This is Zhen Zhen’s first Christmas, and Harper’s 3rd Christmas.    Of course, its Tucker’s 9th one.     They were all excited of course and up at the crack of dawn to see what Santa Claus brought them.

Oddly enough, Zhen Zhen think’s Santa Claus comes to China too, she is just wondering who at the orphanage has been stealing her presents every Christmas all these years.   All the kids got what they wanted, but Tucker could not really try his mountain bike out yet because we got a blizzard the night before.    In fact, Kansas City was still under a blizzard warning for most of Christmas day as well.

Later on we ended up braving the single digit temps to go sledding on Suicide Hill.   It was Zhen Zhen’s first time sledding, but as its typical for her, she had no fear at all.   We did not last very long however because of the cold and the wind.

That night we had steaks for Christmas dinner.  I had to take the propane tank in the house for a few hours before going out to grill so the tank would be warm enough to be usable.

Transformation to Midwesterner is obviously complete now.

We had a great Christmas this year.

Tree in the back of the truck.

I trimmed it up in the driveway so we could get it into the house and we decorated it, then redecorated it after it fell over twice.    For a cedar, it ended up being a decent looking tree, but it was kind of full.

Griswold Family Tree

Tucker holding his new Bull Snake Malfoy.

Today we got Tucker a bull snake at the KC Reptile Show.   Tucker has been wanting a new snake ever since his corn snake escaped a year ago, so he chose to get one in exchange for his good test grades.   We did not know when we purchased a bull snake that they tend to be quite aggressive.    In fact, this snake is just flat out mean.  He hisses and strikes at Tucker every time he picks him up.   We are hoping he becomes more docile as he gets older.   That said, even though a snake is kind of a white trash pet, they are pretty easy to keep.  They are really clean and only eat about once a week or so.    Hopefully Tucker can remember to keep the lid on his cage this time.

Tiffani, Zhen Zhen, and Harper heading up the trail.

We took the kids out to the Burr Oak Woods conservation area out in Blue Springs today.  Tucker loves going because there is a large area of huge limestone outcrops and boulders to climb on.   Harper is cool with it because it only involves about a mile and a half of hiking.   Once we reached the outcrops, the kids immediately started climbing and exploring.   In fact, Harper actually engaged in what is for her an extreme sport when she jumped across rock crevices.

Extreme Sports for Harper

Tucker and Zhen Zhen definitely like the whole outdoors thing much better than Harper does, but all the kids had a great time.

Zhen Zhen and Tucker on a boulder.

Chicken Kidneys – very tough.

Octopus Balls – this is a Japanese food, was very good.  Since it was nearly 100 degrees out, we opted to not have them drizzle mayonnaise on them.

Fish Balls – I think they were made with some kind of a pressure cooked carp before they were battered, rolled into balls, and fried.  They were ok, but very fishy tasting.

Scorpions – These are actually pretty good, they taste kind of like fried soft shell crabs.

Beetle Larvae – These were edible as wilderness survival food only.

One of the vendors tried to get me to try some kind of roast cockroaches on a stick but I could not bring myself to do so.

Scorpions and Beetle Worms.

The next day our guide took us to the 6 Banyan Tree Buddhist temple (over a thousand years old) where we got the traditional Buddhist blessing for our new daughter.   The temple was very peaceful and full of worshipers.   I thought it was kind of funny seeing many of the younger monks walking around with cell phones.

Getting a blessing from the monk.

The next morning I had just about all I could stand of the city so Zhen Zhen and I hopped a cab to White Cloud Mountain.    White Cloud Mountain rises a couple of thousand feet above Guangzhou.   There are miles of trails on it and a cable car that will take you to and from the top as well.    Despite the heat, we hiked to the top and took the cable car back down.    The trails up the mountain are paved and take you through a sub-tropical forest.    Its not wilderness by any means, but its a welcome change from the concrete jungle below.

Zhen Zhen in the cable car on the way down from the top.

Thursday night we left Guangzhou and flew to Shanghai.    Shanghai is the financial center of mainland China.   Its a city of around 25 million or so and is very competitive with Hong Kong.    We stayed in the Pudong district in a funky hotel that seems to cater to western europeans.

Pudong Skyline from The Bund.

