Smirnoff the Chinese baby

This picture was taken on Tuesday in a park around the corner from the hotel. Note the ever-present bag of Cheerios that Stacy has at the ready.

Despite the ease of getting connected, somehow it's been hard to find time to post updates here. Chloë is a full-time job, especially for inexperienced parents. Just remembering all the basics to go and eat in the hotel restaurant is a struggle. Bib, spoon, wipes, water cup. Sounds simple, but for some reason we always forget something.

So, a brief recap of the last few days: on Tuesday we had a few expeditions. We walked a couple of miles around the neighborhood in the morning, came back to the hotel for lunch, then in the afternoon we went to (cough) Wal-mart, which has a big store right on the the main town square. More interesting than Wal-mart was the display of dragons in the square for the spring festival (Chinese new year). I'll post some pictures separately. We wandered around Wal-mart with the hordes, but we tried to spend as little money there as possible. I'm not a fan of the company and the way it operates, so I try not to shop there in the US, and it seems even worse to do business with them here. Still, it was a fascinating experience, as many things tend to be here, with a lot that's the same as the US and a lot more that's different. Our main purchase there was a box of Cheerios, which seem to be Chloë's favorite food. (She'll fit in just fine in the US, I think). We brought a lot with us, but she's eaten them all already.

Now it's Thursday evening, and most of the group felt the need for a quiet day in the hotel today with nothing much planned. Tomorrow Bill, the agency employee who lives in China and travels with the group, will collect the birth certificates and passports from the police station, and then we'll have everything we need for the next leg of our journey on Saturday. Everyone in the group is looking forward to Guangzhou: temperatures there should be about 65F rather than the fifties that we have had in Nanchang, and there is an extensive support system for adoptive parents in the vicinity of the US Consulate there, with shops selling a lot of useful goods such as American-made diapers. (We haven't bought any of the Chinese ones: they are said to be acceptable but not as leakproof as the ones in the US).

// posted by John @ 8:50 PM