Going Wild

 Yesterday we spent the day at the safari park right outside of *Guangzhou*.  Our guide made the arrangements for us and a single mom who is here with her adorable two year old.  Coral and her friend Qi Jie were in, too, and that made it even more fun for us.  Maryn buddied up with Coral in an instant and Tenley walked with us or Qi Jie or helped with the two year old.  There were plenty of eyes to watch everyone in our group and that gave Tom and I the chance to hold hands every now and then.  A date at a safari park in *China* - go figure.  It was a really enjoyable outing, and I recommend it to all the families who will follow after us.  We started off on the tram tour which took us past open habitats for different animals by world regions.  The park trams share the road with cars driven by regular folks.  Fortunately, it was a little more orderly than it is on the regular roads here, and I only saw one emu-ish looking bird actually bumped by a car.  I'm sure it happens all the time, because the bird walked off like it was just another day in the park.  We saw the usual cast of characters seen at a safari park, I suspect, and some were exotic.  A lot of the animals had room to roam which made it seem less like a zoo.  We closed the afternoon with an elephant show at 2:30.  That kind of thing usually makes me sad.  I'm sure those elephants, if left in their own environment, would not have been playing soccer or basketball like we saw them doing yesterday, but as crazy as it sounds, I found myself wondering if that was enjoyable for them.  If only big game hunters would put their weapons down and start taking toys on safari with them, the world would be a better place.

The show went on through the afternoon rain shower, but we were dry under the roof of the amphitheater.  Afterward, the eight of us waited out the rain under an overhang before heading to our bus.  Our outing came to a close, and we dropped Coral and Qi Jie at a subway station just around the corner from the park so they could get to the airport.  I shed a few tears as I hugged them goodbye, blew them a kiss and the bus headed back to the hotel.  We had dinner at Lucy's, a well known restaurant here on Shamian*Island, and ended the night with four hands of *Uno*.  It's a great way to bring four people together with hand signals or limited language skills.  We played again tonight with four willing participants who graciously high five the winner of each round.  There was plenty of laughter tonight as tired kids were getting silly and tired parents were getting slap happy.  When the laughter reached it's crescendo, Maryn said, "I love this family."  We must be making progress.

Okay, We're There

Okay, we're there means we've reached that point at which we just want to go home.  It happens on every trip of this type.  You don't want to live out of a suitcase, figure out where to eat the next meal that doesn't include the hotel buffet, and you don't want to eat the hotel buffet one more time, and you just need to get back and get some sort of life routine going.  The look on Maryn's face sums it up perfectly for me except for the fact that that look just shows her normal personality and not that she can't take it anymore.  We're still a long way from knowing what Tenley's personality will be when the shock wears off, the language barrier is lessened, and she's able to get a lot more life experience on her resume.  I can't even imagine the bravery of a girl who's willing to sign her name to a paper changing her life forever with no idea of what that might entail.  With that in mind,  I hope you'll include her, and us, in your prayers today as we come together as a family.

At Long Last

At long last we were able to hug this darling person.  Her name is Coral, she lives in *China*, and we met when she attended the local university pursuing a master's degree.  She started out as our language tutor as we waited for Maryn, but it didn't take long for her to become much more special to us than that.  She stayed with us on weekends and school holidays, and we went on vacation together.  We haven't seen her since March 2008, and she has been greatly missed.  The last time we were here, in August 2009, she had planned to fly to *Guangzhou* to meet us, but a typhoon went through her area, and all planes were grounded.  It was hard to be so close and, yet, so far, but there was nothing we could do about it.  This time there was nothing stopping her, so she flew to *Guangzhou* yesterday morning, and we spent yesterday and most of today with her and her friend from college who lives here.  It was great to see her waiting for us in the lobby of the hotel when we returned from the medical exam and to hear her say, "Hi, Mom," when our eyes met.  Although they had never met before, she has a special connection to Maryn by being part of the wait and preparation for her arrival.  It was a very fast day and a half, and we were sorry to see her go today.  Until next time, we love you, Coral.

