Changsha Days

We have entered the dog days of the adoption process. The new and the novel has passed. The thrill of exploring the history and sights of Beijing are behind us. The anxiety of meeting our new child has eased and joy of finally getting to meet him is replaced with the mundane care and maintenance of the little bugger. Even the day to day experience of living in a land that doesn't speak your language has become routine. We have moved on from tourist to normal life but still living out of the hotel room with none of the amenities of home. A week to go with no more big events on the horizon. Counting down the days now and finding some things to help pass the time.

Tuesday was the designated baby supply shopping day. All those necessities that wouldn't fit in the suitcase have to be purchased now that the ankle biter is here. But before we headed to the Babies R Us of China, we first visited an Embroidery Museum. I am told that the Hunan Provence is well known for its embroidery and have won many prizes for their skill in this area. I have to take their word on this because I do not run in the circles of the dangerous and illegal world of competitive underground embroidery. What we saw was impressive though. The embroidery done here is not the typical initials on a handkerchief. Many of the embroidered pieces of art looked just like paintings. The stitches were only obvious once you were standing on top of the creation. There were another series of embroidered pieces that showed different pictures on either side of the material but there was no evidence of the picture on the reverse side of the material when looking at the picture on the front. We even got to see a group of ladies busy creating these incredibly detailed hand sewn patterns.

On the way to and from the embroidery museum, Cainan decided to serenade the van with a little song. It is interesting because his time riding around the city has also been his most vocal. It may be because he especially loves riding in the van or he so fears for his life that what we interpret as coos of happiness are actually screams for help. See, Chinese traffic is just one big game of chicken. You go where you need to go and dare the person driving in your path to get out of the way. Even our guide admitted that me pays no attention to the rules of the road despite the fact that the government has placed signs all over the city pleading with their citizens to obey a Stop sign every now and then. The picture above shows a car driving in an area clearly marked for pedestrians. Basically, if it is paved, it is a road, no matter what the signs say.

The baby store was a quick stop for the necessities. Food, diapers, a stroller (Cainan is a big boy, his head weighs 20 pounds by itself). Before I left, Jennifer made a point to instruct me to buy the highest quality brand of Chinese diapers. She explained that I had to be sure that they were the best because many of the Chinese diapers were substandard. But even then, I was to use the limited supply of diapers that I brought with me for overnight because the Chinese diapers could not be trusted for this critical time. I must not waste these American diapers because I would not be able to get something of equal quality here. When it finally came time to buy these diapers, I had to rely on a store clerk who did not speak English but I trusted that she was steering to the best. I had hoped that I had gotten it right or else I faced the impending disaster Jennifer had promised. When I got back, I took a good look at these diapers and they looked to be pretty substantial so I think I did OK. I can't pronounce the brand of diapers I ended up getting but it is spelled "Huggies".

In the evening we and the other Great Wall couple took a long walk up and down the street. This was our first time that we had really gone out in public with our new boys. Just like Cainan, the other child has cleft lip and palate although his has been partially repaired. One thing that became clear right away was that the average Chinese person has no problem staring. What seemed like every person we passed went through the same set of actions. They would first look at us and then actively seek to look in the stroller. It is with this second look that they would freeze their gaze before moving on. Afterwards, the other couple said they noticed this as well. What bothered them most about the experience, which I agreed with, was the blank slate that accompanied the looks. Neither positive or negative. Just a hard stare with no way of knowing what they were thinking.

As a final note on the day, we continued our search for a true Chinese eating experience. Unfortunately, Pizza Hut didn't seem to have anything Chinese so we had pizza instead.

Today, we tried to find more activities to burn time with. Our guide, Sam, took us to the largest park in the city for a nice long walk. The park seemed to serve as the town square. Large numbers of people gathered there to congregate and engage in all manner of activity. We saw large groups gathered in woods practicing their singing, other groups taking dance class, old men playing Chinese chess, bands rehearsing Chinese opera, and lots of kids being kids. The park also included a small amusement park that reminded me of Kennywood if Kennywood would have been abandoned for over a decade and then reopened for people to use without supervision.

The continued reaction of others to our boys and the level of curiosity about their lips is really interesting. We stopped to buy some water at one point and both of the girls behind the counter came out to take a good look. They then began peppering an associate of our guide -who had been accompanying us -with questions. It was clear what they were talking about because they kept pointing to their own lips. Afterwards, the guide's associate told us that the ladies thought the boys were very pretty but wanted to know if we were going to fix them and how that would be done.

Probably the most notable aspect of the day was Cainan. Today, he really came alive. Coming back after the park, he showed real life in playing in the hotel room. Chasing after things, climbing on us, actively pursuing games that made him happy. He started to show all the energy you would expect out of a little boy. He seems to have also found a particular liking to being tickled on the stomach. After doing it to him for a while and getting hearty laughs in response, he started crawling up to me and flipping himself on his back, begging like a dog to have his belly itched.

Following our guide's advice, we finally found a Chinese restaurant to eat at. At the restaurant we were led down a long hall of closed doors and into a small room. The room had a table set for eight as well as two green couches, a TV, air conditioner, and small dish washer. Basically, your grandma's kitchen. After the food came and we started to eat, the wait staff began a little game called "take a gander at the funny looking people". For no good reason, different members of the restaurant's crew would come into the room, take a look at our receipt, look around the table, and then leave. This continued one person after another until at least 10 different people had played the game. Finally, our original waitress came back in and started playing with Cainan. Cainan, who was done eating at this point, indicated he wouldn't mind getting up and the waitress obliged, picking him up and holding him for a good bit. She was clearly infatuated with him. Eventually she asked if she could take him out of the room. Apparently there was a bus boy that hadn't seen him yet. The whole thing was a little surreal and gave both us and the other couple a good laugh. Good food and a floor show.