the Wausau life of Gracie, Monkey Girl, Schmoopy and co.

Graffiti on the Great Wall of China! I asked a local about this one....he says it reads "867-5309 Jenny" !

OK, here!

Not close enough for ya?

"What stinks?" in urban China, you have many always varying choices...

:)

These are some of my favorite non-Mia shots of the trip. Lisa, in a loose moment, attempting unsuccessfully to do an impression of the late emperor, whose picture is everywhere it seems. The sheer size of the pic hanging on the entrance gate to the Forbidden City is intimidating... 

It's hard to believe that it has been nearly a week since our arrival back to central Wisconsin...time flies when you are back to work and have doubled your childcare duties! The jet lag on the return trip was much worse than that on the outgoing. Although Mia was an angel on the loooong 15 hour flight from Hong Kong to O'Hare, neither Lis or I could nap. So we've been spending the last few days reestablishing our internal clocks and schedules, Grace included.

We had a wonderful welcoming committee at the airport...thanks to those of you that made it. I have been overwhelmed with kindness from colleagues and friends at work. Really looking forward to Mia's official family welcoming party down in Oshkosh this weekend and our Mia 'pool party' (thanks Barb!) the following.

Let me just say that Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy was an excellent book, but the movie - even without consisent audio - looked really bad. It was one of 5 movies they showed while in flight...I tried to watch, then put away the earphones, and tried unsuccessfully to sleep.

Mia is really coming out of her shell. She is getting a little 'grabby' with toys and turns out to be a very picky eater. She accepts eggs, rice, noodles, formula, and Cheerios. That's about it. I'll admit, could be worse....but a fruit or veggie here or there would be nice. And yes, we did try French Fries, no luck. She is walking with arm support quite enthusiastically which is nice to see; in China it seemed she forgot she had legs. Lis did take her in to the pediatrician already and many of her immunizations needed to be repeated / updated (poor thing) ...I think she sustained 4 or 5 shots. Also now on additional antibiotics for an ear infection - I think the stuff tastes pretty good, but she is quite adept at spitting it out despite my best syringe techniques.

Grace has been amazing with her. She is the ultimate helper and I think finds her kind of interesting. She asked that we not put her down for a nap at one point because she would 'miss' her. :)

Did get a chance to look through some of our digi pictures. I promise to post them here soon; stay tuned.

Be well.

Mark

Hi all,
We begin our journey home tomorrow! We are definitely
ready, missing our little Grace especially. We are, as
I said earlier, being pampered here at the White Swan,
but it is time to get this thing moving. We make our
trip to the US consolate in the AM, visit a buddhist
temple (where apparently Mia gets some sort of
blessing!), and hop on a train to Hong Kong in the
afternoon. Our cell phone will no longer be with us as
of about 5pm our time tomorrow, but we'll be in touch
with any major schedule issues.

Had a barbecue tonight, which was welcome western
dining....but the hilight really wasn't the entrees,
it was dessert! ICE CREAM....wow, I've missed that
too. I didn't even care that the green stuff wasn't
mint, but green tea flavored....

Well, hopefully the attachments make it through. These
pics are a few days old now, hard to believe we have
had Mia for a solid week now.

After several delays and a late arrival, we did make
it to the White Swan hotel in Guangzhou last night. I
have to admit it is pretty darn amazing; the nicest
hotel I've stayed at anyone I believe. Today was Mia's
Chinese medical exam to complete another portion of
the adoption process...it was pretty much a joke. Kind
of one of those 'once overs' (ie 'let's see...2 arms,
2 legs, 2 eyes, breathing...OK, next!) It was
incredibly hot once again, and we figured the kids
might be running 'temps' just from that but everything
went fine for the little girls. It was pretty sad
however looking at the equipment this clinic had to
work with...one of the docs did the E.N.T. exam still
used that round head reflector for looking the ears
and throat -- no otoscopes to be seen anywhere. Then
we did some more shopping; I completed my quest for
buying a simple Chinese version of chess.

Mia is doing wonderfully. She is simply charming our
pants off -- new stuff everyday. Seems to be an
evening kid. Tonight Lisa was trying to get her to bed
and she decided to start babbling. She is still way
behind in most developmental areas, but she's making
daily progress. Just some good nutrition and
attention...the orphanage she's from definitely needs
some help. The other parents who are here from other
orphanages across China have 8 and 9 month old kids
that are developmentally very close to right on and
weigh more than most of the kids from our group, who
are on average almost twice their age. Sad, but so
glad we got those girls out of there....

Gotta run, take everybody, I'll right more soon.

Today was amazingly boring and amazingly exciting --
On the latter : Mia is really letting loose with the
laughter and giggles, and is now handing out smiles
regularly to Lisa and me. She is still a quite timid
little girl, but who can blame an orphan for that? The
boring part is that there was nothing on the agenda
for today other than pack and get ready for our flight
to Guangzhou around 7:30 tonight. So, I'm simply
posting to the blog some random thoughts. For others
more worldly than I, these tidbits won't seem very
interesting, but they are details that struck my
curiousity anyway.

-- China is all on one time zone...that is amazing
really given the huge size of this country.

-- Chinese cuisine here is generally excellent, but we
are all at the point of not only craving our old
American favorite dishes, but also craving the
'chinese' food we get at home, which usually involves
large quantities of white rice, and dishes with lots
of sauce and nuts that you ladel over the top. Oh, and
no fortune cookies here....and Chinese regular cookies
suck.

-- I was looking for baby Benadryl for Mia's heat rash
(itching) and couldn't find it at the little pharmacy
at the hotel. What I did find was alot of 'sheep
placenta' supplements; yikes wonder what that is for!
Oh, and antibiotics like amoxicillin are readily
available over the counter here. Cool if you are a
nervous parent or hypochondriac. Not cool if you are a
public health official trying to curb antibiotic
resistant bugs floating around through the population.

-- Alot of young boys find work as security guards at
the tender age of 15, 16, 17 etc. While American teens
are flipping burgers at fast food joints, these guys
are standing in the lobby at banks, hotels, etc. They
don't seem to do very much other than just stand
there...saw a few of them sleeping. Would be hard to
imagine them actually intervening in a 'situation'.
China in general seems 'overstaffed'. Obviously this
would fit with the huge population as well as with the
fact that we are staying at and dining at extremely
nice places, but when Lisa was breakfasting early this
am and the restaurant was still empty, the staff were
falling over themselves to 'service' her...'are you
done with that Miss? actually no, thanks, really....'

-- Charades is a fun and useful game when you are
trying to communicate across a language barrier. In
Beijing, Lis needed more toilet paper and I flagged
down a maid with her cart in the hotel hallway. She
got 'paper' pretty soon, but went for a notepad. I
then had to act out wiping my butt (!) - fortunately
no one else was around - she instantly got it "TOILET
paper" and handed a roll over with an embarrassed
smile.

-- I haven't seen one 'mountain bike' here despite
their popularity back home. The bikes look to all be
vintage, and old, like the old Schwinn my dad used to
use. And many are rigged up with all kinds of
platforms and carriers to haul an unbelievable amount
of stuff. In the heat, you feel sorry for the riders;
many of the women carry umbrellas for a sun shield
while they bike. But I have seen more brands of moped
and motorcycle then I ever realized existed; they are
everywhere. Yesterday in the rain, almost all the
motor bikers had a plastic shroud that not only
covered the driver, but also the front of the bike,
like a dress, with holes for the handlebars to go
through and a small transparent spot for the
headlight. Chinese ingenuity!

More bloggin' tomorrow I'm sure....off to Guangzhou! :)

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