China, Day 2: Shopping in the Morning

She is perfect.

We had a long day waiting to get Keira at 4:00 today. The good thing is that we had lots to occupy our attention before getting her. So we didn't have too much time to get anxious or otherwise freaked-out.

The day started of on a great note when I found in my email the fax from USCIS, officer Wu which confirmed that our fingerprints taken last Thursday have already been processed and we have FBI clearance! The fingerprint saga is over!

Breakfast at the White Swan: There are hundreds of items to choose from. Just to give you an idea--there is a fruit juice bar, a fresh fruit bar, cereal bar, and yogurt section. A chef prepares made to order omelettes next to the stacks of steamed dim sum bamboo towers. Our favorite are the shrimp dumplings in rice wrappers. We even learned how to say soy sauce, but it doesn't work every time due to the intonation: "jiang you." Quick breads, pastries, cured meats, caviar, smoked salmon PLUS sausages, noodles (Megan would be in heaven), etc etc AND IT COMES WITH THE PRICE OF OUR ROOM so we have breakfast coupons. We have been eating overlooking the Pearl River...just gorgeous. Do we have to go home? Can't we just live at the White Swan?

SPEAKING OF LIVING AT THE WHITE SWAN: Our room is very tiny, BUT we have set it up into "rooms." We are referring to it as "camping at the 5-star hotel." We have been told not to drink the water, so we have designated cups for teeth brushing using only bottled water, and the like. We have a thermos that boils water almost instantaneously and we use that for tea, coffee, baby formula (cooled down), dehydrated foods, and much more. Today we "washed" all our dishes in a tub that Kelsey bought for 3 yuan or the US equivalent of 40 cents. Most of that happens in the "kitchen" which is a granite countertop style cabinet unit that has a small refrigerator under it. The desk is the office--where all the photo uploading takes place. We also have the baby's room which is the crib with toys and blankies. The pantry is a small end table with non perishable food items that our friend Rebecca lovingly purchased for our trip. We started off on the right track, getting all documents and monies in the safe, all baby supplies together, and all medicines together. All seems to be operating smoothly so far, with us having fun figuring out what to do with all the baby supplies that we packed on blind faith that there would be a reason we would need them all.

Shopping for Pearls: Amy took us to the "walking street" and "Open market," a famous area in Guangzhao where you can look for underpriced goods in one half of the building and in the other, beautiful pearls (this area is known for its fresh and sea water pearls), and wholesale beads.

In the section of less expensive goods, we made out like pirates (no pun intended) where we found 5 DVD's for the equivalent of $2 each. Yes, we tried them in the player and they work. Kelsey also had the surreal experience of finding a Chinese copy/knock-off of a Louis Vuitton bag that she has been wanting for ages. It is a denim handbag that typically runs $1500 (not in the family budget!) but we found it for $38 US dollars equivalent (now that is more like it!!).

One more diversion before going to get our little daughter--Amy asked if we wanted to have Thai food, so we lunched at the Cow Bridge Restaurant. It was fantastic! A feast of curries, tom ka gai soup, fresh sauteed vegetables, rice, clay pot--we will be going there many more times. It is two blocks from the hotel.

OK, now it is starting to get more real...back to the hotel to pack up a few items for taking to the registration office. Yikes!

On the way to get Keira I finally got nervous. So much so, that by the time we were waiting in the receiving room Kelsey and Amy said I looked pale.