that street.

This was a little peek down an alley behind the stores to the apartments.

Spices galore!  It actually smelled really good on this street.  That's one thing that will not come across on a blog is the smell.  In most places it's a mixture of cigarette smoke, pollution, and sewage.  This was a pleasant escape for our noses.

I just had to post this picture.  We're always told Zoe is "spicy girl" because she's from Hunan, and in the last blog I posted her "spicy" face.  Looks very similar to this spicy girl on spice street...

 Nothing says spice like those splayed lizards on a stick...

And then we took a left onto, well, the creepy crawling street.  Here are some small live scorpions for sale.

And the larger live scorpions...

Here are some kind of live baby animals being plucked out of sawdust with chopsticks.  I'm really not sure what they do with these but we're not on the pet street any more.

One of my sweet friends asked about how they sterilize things.  I had to giggle.  Friends, this is just how it's done here.  Take a good look at this fine chopping station and surrounding area.  And I'm not sure how many days they let the meat sit out on the counter.

A tub of pig ears and legs out for delivery.

We walked into the biggest market in the area.  Eriek noticed that it was "take your baby to work day" in produce. I hope she doesn't have the split pants on.

This isn't Texas style chicken fingers people.  This here is the real deal.

Here are the somewhat fresh fish.

And here are the fresher fresh fish, except for the dead one hanging off the side.

In case you're not quite sure what you're looking at, hanging in the middle are pig ears and underneath those are pig legs.  The rest is, well, it's the rest.

Sometimes they run out of room in the market, so they just hang the meat on the power lines outside.  

For a complete change of scenery, we drove just a couple minutes away.  Here is what they call a wishing tree.  People write down their wishes and place them in the tree.  It's absolutely gorgeous!

I was still having flashes of scorpions and pig ears in my mind, when we took a peaceful stroll down this canal.  Such a completely different place.

We also saw this festive little theater on the water. 

I've been to China 6 times sprinkled over the last 16 years, and I'm still processing how vastly different it is from the world I'm used to.

Switching gears now because tomorrow is our Consulate appointment, where Zoe becomes an official member of our family!  I just love how God can take two totally different worlds and smash them together to make a family that fits together so beautifully.

A Slice of Life

Thank you all so much for your continued prayers for us.  Peanut went down much easier yesterday for both her nap and bedtime.  So instead of blogging, I took a little break and watched some tv on the iPad with Eriek and got an amazing night's sleep!  So, here's a little recap of yesterday since today we're just laying low and heading to the park to play in a bit.  But don't worry, I'm gathering fun things to post about on our days off!

Yesterday marked one full week that Zoe has been with us, and my oh my, how she has opened up and changed so much in such a short time!  Here's a comparison from our first picture together to now.

Everywhere we go people ask what province she is from and we tell them Hunan.  The automatic response is, "Oh, she is spicy girl."  So, apparently Hunan girls are known for being spicy.  She is pretty sweet but does have a "spicy" side to her.  Here is a glimpse of her mischievous spicy face she likes to give us.

Yesterday our group went to Shamian Island.  This is where the White Swan Hotel is located that adopting families usually stay at and pose their China babies on the famous red couch for a picture.  It seems to be the China adoption right of passage, that's why I say famous.  That hotel is currently closed for reconstruction so we're staying in a different area.  When we first heard we were going to the island for a 3 hour tour, I immediately thought of Gilligan's Island.  Fortunately we were only on a bus and did not get lost at sea.  It was a pleasant escape from the everyday.  We did a little bit of shopping and a lot of walking and wandering about.  

If you're ever in the area, I HIGHLY recommend two shops- Jenny's Place and A Gift From China.  Both have great quality items and are owned and run by Christians.  We bought some cute Chinese dresses for the girls, squeaky shoes, a puzzle of China's provinces, a Chinese/English Bible and a pretty scroll with two cute pandas and cherry blossoms.  Shopping success for us non-shoppers!

Here's a little tour of the island.  Sorry if some of the pictures are a bit washed out.  It was a little hazy, and I usually had a baby or a can of puffs in one hand while shooting with the other.  And I don't have photoshop on Eriek's laptop.  But you'll still see that it's so gorgeous and comfortable at the same time.  Definitely a great place to just hang out.  No wonder there were about 30 photographers doing commercial shoots there.

So it's beautiful and fun, but as usual our favorite part was wandering into a park by the water where life was just happening.  Here is some kind of choir that was practicing under the bridge.  Wish we knew what they were singing.

I didn't get a picture of it, but right next to this choir group some guy was blasting Chinese rock on a tape player and dancing between two women in wheelchairs.  Eriek and I couldn't help but giggle when we walked by, which is why there's no picture.  Below is a man in an ornate suit sitting under a beautiful tree playing some kind of string instrument that I didn't recognize.

