More Tuesday photos

The last picture is PJ taking a very short morning nap. That top layer is a smock that kids wear here, it is like a bib.

Tuesday Morning

Here we are on Tuesday morning.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of PJ fast asleep.  After I took a shower look at what I found!  He was quietly sitting on his Daddy's lap.  Greg said he didn't fuss or anything, just sat up and put his arms out.

Paperwork

Just after getting PJ we had paperwork to do!

PJ

More pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

Arriving at Civil Affairs

Here we are arriving at Civil Affairs where we are about to see PJ.  And the other picture is just moments after he was handed to me.

Walking after lunch

For lunch we ate at a place called "Discos",it is Taiwan's version of Kentucky Fried Chicken according to our guide.  (Sorry no pictures).  After lunch we took a different route back to the hotel and I saw this sign.  I have noticed in this city that the big streets have bike lanes.  I hope you can see the sign clearly enough.

More shopping pictures

We saw this cutie at the mall.  We eventually got her to say "Ni Hao" (that means Hello).  And if memory serves me correctly she also said "Ji Jen" (I don't know the spelling but that is how is sounds and it means Good Bye).  Here is a picture out our hotel window. With the sun shinning we noticed there are Mountians in the background.

Tuesday Morning

Tuesday Morning we woke up to sunlight!  That seems to be a rare thing here in Taiyuan.  Knowing we had our placement appointment in the mid afternoon, we didn't have time to go anywhere for touristy stuff.  We all went shopping across the street at the mall I mentioned yesterday.  I bought some shoes that I put in for the orphanage donation and some smocks.  We have noticed that little kids have smocks on when eating at a restaurant.

Gotcha!!!

Just a quick blog just in case some of you can't sleep and are checking the blog.  I can post more either later today or tomorrow.  We went to meet Phillip and when we walked in the door, there he was!!   He has been crying a lot sense we got back from the civil affairs office but Greg went to the mall across the street and bought some toys and is playing with him now.  He seems ok for the moment.   ~Judy

Monday Dinner

For dinner we went for Peking Duck again.  It is very good and affordable food.  These ladies also served us yesterday for dinner.  We were a sort of an amusement for them because Becky and I are clumsy with chopsticks.  The brought us forks last night but we didn't want to use them, we wanted to practice using chopsticks.  Tonight they didn't even offer forks, maybe we are getting better? Oh and something else I have noticed here in China is that the buildings are very cold.  I don't know why but they keep the heat down.  I noticed that many people in the restaurant kept their coats on.  Even the hotel is kind of cold. Tomorrow we get PJ at 3 PM local time, that will be 1AM for you all in central time zone! ~Judy

Porcelain Shop

In the outdoor mall we found a porcelain shop that was open.  The man was very nice and served us tea.  He gave us tea that he said was harvested from a tree grown in a southern province.  The batch he had wasn't from a 'tree farm' but instead from a tree in a forest.  It was very good.  He kept pouring tea cup after tea cup.  During our visit, he talked some about China history but especially the history of Shanxi province.  He was proud to be from Shanxi and to be Chinese. I was wondering if he was doing all this in hopes that we would buy something.  After we left, our guide said no he was doing it because it was a chance to share with foreigners (having foreigners in his shop is an extremely rare occasion if not the first time).  Now he can go home and share with family and friends what a very unique day he had.  Remember I said this place was 'off the beaten path' and there weren't many people back there.  We really enjoyed experiencing the local culture like that!!

Monday Afternoon

After we left the mall, we went wandering around.  We stumbled across an outdoor mall that was kind of down the alley and around a corner.  Many of the shops were closed.

Lunch

For lunch we all decided to get some McDonalds.  My stomach was very happy about that!  The local food has a lot of MSG in it and was making my stomach a little upset each day so I was happy to have a break and get some Americanized food.  After lunch we wandered around a very expensive mall to waste time.  We were going to go to an ancient city a couple hours away but the roads were all closed due to the snow.  So instead we were going to go to a museum--also closed due to the weather.  Since we had time, we walked around an very fancy mall that was way too expensive.

Ni Hao from China!

I should have said Ni Hao on my first post, but I didn't think of it because I was distracted about trying to get the pictures to post.   The air seems so very foggy all the time, but it is air polution due to the area being a big coal producing area.  The people here like to honk their horns, it was constant honking during the day. During the middle of the night it is very quiet however.  All the people seem nice here and very curious because they don't see a lot of foreigners around. We got a different room today because the room they gave us yesterday is at the end of the hall and it is the smallest one on the floor.  Our guide asked them to find another room for us so now we have a lot more room (for the same price). Becky and I went shopping with Bill (our guide) while the guys went for haircuts.  We found a mall of sorts right across the street and scoped the place out.  We will be going back after we get the boys, lots of kids clothes, shoes, smocks, socks, and lots of other things. This 'mall' is like a big open room where 'shop owners' rent a booth to sell their merchandise.  Sorry I didn't take pictures of the mall, but I did take the picture of the man out front sweeping the sidewalk.  (He quickly decided to go get a shovel as the snow was a bit to thick for a broom.)  Then the other picture is the front of our hotel .

My donation

Here is a picture of the items I bought at Walmart.  We are going to get Peking Duck for dinner tonight.  Not sure what, if anything is on the agenda for tonight.  Maybe nothing.  Bill mentioned that we might go to an opera of sorts,more like folk music he said.  Unfortunately because of the snow and sloppy roads here today, the canceled the show for tonight because not enough people have bought tickets.

Walmart

After we got settled into our hotel, we all got in taxis and went to Walmart.  I needed to buy some diapers.  We also took the opportunity to buy clothes we are going to donate to the orphanage. Greg bought some Chinese beer, I got some crackers and some yogurt drinks that Bill says the kids all like.   Walmart in China is a different experience.  I can't describe it but it is different that in the USA.  Everything in the Walmart here is Chinese items of course. ~Judy

Continental Hotel

Here we have arrived at the Continental Hotel in Taiyuan.

Taiyuan Airport

Here's an outside shot of the Taiyuan airport as we were walking to the van.  The driver of the van brought his 4 year old son along and goodness was he cute!  Sorry I didn't take any pictures of him, I was too busy waving and saying "Ni Hao".  Check the Cormier blog, maybe Becky will post a photo of him.

Airplane

So here we are on China Air for our 1 hour flight to Taiyuan.  I would have had Bill retake the photo except I didn't look at the picture after he took it.  Oh well, I'll try to look better for the next picture. ~Judy

On our way to Taiyuan

Sunday morning we were up and out of our hotel room by 5:30.  We headed off to the Beijing airport for an 8:10 AM flight to Tiayuan, Shanxi province.  We found our gate and waited for a short time.  The airports here are cold and don't seem to have any heat so we kept bundled up inside.  When it was time to board everyone got on a bus and we were taken to the plane and boarded outside as you can see in the photo.  The Szynal family had a gate next to ours and went to Shaanxi province. ~Judy