On Monday afternoon we made our way to Walmart. On the way our guide informed us that the US is the number one adopter of Chinese children and Spain is number two. She also mentioned that she prefers US adopters because most Spainish women smoke. In China, 99 percent of people who smoke are men. They do smoke alot and just about everywhere we are learning, but women do not. We also were shown a neat stretch of street that does not allow any vehicles or bikes and it is strictly a walking street for shopping. We were advised if we do go there we will be treated like movie stars since people hear in Central China do not see foreigners hardly at all...especially Americans. We would like to get out and see the mall and go for a walk, but the real idea of being surrounded by hundreds of people makes us a little nervous.
Wal-mart was a store in a mall and located on floors two and three. Clothing and such is on floor three and food is located on floor two. There is an escalator that gradually declines and you walk onto it with your shopping cart and ride it down. The organization of the store is quite different, but there is enough English words around the store and on products to make shopping relatively easy. Prices in many areas are comparable, but there are some things definitely cheaper. Bottled water you can purchase for the equivalent of 17 cents American and a bottle of Coke is 33 cents. You can also purchase your choice of duck hanging from a rack, squid, and Octopus in tanks like you do lobster back home. The smell in the food area can be a little repulsing at times.
We also noticed many people staring at us. Staring in China is not considered rude. One guy in our group has had his picture taken a half dozen times with Chinese people because they think he looks like Bruce Willis...I think he looks more like Kevin Bacon.
It was 98 degrees today and the humidity made it feel like 110. We have a typhoon (hurricane) sitting in the South China Sea and is making its' way to shore near Hong Kong tomorrow is the guess. That affects us even though we are a two hour plane ride north. The city we travel to on Friday, Guangzhou, is located about 45 miles north of Hong Kong. We are hoping things clear out before we have to fly there. The forecast is for lots of rain the next 3-4 days as a result of the hurricane, so we'll see how things go. Hopefully the thing stays south.
We had to take Eli to the doctor Monday night...actually the doctor came to us at the hotel. He was a man in his 60's or 70's and looked like the typical movie style doctor you'd expect with his balding head and belly and being relatively short. He practiced three years in the US, so he could speak English and helped us identify Eli with what we expected...an ear infection and chest congestion. We haven't quite figured out what the bill is but I think it will come to either $15 or $4 American for his visit. Wow... there's a novel concept. On another health note, we have bought non-china based formula for Eli so he will not be one of the 53,000 children that have hopitalized in the last week.
Eli is in good spirits. He is so easy to make laugh now. He's liking all the new adventures and thought it hilarious that I had him standing on my lap and looking over the bus seat at Kim. In China, momma means mom and babba means dad. He likes eating bananas and playing with toys. He does not walk or even crawl, but he sits up and does this butt scooting thing to move across the room. He also tries to get to the standing position by trying to pull his body up on things. He is strong and more solid than we expected. I'm sure once he gets around Elise he'll be crawling and Kim and I are concerned about all the mischief those two are going to get into. I think Ella is going to get a run for her money with those two siblings. Eli does have a flatter back of the head...almost a sort of square shape. In China, that is desired and children are put on a structured pillow from birth for a few months to get this shape. I've been told from another couple that will gradually disappear a little bit as he gets older. Strange how head shape is such a cultural difference. Overall he's adapting to us well and really enjoys being held. He's loving the attention. That and he is entranced by banana peels...we don't think he's been very exposed to a lot of different sensory things and right now a banana peel is pretty awesome. Dang, I wish that's all it took for me.
Oh yeah they have unusual flavors of some food here. I just bit into what I thought was a cheese ritz cracker sandwich I bought from Walmart. Well the cheese (which I should have put two-and-two together remembering they don't like cheese much here) is actually lemon. It actually tastes quite good. I have purchased three pringles cans for my students so they can try blueberry pringes, ribeye steak pringles, and seafood pringles. I couldn't find the cucumber flavored ones or the roasted duck ones yet. I'll keep an eye for those and slip those into my next family get together snack mix.
We'll update more as we hopefully make our way to the park today (Tuesday) and try out a Chinese bakery. I'm still looking for that Chinese sweet dough.
Todd (and Kim and Eli)
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