Every Journey is Unique

China is a big place, so we know we have seen very little of it. Here are a few of our observations. We saw exactly 3 cats and 4 dogs in China so far. This cat is sitting conspicuously close to the tank full of fish in the park. They let kids catch them with little poles and then their parents pay for them. I’m guessing for pets, but who knows.IMG_0583

This dog was on its way somewhere by itself yesterday. Lucy is not a dog lover, they kinda freak her out. IMG_2370

This is in the front door of a restaurant. It is very common to to have seafood that you pick out and they cook. (I didn’t see any goldfish).

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Speaking of food, here are some of the things we ate.

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I mostly took pictures of breakfast, and then I wore out.IMG_0373

This is KFC in Xian. I got a chicken sandwich. It had dark meat, and was spicy: gotta say it was a bit disappointing.

We found this restaurant at a large department store.

IMG_9505OK, we didn’t actually eat at the chicken head place.

Picture from inside an art, clothing, suitcase shop on Shamian Island.

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This is Lucy watching Becca play the piano at home. Our contact with home has been more limited than we hoped. They are doing a great job.

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Connections

We have actually learned a few Chinese phrases and Lucy understands when we say them!  She is also repeating many English words and saying “Thank you” and “I’m sorry” and remembering the sequence of #1-10 pretty well.  (We count as we go up stairs).  She knows “flower” and “up” and “baby”. She uses a lot of Chinese we don’t know, but it is very clear when she is unhappy with us. And loves watching TV  Hmmm… We’ll have to figure that one out when we get home.  🙂

Chinese speakers please skip to the next section. Here are a few of the Chinese words we know, with spelling that only makes sense to us.

SEE-uh, SEE-eh – thank you
Ju SHE shem a? – What is this?
TSEE-dan – Egg
ME-in bow – Bread
Shway-gua – Fruit
BOO shing – not ok, an absolute
oo-EYE-nee – I love you
How-hIDE-Za – Good girl
HUNG-HOW – very good
Zo BA – let’s go!
Boo Yow – no thank you
Show-dong” – just a minute. (show like shower)
JAY-ga – this
NAY-ga – that
CHEE-Fan – eat food
MEE-AN-La – No spicy – (Something we say often but not to Lucy)

Lucy makes little craft projects with ziplock bags, hair ribbons, and tea bag tags. She takes pictures of flowers (and picks them if we aren’t able to talk her out of it).

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Yesterday we took a walk in Guangzhou to get noodles for dinner… Kirstin suggested we sing a song, and we ended up singing “Jingle Bells” turns out she has an ear for music, she almost has it down!

We have used singing to successfully smooth out of a couple confrontations.

Another great thing that happened is we used the iPad Jason got from work to let Lucy play some games. We got some music making apps, some recognizing shapes and some number and letter naming/tracing games, and she loves them. Hopefully this is going to be a terrific replacement for Chinese cartoons.

Hanna made some new friends, actually I think they just liked her hair, so they asked to take a picture with her.

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Taking a break from some shopping at Shamian Island while Baba goes into a 7-11 to attempt to get more data on my China Unicom SIM card (in my phone). I failed.

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Delivery vehicles in China.

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Lots of photo shoots on Shamian Island today…

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Our Consulate appointment is tomorrow Tuesday at 9:00am (7PM Monday night Central Time). This will include a “swearing in” ceremony and more paperwork. Later on we will get a Visa from them for Lucy to travel to the US.