Sunday in Guangzhou

Guangzhou at night is something to be seen. I sit with the baby by our hotel window and watch the light show on the river below. The entire shoreline- buildings and walkways- are lit with neon. THere is a hotel across the way that has a light show projected on the side of the building. Cruise boats covered in neon float by. Then spotlights flash across the water. Lasers project from the tops of the highrise buildings and shoot all over the water. The suspension bridge down the river is also covered in neon and lasers. They pay obnoxious music, so I turn up the sound system in the room to classical music. I sit and feed the baby and take in the unreal display below. I have heard that tonight there might be fireworks to help honor Hong Kong's holiday. Hong Kong will have the real show tonight with 5 million dollars worth of fireworks. I wish we could be there. I sure hope Hong Kong Muse and her husband will be out, taking in the display and taking pictures!

Matt now has the cold. He is pretty miserable. Juna appears to be getting over hers. I think I am being reinfected again. Bah.

It's the lack of sleep. 1212 is/ (was hurrah!) a bad room. We watch the laser show at 930pm, then go to bed. That's when the upstairs plumbing went crazy again. We were up very late with the bang bang clang clang. This morning at breakfast, I asked our travel mates if they had the same problem. Nope, just us! Matt immediately went to the front desk. Within ten mins, a bellboy arrived to fetch our bags and take us to a new room. Two floors up, two doors down. Same stunning river view, non smoking, and a baby crib arrived five mins later. There is a hot pot here, too. This is the service people have raved about from the White Swan. The service that was lacking when we arrived several days ago. Whew, thank you White Swan. Let's hope this is a quiet room. Mama really needs to sleep.

I cannot nap. Our days are now so packed with appointments and sight seeing. I can sleep when we get home. hahahaha, yeah right!

Yesterday the group went to the pearl and jade market. Which sounds fun, right? Five stories of jewelry! Connected to a tower of shops on the other side! Mei Heaven!!

Eh, not so much fun with a baby in a poorly air conditioned building. If you come here in summer, just prepare to sweat constantly. Even tho GZ is far cooler than Nanchang, it's still pretty stifling here. An 8 month old orphanage baby has newborn like needs. THere is a need for a bottle ever few hours. Our baby cannot sleep on the fly. She is too consumed with the world around her, which is to be expected. The whole time we were there, I was worried about her.

I did manage to get a ton of outfits for my girlies for about 3 usd per outfit. My Chinese friends said I overpaid. It's funny how there are prices for Chinese retail, Chinese wholesale, and then prices for the Americans. Bargaining? I HATE IT. I have learned how to blame Matt- that really works. "Husband says too high!" They will instantly lower the price. That is, when I have had to bargain. They usually lower the price immediately. I turn to Matt. They lower some more. I still look skeptical, more lowering. Then I finally find the price in my head that seems reasonable. To me, it all seems reasonable compared to US prices. But my Chinese friends have gotten into my head. Wholesale!!

June Bug had a huge blowout diaper while we shopped. No changing tables. But would you, even if you could? The bathrooms are Chinese and in this location, not clean. We changed her outside in the square of the center. With plenty of onlookers. We stood her up to put on her pull up Chinese diaper and she peed everywhere. It's ok. The little kids just pee wherever they want. Still... not comfortable.

I wandered around the Jade market for a bit. I am not a jade or pearl girl. And the shop keepers were not willing to bargain as much. Instead of waiting for our group, we said goodbye and caught a cab to the hotel.

Later in the evening, we met Samster, our online friend. We are meeting three wonderful online friends while here from the China Daily website. It's an internet forum for the CHina Daily newspaper. There have a GZ section and years ago, I posted. I asked for local friends to give me as much GZ info as possible. Samster is one of the people who answered who I have been talking to all this time. I meet my other two friends in the coming days. He had time in his busy schedule to take us to dinner. Ok, his name is Sam, but I nick named him Samster. He is a very outgoing young graphic designer. We met in the hotel lobby and there was much happiness. We have been waiting a long time for this meeting.

We walked to Sam's favorite restaurant, which was packed. So we headed down the street to another. they had outdoor dining, so we dined by the river. This place was AUTHENTIC. Like pigeons as appetizers authentic.

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she is up. more later