Shopping in Guangzhou

Yesterday we went into Guangzhou proper and just checked things out. We took a short cab ride- maybe 15 minutes- and our first stop was "Wedding Dress Street".

So after getting to go with Kimmy and the girls wedding dress shopping in the US, this makes that look very tame. In the US we went to what seems to be the 2 places where people look for dresses. In GZ there is literally a street that is about 2 US blocks long with dress shops on both sides and in every little back street that could be connected in any way. Then at one end of that street there is an international wedding shop that is 5-6 stories high and probably close to the size of a regular Nordstrom and the only thing in the entire building is wedding dresses and things connected with weddings. In all those shops we still could not find 1 veil that we thought Kimmy would like. Their style is very ornate- to say the least. Amazingly beautiful, but very ornate.

From there we took another short taxi ride to "Beijing Lu"- this is where many of the locals shop. Craziness. Since it is only 2 weeks until the start of the Chinese New Year, and one of the traditions is that you must have new clothes for the New Year, there were so many people out. Some of the shops you could hardly move around in. It may have been like this at the outlet the on "Black Friday".

We did find some good buys for John- pants for $12 and that included having them hemmed- which took 15 minutes. Because of the currency exchange it makes you feel like you are spending more money than you are, so it helps to make me more thrifty. 100 RMB is about $15usd- so when I give T a 100 it seems like a lot and yet is it less than a $20.

We came back from there- T was pretty spent- and watched TV for just a bit and then set out for dinner. We went off the little island and over to the main city side. That was a bit scary. We were in the market area, where all the locals bring in their frozen fish... It's probably like the docks in the US. WE pretty quickly decided that there was no restaurants we wanted to eat close to that area so we went back and had Thai food next to the hotel.

The island is really torn up. Last night walking I told T that it is probably very beautiful when it is not under so much construction. There is dirt on all the plants and you have to really watch where you walk. The weather is perfect right now.

The phone just rang in the room and we have to go and get John finger printed this afternoon, since he is over 12- this is a new announcement to us. Oh well, it's always something new here.

We are really trying to get John to talk more- as his normal tendency is to just nod rather than to speak. That won't help him too much in America. I think he understands quite a bit of what we are asking or telling him, but doesn't know exactly what to say in return. We are starting to play some word games at the dinner table, like, "what is this?". Glasses and glass, window and plate- all made of glass- so shouldn't they be the same word?

We are intending on going on a boat ride tonight for dinner with the people from Colorado. I said it would be interesting to see if God allowed us to meet up with them again and we did 2 nights ago. We spent a few hours in their room just visiting about our experience so far. Colorado mom is type A like me and dad is like T. They are close to 50 and have a very pretty 6 year old girl, who is really working them. They have no bio's so there is a lot of new things for both the parents and the daughter to learn. Hopefully we can be of some encouragement to them.

Anyway- enough boring stuff from here. Sorry the crazy exciting, stuff is under the bridge and now I am just rambling about things that are really not very important.
Only a few days left:)

I forgot to say that if you need to email me I can only be reached at chuckweinberg@gmail.com