Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tao of Gracie
This morning Gracie was up at 5 am. Today's outing: The Park with the Taoist Temple Near the Lake. I'll remember the real name later. Nanchang is not only the home of the People's Revolution, it is also the birthplace of Taoism, and today's temple was spectacular. There was a shrine to Sun Tzu, author of the Art of War, and there were several Taoist monks around, playing instruments, one of whom entertained us on the a string instrument, like a dulcimer, and even invited the kids to take a try. We were so sorry that we were not allowed to take photos inside the temples, but there was a wonderful mural of epic scale, complete with good and bad guys and angry gods. We were done by noon and spent a relaxing day having a great Japanese lunch in the hotel with Rob, Michelle and Karen, and just hanging around the room. David bought Grace some plastic blocks this afternoon and she skipped her nap just to play with them all afternoon.
The other adopted kids, most are older than Gracie, are now coming around, smiling and interacting, one is showing their parents how to use chopsticks. We also got the photos developed of Gracie in the orphanage, in her rolling walker and hanging around her Fenyi buddies. It looks like they kept her pretty well bundled and in a Pebbles-like top pony tail. She has that very intent look. I sometimes wonder what they are thinking now-probably something like --this is a great field trip. Every morning, a buffet; every day a bus trip, every night a nother party. If only these people could understand us.
Here at the hotel we always hear firecrackers going off, all the time. This afternoon, they were louder than usual, so I looked outside - we are on the 21st floor and below I saw a line of people dressed in white with black hats. They were following a cart, and there were flutes and drums playing. Firecrackers were going off. I took a photo. Rui confirmed for me that it was a funeral. I snapped a photo - It's pretty far away but it was pretty interesting.
Tonight Gracie fell asleep in David's arms while the group was at dinner, around 6pm , after eating an entire bowl of steamed eggs - which were pretty darned good. So, it should be an early morning for us. Tomorrow, we go back to the Notary office, where we will get our passports and Saturday we head out for G-town -- aka Guangzhou. All the parents today were looking at each other and saying--only one week more, then we get to go home.
PS: Regarding comments on the blog - these don't get posted until I see them, and I check once or twice a day. I have the option to publish or not, so you can just indicate if you don't want me to post your comments. While in China, I cannot read the comments once I post them, so moderating them gives me a chance to read them before they are posted.
