Thursday

This morning we met our guide at 10:00. First stop was a porcelain shop. Jiangxi is known for their porcelain. I thought that meant it would be less expensive and had hopes of getting many pieces. That was not the case. We got two very small vases, a limited edition Year of the Ox plate(for Alyssa), 2 small jewelry boxes, and a set of chopsticks for $240. One of the jewelry boxes and chopsticks were free. The Year of the Monkey plate for Grace would have been $243.

Next we headed to a huge park. Lots of people were walking around and enjoying the day. We saw lots of children playing. There were amusement rides, square dancing, ponds loaded with fish, and a small playground. The girls loved the park! We were there about an hour.

Lily asked if we would like dumplings for lunch. Of course we said yes. We went to a fast food type place that sold dumplings. We got half pork and half chicken. They were delicious! Grace ate the most, she is our dumpling girl. They are so much better than the ones in the U.S. For the 7 of us it cost $10.

We arrived back at the hotel by 1:00. I convinced Dallas that Zachary and him should venture out. I would have gone too but crossing crazy traffic with the girls just didn't seem like a good idea. They first went to a mall where they couldn't figure out why they were the only ones there. They found something really cool for Nicholas. Then they went to Walmart. They found Alyssa a stuffed animal Happy Goat. She was beyond excited when Dallas gave it to her. Last stop was KFC and they brought a bucket of chicken home. It tasted just like the chicken back home.

After dinner we went to the playroom for a bit. I had to break into the medicine supply I brought. Zachary's stomach was not doing well. Imodium seems to have helped. We brought every medicine imaginable.

Once again by 8:00 we could no longer keep our eyes open. This always leads to a very early morning especially for me. It is 2:00 a.m. here and I am wide awake. It is nice to have this time to blog.

This afternoon we are flying to Guangzhou to complete the U.S. portion of Alyssa's adoption. We are so excited to be moving on. Having been there before we know we will have so much more to do and it will be great to be able to talk to other Americans. We hope to see the sun. The last sun sighting was the day before we left RDU.

Next post ..Guangzhou, Guangdong