November 29

11/29

 

                We woke up a little earlier than we did yesterday.  We went down for breakfast which was almost the same as normal. However, they did not have my egg dimsum or the fantastic mango juice. I tried a few new varieties of fruits; there were no names for them. They were like small, sweet oranges that you eat with the peel, or tiny apples that have relatively no flavor to them. Dragon fruit is pretty good on its own, the inside looks like white kiwi and tastes like it too. Gianna loves to eat everything, especially fruit.  Mom introduced her to watermelon, cantaloupe, banana, dragon fruit, yogurt, and eggs.  Gianna is just now starting to warm up to dad and I.  Gianna is still most comfortable with Mom.

                At 10:00 AM, we left the plaza on a bus to go to the park. Evelyn told us to enjoy our day looking like superstars, and I wasn’t quite sure what she meant. I decided not to ask though. When we got to the park, it was absolutely huge. I’m used to a park being a play set with a slide and some grass. This was huge, and had no play set, and there were almost no kids there. They were mostly adults! Almost immediately I knew what Evelyn meant when she said we were going to be like superstars. People were stopping to look at us everywhere. There were so many people there too! We were being stopped everywhere and asked about the babies and if they were from China. A lady stopped us and said the babies would all have such a better life in America than they ever would in the orphanages. People wanted to touch my hair every time I turned around.

                We saw all sorts of people in the park with all these different talents. Some sang, some played sports, some even danced. The most interesting was a man that stood and held a long paintbrush in each hand and drew on the sidewalk Chinese calligraphy characters. They were beautiful poems, Evelyn translated them for us. One hand drew the correct version, and the other drew the flipped mirror image. It was so pretty! Gianna seemed pretty interested in it. She had been amazing there, she was so alert and interested in everything, and didn’t cry at all. We started walking again and heard this beautiful music. It sounded almost like a flute. We all wanted to go find it; we had to climb up this huge rock to get to this music. We found a hidden pagoda, a little open Chinese building. There were two men playing Chinese wooden flutes. You could tell they were very skilled and it was beautiful music. I loved it! We all took pictures and went on our way. The park was beautiful and was surrounded by a lake; it was even pretty on a rather cloudy day. All of the Chinese people were very nice to us.  They all were very interested in us Americans. They treated us with great respect.

                After the park, we went to an authentic porcelain shop where most everything was hand painted. The porcelain was stunning! We got a few things in there; the most amusing thing was chopstick holders and tea sets. They have those in almost every restaurant here. The Chinese like their chopsticks on the table, but not touching it, and out of the way. Nanchang is the porcelain capital of China.   Everybody loved this store. We then went to a popular Chinese restaurant; Evelyn ordered different foods for us to try. I loved all of it. She ordered us Chinese doughnuts to try. They are made out of sticky rice and are coated in sugar. I know that sounds nasty, but it was amazing. Mom wasn’t a fan of it, but I think it was the texture of the doughnuts. Mom has not eaten much because she has had to hold Gianna and feed her, but I think she has even enjoyed the food.  Gianna loved the doughnuts; she was eyeing mine so I gave her a few bites of it. She didn’t cry at all while we were out, Mom and Dad were so proud of her. She is finally starting to get used to dad and I now.

                That was our big day today. We were all pretty tired when we got back. I still kind of wanted to go to the pool and Gianna went out with Dad to bond more without Mom there. If Mom is around, Gianna has to be right by her. Nobody else but Mom can pick her up or carry her. I’m sure it’s pretty tiring.

                Love, Big Sis