Monday, September 17, 2007

9-17 - Shamian Island and Medicals



September 17, 2007

It has been a couple of days since I wrote about our adventures, mainly because I have been a little under the weather. The pollution in Wuhan finally got the best of me on our last day there. The flight from Wuhan to Guangzhou was not very eventful; Olivia did not make a sound but was very bored and had to be moving the entire flight. She has bonded to me the most so I was responsible for holding her the entire 80 minutes it took to get to our destination. She only weighs 15 pounds, but she is strong and very fidgety. She also has a bit of stubbornness with a determination to do what she wants on her terms and time table. No wonder she has bonded to me more so than Christy, she is a mini me!

Once on the ground in Guangzhou we made our way to the White Swan which is located on Shamian Island. Actually it is not really much of an island as it only has a moat around the perimeter, it is still downtown Guangzhou. However, the “island” is well secured to keep out a lot of the locals that take advantage of the tourist. There are a lot of specialty shops here and negotiating skills is a plus as seldom is items priced. General rule is you pay 70% of what they ask for. If I felt better I believe I could negotiate better, but at this point I will just pay what they want and move onto the next shop. On Tuesday we are going to a place off of the island called “electronic mall”, it is suppose to be place to find the latest electronics and DVD’s.

Guangzhou is a lot like Beijing and Wuhan, lots of traffic and lots of people. However the pollution here is nowhere close to what it was in Wuhan. You can actually see a blue sky and clouds here in Guangzhou. It is still very hot, yesterday we went to a park and within 30 minutes we were miserable. The heat was unbearable. There were a lot of couples there getting pictures made for upcoming weddings. The girls were in full length wedding dresses and they had to hate it, the guys were equally uncomfortable. I told Thomas those men did not what uncomfortable was until they have been married for 5 – 10 years. Christy overheard me and of course I got in trouble.

Today we went to do medicals for Olivia. Not much of a physical, just ENT and weight, height, heart rate and a general look over by the doctor. She got thumbs up and they said we needed to put some pounds on her, no surprise to us and no problem for me to do that. I will be introducing Olivia to Krispy Kreme and Little Debbie once we get back to the states. On Tuesday Thomas will go to the US consulate and apply for Travel Visa for Olivia. That is the last step we need to go through before we can leave, which is Wednesday evening.

I continue to be impressed at just how nice the people of China are to us and each other. Every where you go you will see people walking hand in hand or arm in arm, mostly girls but a lot of older people too. When I am out an about they always smile and make an attempt to say hello. I have discovered a lot of the information I have read / heard about China is not correct. Once you have visited here and walk amongst the people you discover they are very kind and hard working people.

4 comments:

The Victory's said...

Hope that you are feeling better by the time you read this. I had noticed that you were looking a little worn out and Tim and I had wondered if Olivia had you up all night, not sleeping. Christy on the other hand is looking like China and Motherhood agrees with her =). Take care,
Owanna & Tim

Anonymous said...

Marty...hope you're feeling better. Christy...I agree with the previous poster, you do look great! And, Olivia, well, she is just a doll...even when she's screaming at the medical :-)

Won't be long until you guys are headed home. Hope to see you soon!

Love,
Jan

Anonymous said...

Christy,

I meant to mention this in my last post...Marty mentioned Olivia has bonded with him the most...well, Tess bonded with Steve BIG TIME initially and now she is a HUGE Mama's girl. Sometimes even when you know that can happen, it's hard for us Mama's to accept. Anyway, just wanted to mention that.

I'm thinking of you guys and praying for you daily.

Take care,
Jan

The Blaszczynski Family said...

It's so great to hear everything is going so well! I can't wait to hear how the flight home goes, that's what I will be most anxious about. Good luck with everything, we look forward to your posts once your home and rested!
Love,
Amanda B.