Shanghai is a true world class city.    Our problem was that we really were homesick at this point and it was very hot there (102 when we landed).   So it was not as enjoyable for us as it probably would have been under other circumstances.   Just the same, we spent the weekend exploring the city.   On saturday we went to the Shanghai Museum which houses a large collection of Chinese antiquities.     You could easily spend the better part of a day in the museum as China has a very long history.

3000 year old bronze basin at the museum.

Shanghai is the intellectual birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party, but you would not know it by looking at it now, its essentially the epicenter of commercialism in China.   30 years ago Nanjing Road would have been filled with Chinese citizens in blue Mao suits on bikes, this is it today:

Nanjing Road

Our flight back to the states left on Sunday and the highlight of the day other than knowing we were finally going home was riding the 268 MPH Maglev Train to Pudong International Airport.

On our first morning in Guangzhou we had to take Zhen Zhen to an American Consulate approved clinic for a complete physical and vaccinations.    The cost for the physical, shots, and some medication due to her having an ear infection was around 250 dollars American.   That may sound cheap, but its much more expensive than similar services offered in other Chinese healthcare clinics.  It seems as though all one has to do is create a small association between healthcare and America, and miraculously it gets far more expensive than it otherwise would have been.

Zhen Zhen taking an eye test.

Zhen Zhen had to have 3 shots while we were there and she did not cry at all getting them.   So, she is pretty tough.   After we finished with the physical we spent they day exploring the island.   This was Saturday and evidently thats Wedding Picture Day, when all the newlyweds in Guangzhou come to the island for pictures.

What was amazing to me is that it was nearly 100 degrees and very humid, yet the brides and grooms were out there for hours getting pictures taken without a drop of sweat on them.   It’s much safer going for morning runs here than it was in Nanchang because there are hardly any cars on the island.   Zhen Zhen wakes up around 5:30 AM every morning, and I have been going out for a run at around 6 AM.   There are always tons of people out exercising in the mornings, mostly doing Tai Chi, but there are some joggers as well.    No one is very fast at all so being here makes me feel like Steve Prefontaine as I pass everyone.

Zhen Zhen posing in the pedestrian mall in the middle of the island.

There are lots of American families on the island with their new kids.   Zhen Zhen gets excited every time she sees a new family.   Most of them seem to hang out around their hotels though.   I think its because most of them are yankees and can’t handle the tropical heat and humidity here.   Some of them seem to do nothing but bitch about it here every time you talk to them.   Personally I don’t get it.   It’s hot here, and we miss our kids, but how often do you get to spend time in a place like China.  For crying out loud, this is for many of them a once in a lifetime experience, so quite bitching and get out and explore.   Today we left the island and explored Guangzhou.    The area around the island consists of a lot of older neighborhoods with lots of bustling markets.    Zhen Zhen and I tried some street food, and Tiffani was able to get a new pair of glasses in her prescription for – get this – 32 dollars American.   They had them ready in 1 hour.   Not only that, but they did a better job with the prescription then the optometrist did back in the states when she got her last pair.

Tiffani in her new Glasses

Afterwards we came across a street that was all pets for sale:  Dogs, Cats, Birds, Fish, Chipmunks…..

Chipmunks for sale.

Zhen Zhen pet a puppy for the first time while we were there.  Hopefully this is a good sign in so far as her not being afraid of Carter.

We came across several really cool old lanes as well called hutongs.

Guangzhou Hutong

We also saw lots of exotic foods including: eels, snakes, turtles, jellyfish, and even scorpions:

Be careful eating these...

Evidently there are places here where you can get them served on the street roasted on a stick.    Thats definitely something I will be trying while we are here just to say I did it.   Anyway, Zhen Zhen is driving us crazy wanting to get something to eat so I have to wrap this up.

It is very hot and humid here right now. The official temperature during the day is around 95 to 98 degrees with very oppressive humidity. However, the actual temperature in the summer is always a few degrees hotter than the official temperature because there is a law in China that any time the temperature rises above 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) you get the day off. Thus, the official temperature is almost never 40 degrees Celsius as they always shave a few degrees off the actual temperature when posting the official temperature. Anyway, during the middle of the day, its just flippin hot here. So we always just go to the indoor pool in the hotel during the middle of the day and only get out in the mornings and evenings.