Welcome Aboard

We had a 3 p.m. flight to *Guangzhou* yesterday so our guide, Queenie, was to pick us up at 1 p.m., and we were so ready to move on, but then the phone rang, and Tom made the mistake of answering it.  3 p.m. was now 7 p.m., and we had to be out of our hotel room by 2.  We stored our luggage with the bellperson, although that makes it seem like there was a regularly assigned bellperson when there really wasn't, so I'll change that to a guy in a small hat came and got our bags and put them in a closet in the lobby.  That left us with two backpacks, one filled with all the important papers we are not willing to let out of our sight and the other with all the electronic devices we own except for our 50" TV.  We walked back to the shopping mall for one last lunch and to kill some time before Queenie, whose name, by the way, Tom thought was Weenie for the first 24 hours because he heard it for the first time in a loud airport after not sleeping for a 14 hour flight, 8 hour layover and one hour flight to the other side of the world, came to pick us up at 5 p.m.  She took us into the airport, got us checked in and hugged us goodbye at security.  Now we were on our own to suck down every last drop of secondhand smoke until our flight left.  At the airport in *Hefei* There is a constant barage of flight numbers and information, mostly cancellations and delays, being announced in Chinese and English, leaving you filled with dread that your number is going to be called, and then it was, but we missed everything that was said after 5225.  That left us with about 25 minutes of dread before seeing the sign read 5225 19:00.  Suddenly they were loading the plane, and I'm in the bathroom with Tenley trying to encourage her to get a move on.  When we got to the gate Tom said, "Don't you know what final boarding call means?"  But how can anyone make that out with the bombardment of information streaming through the ear canal.? I handed three boarding passes to the woman at the desk, and she started dealing money back to me telling me, "She child."  I looked at Tom in a what the? sort of way, and he told me they were paying us because the flight was late, and we only get half for Maryn because she is a child, which I know makes no sense to anyone who has ever been stuck in an airport, whether smoke filled or not, with a child.  Tenley was excited all day about the feiji (fay-gee = airplane), and she finally got a chance to experience it.  She did a great job getting her wings.  No fear through any of it, just a smile when she felt us lift off the ground and wide eyes when we bumped for the landing.  A seasoned traveler.  We arrived in *Guangzhou* and were met by another guy in a small hat from our hotel who delivered us safely to our destination.  We went to bed way too late considering we had to be in the lobby at 9:30 a.m. this morning, but at least the airline paid us to be tired.

So Long *Hefei* Buffet (Which Rhymes, By the Way)

We had our last meal at the Qiyun Hotel this morning.  I don't know how they'll get along without us tomorrow.  I won't miss the food after 6 days of the same thing, but I'll certainly miss the view out the window.  There are 7 million people in *Hefei* and 6 million of them walk, pedal, scoot, or drive by these restaurant windows everyday.  It's a people watcher's paradise.  These still pictures just can't capture the scene.  Imagine the continuous variety of horns honking, the putt-putt of the scooters, the clang of the bicycle chains.  Put this picture into motion, and it's a thing to behold.  There is a narrow strip in front of the hotel and just beyond the cars in the foreground is a row of cars parked here and there and beyond those cars is the street.  On the left where it looks sandy are about 15 men on their hands and knees laying down a strip of bricks with string lines and rubber mallets in the midst of all this.  Most of the traffic goes to the right, but you never know when someone is going to come from the other direction.  More horn honking follows, but it just keeps right on moving.  I don't imagine the rhythm will change tomorrow without us, but maybe any of those 6 million who saw us in the window everyday for a week will  wonder where we are.

Ticket 2 Ride

Is that Maryn or our taxi driver?

Who doesn't love taking their kids to an amusement park and having them wave to you as they go past on the merry-go-round?  Doesn't matter what age the child, it's heartwarming, and when a child gets off every ride and says, "Sank you, mommy," well, that makes it even better.  The rides were small and harmless looking and we were reassured at each Table of Admission Fee to Scenic Spot, otherwise known as the ticket booth, that the ride had passed it's safety inspection, although we had no idea in what year that was because the certificate was written in characters.  Among the rides they rode were little cars on a track, hopping kangaroos, a squirty thing, and a carousel, for which we may have even shelled out extra money for them to ride on the second level, but we'll never know for sure.  We walked all around the park.  They operated little boats in a sectioned off part of the lake, took lots of pictures, and we had our picture taken.

It was really fun, and later in the day Maryn told us "Thanks, I had a really good time at *Disneyland* today."  Now, doesn't that warm your heart, too?

 

Taxi!

Too much time in the hotel room makes us, Tom and I, feel like caged animals and, remember, I said there wouldn't be anymore caged animals on this blog.  We were desperate enough for something to do that we were willing to accept the idea of a ride in a taxi to a park this morning.  When we got in, Maryn said, "Mom, there's no seatbelts.  That's dangerous," but like a good mom I comforted her by saying "It's dangerous even with seatbelts."  But once Tom offered up the idea of using our backpacks as airbags, I could sit back, relax and enjoy Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.  I even managed to almost double over with laughter at one point so it was quite enjoyable.  When we arrived at our destination, we found out it was an amusement park, and there we were already amused before we even got there.

The girls went on a number of rides, powered little boats in a sectioned off part of the lake, slid down an elephant slide, and had a memorable time.  When it was time to leave Tom was eager to get back in a taxi for the best ride of the day.