This next picture doesn't capture the true magic of the action inside this park, but beside the choir group and many dancing groups we saw yet again, the majority of groups were playing... wait for it...

hacky sac!  And ya'll, I'm talking serious hacky sac action.  These are not young people playing either.  In fact, most of them are probably retired as this was at 11am on a Monday.  I think I might start a hacky sac group when I get home so I can stay fit into retirement  Anyone care to join me?

Of course like any good park, there must be a set of rules, or "tourist notes."  My favorite "notes" would have to be no hawking, no sleeping in the chair, and no shotting.  Yes, you read that right.  Oh, and don't forget to check out the pictures just in case you don't understand the translation.

  Now the island was fun to visit, but it's a bit like Disney World compared to the area behind our hotel.  Remember the picture from the last post with the lovely goat head and alligator belly?  That's the area our guide said was everyday Guangzhou.  We decided to go check out a little slice of life yesterday afternoon.  This is the street right behind our hotel.  It gets narrower as you walk down but it starts to feel more festive as it teems with life in the markets.

I thought those veggies looked yummy until Eriek pointed out the bowl of insects in the middle.

Chicken, pork... hungry for a real chicken finger people?

Now that is fresh produce, although not the cleanest kitchen I've ever seen.  Not sure how those chickens feel watching their friends get chopped up in front of them.

Turtle soup anyone?  We also saw eels and huge fish packed into small tanks.

Apparently in Guangzhou they really like snake.  Our guide told us of a few snake restaurants in the area.

This was in the entrance to a fancy seafood restaurant.

And here is the classic bike, piled high with stuff on the back.  Although I have seen MUCH higher stacks of stuff on these bikes.  I remember a few years back seeing a guy riding with about 50 dead chickens tied and flapping on the sides of his bike.  I've also seen someone cart a mattress on the back of a bike.  It's really up to your imagination here.

But I wanted to leave you with a sign we saw in the hotel on our way to breakfast this morning.  We're still not sure what to make of it, but I'm a bit more nervous about ordering room service.

Sunday Funday

It was a fun day of sightseeing and playing today.  So fun in fact, even after a not-so-great night's sleep, we couldn't take much of a nap.

You have to start a fun day off right with some finger licking good banana!  Zoe's starting to enjoy this solid food business, eating a little bit more each day. 

We started at the Chan family temple.  It was beautifully ornate with tons of artwork inside.  Here's our group all with the Great Wall China Adoption agency.

There's tons of history and cool facts our guide told us, but I was busy showing Zoe the trees and leaves that she is mildly obsessed with.  So enjoy some fun pictures and feel free to google the place or make up your own fun imaginative story to go with them.

From there we went to the Pearl Market, which is essentially a large mall with lots of pearl and jewelry stores plus some other random things. But don't be fooled, it's actually much bigger than it looks.  There are alleys and hallways of stores behind all the store fronts you see.

What did we buy, you ask?  Well, as cultured as Eriek and I are, we long for our children to have the same love and affection for China.  So we stocked up on $4 Disney movies for the girls.  That's right, a gift our children will actually love and appreciate for a lifetime.   Buy 5, get 1 free.  Need I say more?  All that shopping wiped our little peanut out.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a small local noodle place nearby that our guide recommended.  Our entire meal was about $4 and it was AMAZING!  I waited on the bus since Zoe was sleeping, but Eriek got some cool pictures of them making the noodles.  Maybe I'll have a noodle dream tonight and turn into Kung Fu Panda.

This afternoon we all had a treat.  Zoe was attaching so well to Daddy that they went and played on the 4th floor playground and garden while Mommy got a massage!

Gatorade bottle + sort of broken swing + Daddy= great afternoon!

I had an interesting little stroll to the massage place.  It was a slice of real life here.  I'll just post one picture to keep you interested, but we're going to go back tomorrow so I'll be sure to take more.   Be warned, if you have a weak stomach, skip the next picture.  

Yup, that is a goat head in the middle and an alligator belly on the bottom right.  Our guide told us that here, people are known for eating everything.  She said there is a saying that people from Guangzhou will eat anything that flies in the air except the airplane.  They will eat anything that swims in the sea except the boat.  And they will eat anything that has four legs on the ground except the dinner table.

Overall, it was an outstanding day.  It only took 30 minutes to get Zoe to sleep tonight.  She woke up an hour later but was easily soothed back to sleep.  Praying for a good night's sleep for all of us.  But I don't need sweet dreams, mine have come true.  Just look at this little treasure...