Day 4– Monday, November 21, 2005 – Beijing
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/city.html?n=33
Many of you have asked what time it is for us - so here is a link that
will pull up Beijing time so none of us have to do the math! J
I'm not sure if it is jet-lag that is causing us to rise early or fear
that all of the chantilly crème may be gone for our crepes if we sleep too
long? But the wake-up call was again unnecessary as we were all more than
awake when the phone rang at 7 am.
Emma and I had to be ready to leave for the Holt Office today when we
ventured down for breakfast. Thankfully a happy silly Lilly (and Papa)
joined us for breakfast today.
A 20 minute or so taxi ride (with some ever so close calls) brought us to
the Holt Office on the 21st floor of a beautiful office building. Steven
greeted us in the lobby and escorted us upstairs for our meeting. This
basically consisted of reviewing our plans for tomorrow and sharing a bit of
information about Li Juan. As it turns out, the reason our flight to Jilin
is not at 7:30am tomorrow is because the director of theYanbian SWI (Social
Welfare Institution) has some other meetings and our "Gotcha Day"
might not even be tomorrow. We will find out for certain tomorrow when we
reach Jilin and are met by our local guide, Jenny. We feel that with the
delay we will have time tomorrow to prepare more for Juan Juan's arrival.
Jenny actually KNOWS Juan Juan! She is the one who is the overseer of Holt's
Foster Care Program in Yanbian. She has to visit Juan Juan's family
regularly to check her progress. So we will have a guide with us for a week
who has known our daughter for a year or so - what a blessing! We did find
out today that Juan Juan's foster family is Korean and speaks Korean and
Mandarin. Supposedly Juan Juan says simple Korean words, but understands
both Korean and Mandarin. Looks like we may be going to Korean Church in
Marina as well as to Chinese Church (Emma's piano teacher is Korean and is a
Pastor's wife of a Korean Presbyterian Church in our town)! J We hope
tomorrow to buy some children's dvd's in Mandarin and Korean at the Wal-Mart
that is across the street from our hotel. We are still HOPING to be able to
travel to Yanbian to meet the foster family and possibly go to the
orphanage. Stay posted for tomorrow's update! It may or may not be our day
to get our daughter, Li Juan!
The morning's activities for Ben and Lilla included a dip in the hotel
pool followed by a much needed nap for Lilla. Our hopes to try to make
contacts for Ben at Beijing University did not come to fruition because of
the need to get lunch for our good napper Lilla who only awoke after
12:30pm. A supposed quick trip to the Mall area only 2 blocks away (for
McDonald's - or the American Embassy as my dear friend likes to call it!)
led to other things . . . mug shopping at Starbucks (don't forget to pick up
your Beijing City mug and now other smaller Beijing mug and tumblers!),
photo sessions with a stuffed Penguin - the logo for an ice cream shop (for
Chinese ice cream information see http://www.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761561735/Ice_Cream.html),
and finally MORE student art show "looking" and buying.
Time for touring was now at a premium and traffic was heavy, so we asked
the taxi driver to take us to The Temple of Heaven which was not very far
away. The Temple is being renovated but you can still walk through the vast
park surrounding it. This is what we did and it was very interesting. We saw
some older folk practicing/performing traditional Chinese music on an
instrument we believe was an Erhu (http://www.philmultic.com/home/instruments/erhu.html).
We were scolded by a grandmother for not having thick enough pants on Lilla
(I agree with her - it was colder than we thought!). Lilla played for a
short while with a little 3 year old girl and was upset when she left (we
shared with Lilla that soon she can play with her sister, Clara, who is not
ever going to leave! J ). We saw 100's of Chinese Cypress Trees - this was
interesting to us since we now live in the area of Pebble Beach with the
Lone Cypress Tree and many other Cypress Trees (and our church is named
Cypress Community). http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/beijing/heaven/
Back in our hotel room - our haven - we again order room service and nap.
The red curry beef, sweet and sour pork and dumpling soup were just what the
doctor ordered to perk us up (along with some lovely British typhoo tea) to
begin the ever fun packing job (we are only supposed to have 4 bags to be
checked that weigh 44 lbs. or less and also 1 carry on per person - but we
actually have 5 bags to check and most weigh 50 lbs. or more and we have
more than the allowed carry-ons). Add to all this overweight luggage the
purchases we have made in Beijing. Thankfully the airlines look at us
adoptive families as good will ambassadors for adopting China's girls and
they allow us to often exceed the limits. We are praying that happens
tomorrow (and word is our travel agency has an "in" with the
airlines to get the bags on without us having to pay extra).
I wish I could say that we are packed - but we were all sleeping until a
bit ago when I woke up to realize that I hadn't posted, nor had I finished
packing the backpacks and other carry-on bags. So I will quickly attach some
photos and begin the challenge of fitting more than I came with into the
already existing bags. Did I happen to say thank goodness for Pack-Mates?!?
Remember you can call their 800 number and ask for Linda to get an adoption
package special. These bags are awesome! I will use them for many things
when we get home - even just to compress and keep an extra set of clothes
for the girls in the car (makes a small package and also keeps the clothes
clean).
So excited to be posting this last day in Beijing! Tomorrow the adventure
REALLY begins . . .
Blessings, Lisa ><>
