T had a funny. We were trying to tell John where he is going to live- Washington State- and it is difficult for him to say. T then said to me, "The 'th' sound is difficult for him". I laughed so hard. She said "what is so funny?" I reminded her that the is no "th" in where he lives:) She keeps it light.
A lot has transpired since the last post. We have taken an airplane- John's first- to Guangzhou, we have checked into our room, checked back out because of a minor flood in just our room, had medical a check up, a few shots, TB test, met a bunch of Americans adopting, gone on a safari and toured the local "pharmacy".
Starting with the flight. We came here on Friday- as I originally thought we were doing- and only after being told we were coming on Sat. did I think that was going to be the case- but I am trying to go with the flow. We arrived an hour late- we didn't know what time we were supposed to arrive anyway- and the driver took another family from the airport to the hotel and had to return for us. We checked in at around midnight.
In Beijing and Tianjin the temp outside was cold and it was very hot in the room. Here it's the opposite. It is nicely warm outside and very cold inside. I had to turn the system totally off to make it the right temp. Such trials-NOT.
We woke up on Sat. am to go to the clinic and heard the construction guys working outside our window- we have a view of the tarp. I went to take a shower and T said, "there is water coming in through the window". How much water cold it really be? A lot. We were trying to be on time for the clinic but now we needed to change rooms. So we packed our bags again and moved. More about that later.
Everything was fine at the clinic- John is healthy- and he only had to get 3 shots, so that's not too bad. We did notice along the way that he reads very close to the page so we thought we might need to have his eyes checked. Come to find out he has good eye sight in his right eye but has a stigmatism in his left and could only see the first symbol on the chart. No problem there that glasses won't cure.
We went across the "moat" to the main land and walked down the block. We went through this local market trying to figure out what all these things were; food maybe? There is everything from gigantic toad stool, tea, saffron, dried mushrooms, snakes, sea horses and all kinds of things we didn't have any idea what it was. T went out later and explored and found out the entire thing is the pharmacy for local medicine. I'll try to get some pictures for you.
When we returned to our room our proximity sensor would not open the door and it took 3 trips back to the desk to convince them that it was not me but the door. The repair man came to repair it as we were out.
We went for dinner last night to a local place. At the restaurant there were live eels, turtles, fish in many tanks, all kinds of other sea life alive in tanks and even a couple of baskets with frogs in them. You place your order, the wait staff talks into their head set, a guy grabs whatever you have ordered from the appropriate tank/basket and off it goes to the kitchen. It isn't much fresher than alive.
Today is Sunday and we went to the safari park. It's sort of like the zoo only in part of it you can get on the train- like Disney- and it drives right through all the animals.
So- it has not been the best last couple of days. I have not been excited about what is happening and being so out of control of this whole thing. I now am reminded why I don't take tours with a bunch of people, but rather go on my own. Standing in the clinic with 50-ish other couples, and their entourages, with little kids who have no idea what is going on with them and getting shots- making them even more grumpy- makes me very much appreciate the fact that we have John, who can do all these things by himself. For much the same reason as I like being a HS leader- I like having older kids.
John is going to fit into our family well I think. He gets bored pretty easily and is ready to go through what ever it is and get on with whatever is next. He is really trying to get his new language. He is kind, patient and likes to be on the computer.
As I was saying- I am ready to be done. I find it difficult not to be doing productive things this long. I have slept enough this 2 weeks to last me a month and we are not even done. I am tired of hearing the same stories and being asked the same questions. I am just not very fun to be around right now. I don't enjoy this bad attitude and need God to change it to a good one.
T had another good one tonight. She was showing John the US flag and she said, "How many stars are there? Do you know? There are 52." I said, "Really? 52?" She thought a minute and corrected herself. One must always be on their toes around this girl:)
Tomorrow is mostly free and then on Tuesday our guide will go to the embassy and apply for John's visa.
One last very important note. I sent Gale an email asking if she could somehow get in contact with the airline and get John's name changed on the ticket home. This was not helping my attitude- knowing that I bought the ticket in the wrong name and it was going to be difficult for me to change it. So I had no choice but to let someone else help me and that was Gale. She got the airline to change the name- gratis. Thanks for your help Gale. It literally would have taken me hours to do that here; if I could have done it.
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