Lazy Sunday in Southern China

Not much to write today. We slept in until almost 6 am...which is actually great news. I have lost that "running into walls" stupor I have slugged around for over a week. We enjoyed the buffet breakfast here at our hotel. Jillian is a fairly good eater...but prefers starches and meat over any kind of fruit. Jim carried her around the whole buffet one morning and lifted each lid so she could see what it was. She either gave a small nod "no" or pointed her finger at what she did want. Not surprisingly, we got the most support in the Chinese food section...with steamed bread rolls and sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves being her favorites. Now I am also addicted to the sticky rice (which has the funniest label on it...something like "glutinous rice steamed in lotus leaves"...no wonder I originally passed it up. They could use some advertising expertise on that one!).

Yeah...I led with a report from breakfast. This COULD be the most boring post ever. Sorry.

After breakfast, we visited the Pearl Market. We bought Jillian a string of pearls for her wedding day at the same store as we did for Lia. Then, our guide, Kelly, took us to another small store so Lia could pick out some Pandora like charms and have a bracelet made. She loved that...and we loved being off the beaten path a little bit. Kelly got us started and then left to help other families. Lia does not seem to notice or be bothered by the fact that no one can understand her English. She just chatted away to the sales girl about Jillian...and was satisfied with the polite smiles she got in return. :-)



After the Pearl Market, we returned to see the Chen Family Temple. We toured there with Lia as well in 2006. It is a beautiful Temple with such ornate carvings. We were able to tour freely and the girls really enjoyed running around on the grounds.

We returned to the hotel at lunchtime...so we walked across the street for McDonald's. Our hotel has a small outdoor park and we took the food there and had a picnic. It was glorious to 1) not be eating in the hotel room...and 2) not to have to worry about maintaining restaurant manners. :-)





(Why yes...that IS the same shirt she has been wearing for four days. The one I snared for 1.00 at Tar*get the week before we left because I was worried about not having cool enough clothes. The one that is too big. The one that she sleeps in as I type this right now. But we are slowly making some progress...tomorrow's post... :-)).

While Jillian napped, Lia and I worked on her homework (DONE! THANYOUVERYMUCH...and Mrs. M...if you are reading this let me just apologize ahead of time for any re-teaching you may have to do on that whole "using addition to understand subtraction" unit. I apparently cannot use addition to understand subtraction...let alone teach it to someone else. We have now determined that homeschooling will NOT be in our futures...).

We plan to take the girls out for a bite close by tonight...and look forward to a quiet day tomorrow as well.

Tuesday, we will travel to the US Consulate to take an oath of Citizenship for Jillian. Wednesday, we receive the necessary papers to leave China with Jillian. We will take the train to Hong Kong, stay overnight...and then fly out Thursday morning for home sweet home. Thanksgiving indeed.