This is Zhen Zhen’s first time in a large city and she does not know to look out for traffic so we have to really watch her when we go outside. Usually I just pick her up and carry her when we are dodging cars, mopeds, and busses as we cross streets. China notoriously has the worst drivers on earth. Their accident rates per capita are exponentially higher than ours are. We passed by a traffic police office and I took a picture of what looks to be the Chinese version of Drivers Ed:

Drivers Education for Chinese Nationals

Around a block or so away from where I took this picture we came upon a large crowd. They were surrounding a woman that had evidently been hit by a passing vehicle. She looked to be quite seriously injured (if not dead), and while the police were there, they were just taking statements from witnesses in the crowd rather than administering first aid to the victim. I probably should have tried to do something myself, but to be honest, I was worried that if we tried to do something we might get arrested or something (and made a show out of investigating our camera) and the headlines in the China Daily would have read “Foreigner Strangles Chinese Woman – Officials are Investigating”. At any rate, we could hear an ambulance coming, and I am sure they got to the scene within another couple of minutes to take the woman to the hospital that was literally less than 100 feet away. Needless to say, you do not want to be seriously injured in China and need first aid or any kind of immediate attention.

Zhen Zhen loves to go out and do stuff. I am sure its all a really big adventure for her. In the mornings we go down for breakfast in the hotel, then go to a supermarket a few blocks away to get snacks for the day. In the evenings our guide meets us and we go out until around 8 or 9 before coming back to the hotel. Despite having some paralysis on her right side and a significant limp, Zhen Zhen has walked 2 miles or more with us every evening. On Tuesday evening we all went to People’s Park which is a beautiful park about a mile and a half or so from the hotel. They have a playground there, lots of Chinese Gardens, rides, and a lake with paddle boats. It was the first time ever for Zhen Zhen to get to ride any kind of amusement park rides, but she has no fear at all of them. She should, as these rides look like rides look just like the kind of rides that carnies would be running in a nation with no personal injury attorneys. We let her ride a couple of them though and she really enjoyed it.

Zhen Zhen on her first Ride

Afterwards we took her out on in a paddle boat in the park’s lake (it was her first time in a boat):

Our Guide Echo, Zhen Zhen, and Me in the Paddle Boat

Later on, we walked about a mile from the park to a nice restaurant for dinner. We ordered:

Roast Suckling Pig – Excellent

A Beef and Chili Pepper Dish – Very, Very, hot – Zhen Zhen loved it.

Kai-lan (Chinese Kale) – was very good. It was sautéed with garlic cloves, chilies, and some kind of small fish.

And a desert that was like a fried pastry filled with condensed coconut milk.

It was served in huge portions family style. We had all of that, plus beers, for around 30 dollars American with the tip.

The next day we went to the Nanchang Zoo. Zhen Zhen had a good time (they have amusement rides in the zoo too), and she saw a lot of animals that she had never seen before. The Zoo is a total dump compared to American zoos.  Most of the animals are kept in small dirty cages.  Zhen Zhen got on a horse for the first time there and smiled for a picture despite being obviously afraid.

Zhen Zhen

As I said, the animals are not kept in the best of conditions, and many look rather unattended. This was especially the case with this huge Boa we saw whose cage was carelessly left open by a zookeeper.

Huge "man eating snake" in the bowel - Notice the large open window in the back of the cage.

After we finished with the zoo, our guide took us down an old street full of vendors and a farmers market.

Old Street in Nanchang

Last time we were in Nanchang our guide was from Shanghai and she came from a fairly bourgeois family – the kind of family that was condemned as “counter revolutionaries and landlords” back during the cultural revolution. It was obvious that she thought Nanchang was a dump full of China’s version of white trash, so she did not take us into any areas like this. Our guide this time is a local though. So she has taken us to a lot of places like this one that we did not get to see last time. On a side note, the communist revolution essentially started in Nanchang and many of the locals seem proud of that, including our guide. Thus our guide has told us a lot about the history of the beginnings of the revolution and this evening we are going to a museum on heros of the revolution. Unlike many other places in China, many of the locals here don’t seem to know how much of a total douche-bag to his people Mao was (giving the Chinese government something actually legitimate to censor this website for now). Anyway, I ended up trying some street food, specifically some “Stinky Tofu”. You can smell stinky tofu long before you actually see it. It smells literally like an open sewer. We smelled it about 30 feet or so before we got to the street vendor. Our guide dared me to try it so I did. Once you get over the smell, which is pretty much impossible, its actually ok. Its deep fried, then drenched in chili oil. I ate a couple of pieces, Tiffani had a little bite, and Zhen Zhen had some.

