December 5

12.5.12

                We woke up this morning a little later than usual because we didn’t have anything to do super early. We ended up rolling out of bed at 8:30 AM, which wasn’t that hard for us to do since we haven’t had much sleep in two weeks. The beds are not that comfortable, so when I wake up, I am ready to get out of the bed. We went to the Pearl Market at 11:30 AM, and the ride there was via taxi. Jocelyn, our tour guide, rode in the front seat, while Dad, Mom, Gianna, and I all rode in the back seat.

                We did not expect what we saw at all. There were six floors, each floor roughly the size of a Wal-Mart market. It was filled with all kinds of jewelry. Jocelyn told us that a lot of it was fake; however, there was one store that was trusted, very well known, and had fantastically real pearls. Mom found white pearls she instantly liked. Dad convinced her to buy them. She ended up buying two strands to make a medium length necklace, a bracelet, and earrings. Dad bought me a pearl necklace too, and let me pick out what I wanted. I ended up with three strands, one medium sized and two small sized strands. The smaller ones were yellow, the medium sized white. She twisted them all together, and it was beautiful. Dad thought it was really pretty, and so did Mom. They decided to get another one (the exact same thing) for Gianna when she is older.

                We left after an hour or so, and wanted to go to another pedestrian street for some more shopping. We walked there from the market, and as soon as we got into it, Mom and I caught this smell. It smelled like some animal had died two weeks ago and was left there. Mom walked straight back out at that point. We went back to the hotel, and Gianna was sound asleep. Mom wanted to go to the Sauna, so I went with her at 3:00 PM. There was a 4:30 PM meeting that Dad went to with Gianna, we got back to the room at 4:45 PM. My hair felt dry on the ends, so I hopped in the shower for some conditioner. Mom came busting in the door at 4:53 PM while the conditioner was on and said we had to go get group pictures in seven minutes. We were rushing to get ready.

When we came up, we went to the Dong Fang shops, and I got a couple scarves and some earrings. We got this stone carving of Gianna and Mom, and then had to wait until 7:00 PM to pick it up. When we got there to pick up the stone carving, Dad and Mom found this stone stamp with a rabbit (Gianna’s Chinese zodiac sign) and got her name carved into the bottom. We had to go pick that up at 9:00 PM. We came home, then Dad and I ran to 7-11 store to get noodles, and we got Mom a chocolate brownie, which she loved. When we went back to Dong Fang shops to pick up Gianna’s stamp, only Dad and I went. I ended up getting two more scarves, and a tiger eye stone necklace. I loved it! We came home and finished up our packing as we leave tomorrowL. I am excited to get to go home of course, but I really like it here. I know I won’t get to come back for quite some time. We can’t wait to bring Gianna home!!!!!

Love, Sis.