Buddhist Temple,Oath, Dinner Cruise

We've just returned from the dinner cruise and are closing down another day in Guangzhou. Only one more full day here and then it is the 22 hour journey home (22 hours counting layovers in Tokyo and Detroit). Today started with the morning venture to the Six Banyan Buddhist Temple. The place was packed as today is first day of the holiday week off. It is customary to burn incense at these temples and it was burning everywhere. Eli and most of the other Chinese adopted children along with parents received a blessing from the Buddhist monk in the temple. You can see in the picture the monk at the bottom. After the blessing Eli even received two tangerines from a Chinese woman just outside the temple. It's becoming habit him receiving things from random people. After the temple we went and became americanized again at Lucy's cafe where Eli continues to devour french fries while Dad had his american burger, fries, and a cold malted mug. Mom decided it was time to refresh her palate at Starbuck's with a white mocha.
After the lunch and nap (where Dad continues to celebrate Brewer baseball with any internet article or replay he can find) it was off to the US Consulate for Eli's visa and the oath taking ceremony. All this build up and paranoia to this big event and then all we did is give a document to some person behind a desk and say a 5 second oath and it is now official from the US side of things. Now we get a sealed brown envelope that we cannot open and hand it to US officials at customs in Detroit.
After the ceremony, we again noodled Eli in our hotel room and hurried to catch our dinner cruise. Here's the funny part of the dinner cruise. Each family orders a Papa John's pizza and drinks from 7 Eleven and takes them on the boat...and that's the dinner part of it. According to our guides the food on ship isn't very good. The cruise part though was amazing as was the boat. The two pictures at the top show the view. The boat was decorated in lanterns and old, simple Chinese music played in the background. Weather was perfect and the ride down the Pearl River in Guangzhou was amazing. The buildings are lit up like Times Square in Manhattan on both sides with all different colors. Spotlights are everywhere and even the suspension bridges are lit. It was truly an amazing event. Absolutely gorgeous.
Sooo...one day left and tomorrow is free except for an exit meeting to confirm our departure times in the afternoon. We are passing on doing the Panda safari in the morning as we would rather do something like that on a heritage tour back to China (which our adoption agency offers) someday with the whole family and whatever relatives would like to come (hint..hint...). This country's image in the US is truly misconstrued. It is a great place to be and the people are incredibly friendly, helpful, and polite whether we've been in the north, central, or southern parts.
That's it for now...looks like clear flying weather wise as we've missed the two typhoons and the other two won't be a factor until after we are gone. Best wishes to all!