Trying Stinky Tofu

Other crazy food I have had on the trip so far:

Steamed OX Tripe with Ginger – Zhen Zhen really likes it. I thought it was easily the most disgusting thing I have ever tried.

Green Pea Ice Cream – Zhen Zhen’s favorite. I thought it was ok.

The guide tried to get me to try a preserved egg but I declined. Preserved Egg is a Duck Egg that is wrapped in a special mud and left to rot for about 2 months. I am very adventurous when it comes to trying new things, but I drew the line there.

Afterwards we went to dinner at another nice restaurant where we had:

Chicken Wings covered with a Sweet Coconut Rice – Tiffani’s favorite thing she has had so far on the trip.

A Mushroom and Pork Dish that was fried and drenched in Chili Oil. – Was very good Zhen Zhen loved it.

Some Greens – Very Good.

For desert Mochi stuffed with sweet whipped cream and pineapple – I love Mochi and they were the best I have ever had. Despite being a Japanese Pastry, evidently the Chinese like them too.

Anyway, Zhen Zhen really wants to go to the pool so I have got to wrap this up.

What kind of school will I go to?

Will they be nice to me in school?

Where is Qiong Qiong?  (Harper’s Chinese nickname, they were friends in the orphanage)

Where is my new brother?

Will I have my own bed?

Will we ride on a plane?

When will we go to America?

Are you (the guide) going to go with us to America and help me talk to people there?

Will I ever see my friends at the orphanage again?

Will my Mama and Daddy teach me how to swim?

Zhen Zhen with her nannies and the orphanage director in our hotel room.

We then went to the Civil Affairs office across the street from the hotel and finalized the adoption with the Chinese government.   You see, that hour and a half you spend with your new child in your room is when you are supposed to decide whether you want to go through with the adoption or not.    You would think that no conscionable individual would decide not to go through with it, but believe it or not, people actually have.    In the civil affairs office we paid most of our fees, got our adoption certificate, and exchanged gifts with government officials there (traditional asian custom).    It was very hot in the civil affairs office, and the entire process took close to an hour or so.  The waiting area was full of families around the world getting their new kids for the first time.

Zhen Zhen and Tiffani in the Civil Affairs office

Once we finished up there Zhen Zhen said goodbye to her nannies from the orphanage for the last time, and we went over to the notaries office to notarize all the official documents.    From there we went to Walmart and bought her some toys and a movie (some Chinese cartoon).   We then went to KFC (there are tons of them over here, the Chinese love KFC for some reason), and then came back to the hotel room.

I then showed her some pictures of her on the laptop that the orphanage had sent to us over the last year.   We had quite an extensive conversation about them even though neither of us could understand a word the other was saying.   She seems to be rather put out that her new parents don’t speak mandarin and I think part of the conversation on her part consisted of her voicing that.   Afterwards she had me turn the TV on and we all watched some Chinese Soap Operas together.   Its been a long day for all of us and she is now asleep.    Like I wrote earlier, I really just cant find the words to describe this whole experience so far.

Tomorrow we are all going to the People’s Park together.

The trails were hilly, muddy in places, with lots of rocks and roots.   So it was a pretty gnarly run.   Just the same, Tucker still was able to finish it in 31:04 which I think is pretty good for an 8 year old.   He is quite competitive and was happy to see that other runners were behind him .   We had a blast and both of us can’t wait until our next race.  I think the key to Tucker enjoying running is to combine it with a borderline extreme sport like trail running.

In fact, here is a picture of her the first time we met her:

This picture was taken in a government office building.  She had just arrived a couple of minutes earlier from her orphanage.  We were in a room full of people who where all meeting their adoptive children for the first time.    Within an hour we were back at our hotel room with her and she was playing with the toys we brought for her.

Its really amazing when you think about it.  We travelled literally to the other side of the world.  Met our new daughter (who did not speak a word of English), and just an hour later she was in the floor of our hotel room playing with us.    A few hours later she spent her first night with us.

When I think back on all of it I just can’t believe that its only been 2 years ago that we met her  - and here we are about to do it all again when we get our travel approval to bring home Harper’s friend from the orphange Zhen Zhen.