July 11
& 12, 2005
More Sightseeing in Guangzhou
1:45 pm
(July 13) - The past couple of days we have just been too drained to update our
journal so we thought we would combine the past couple of days into one. We're
nearing the end of our trip and are very anxious to get Tyler home.
July 11 -
Today we visited the Chen Clan Temple which also houses the Guangdong
Provincial Folk Arts Museum. The family name Chen is a very common name in
China, kind of like the last name Smith in the U.S. The Chen Clan Temple is a
place that anyone with the last name Chen would come to worship their
ancestors. It was like a family home that in old times the family would come
and stay while they were visiting the area, sort of like Rose castle in
Scotland. A lot of the Chen family's artifacts were destroyed in the cultural
revolution, but most of the complex that houses their temple remains and it was
re-opened later as a museum. The art on display was very interesting and very
pretty, but we didn't stay very long just because it was very hot and a lot of
us were just very tired.
After the
visit to the temple we stopped at a large gemstone and pearl market. It was
like an indoor mall full of wholesale vendors that only sold precious stones or
pearls. Since neither one of us was really interested in pearls we checked out
the gemstone vendors. Alana ended up buying a very pretty geode to display at
the house. Of course, now she has to pack this heavy rock in the luggage to
bring home, without breaking it. There goes our luggage weight limit.
Over the
past couple of days Tyler had acquired a cough and a little rattling in his
chest. We decided that it was sounding worse when we got back to the hotel. So
we decided to bring him to the hotel doctor. The White Swan hotel really caters
to the adoptive families staying here and has a doctor on duty 24 hours a day. It's
very convenient. We went down to visit the doctor and Bill said it reminded him
of a clown act. Not because they didn't seem to know what they were doing, but
because they were dancing around like clowns in order to entertain Tyler. It
was this older male doctor and a female nurse. They were speaking to him in
Mandarin and then asked what city he came from. When we told him Foshan they
immediately changed to Cantonese and Tyler just sat there staring at them. The
doctor decided that he had a bronchial infection and asthma. Of course, we're
going to verify this with our pediatrician when we get back to the States, but
for now we're just going to take his word for it. The doctor prescribed some
nasty smelling cough syrup and other stuff. He also had us use the antibiotics
we brough with us prescribed by our pediatrician. Then Tyler had to endure what
seemed to be a nebulizer for breathing treatment. They had him breath in the
mist with antibiotics for about 10 minutes, which seemed like an hour. He does
not like to sit still. The whole time the nurse was trying to entertain Tyler
by counting in Chinese and singing songs. It did help a little. And the
treatment did seem to do the trick. His breathing definitely sounded better
after we left the doctor's office.
When we got
back to the room we had to give him his first dose of the medicine. Not fun. First,
Tyler does not like to be restrained. Second, how would you like to have this
nasty smelling/tasting concoction poured into your mouth against your will? We
made it work though and after it was over Tyler acted like nothing had
happened. It must be nice to have such a short memory.
July 12 -
Today we were pretty much on our own. Our guide, Cindy went to the American
Consulate for us to hand in the CIS/INS forms for the visa interview. Alana
stayed in the room after 10:30 am to wait for a phone call from her to make
sure our paperwork was ok. Everything was fine. Now we just need the visa
interview!
Tyler must
be feeling better because he was really antsy today. At 3 pm the group met for
an outing the the Guangzhou zoo. Again, it was just way too hot and everyone
was just sort of going through the motions. We were wishing we had just stayed
back in our air conditioned hotel room. At the zoo our group seemed to be on
display as much the animals. We had people stopping to look at us all the time.
We'll never get used to that.
One thing
about the zoo, conditions are definitely not as optimal or regulated as they
are in the States. The animals just looked terrible and some enclosures were
just like metal and cement prison blocks. It was a little hard to look at. One
of the monkeys seemed to have a lame foot and was limping around their pen. Very
sad. The zoo did have a panda on display. It too was very hot and just layed in
its cement cage and panted while everyone took pictures of her.
Later we went to a restaurant
within walking distance of the hotel for dinner. It specialized in both
Cantonese and Vietnamese cuisine. It also had the prerequisite eels and fish in
tanks when you walked in the door. We decided to try some of the Vietnamese
cuisine. After we ordered the Butlers (parents from the same adoption group)
walked in and joined us for some Vietnamese food. They were with us the other
night at the "bug" restaurant. We ordered a curry dish with king
prawns and bean threads that was just awesome. During the meal both babies were
starting to act up, but the waitresses were right there, ready to take the
babies and carry them around the restaurant to comfort them. We joked that
maybe we could convince one of them to come back to the States with us and be
the baby's nanny.
After dinner we went back to the hotel to try and get Tyler to sleep, but he was so wound up that he didn't get to sleep until around 11 pm. We don't know what the problem was because normally he just falls right to sleep. Then he woke up at 4 am and refused to go back to sleep in his crib. Any time Alana would try to put him back in he would cry bloody murder. He ended up sleeping in Alana's bed with Alana. Where was Bill? Oh, he was just snoring away in his own bed, not a care in the world.
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Chen Clan Temple Entrance |
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Cool carvings on Chen Clan Temple buildings |
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Door Gods protect the Chen Clan Temple |
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Laughing Buddha - Alana says he looks like Bill |
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Tyler enjoying the 96 degree weather at the Zoo |
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Panda enjoying the 96 degree weather at the Zoo |
