Another day in paradise

We met Emma at 10 am and decided we all just needed some time outside-time for Malia to burn up some energy.  We decided just to go to the park on the lake.  We walk all over, for a couple hours.  She fed most of her goldfish crackers to the all the large coy (giant goldfish) and what appeared to be large smelt(?).  Many people were feeding the pigeons in one area of the park.  They had them on their arms and even on their heads!  This is a country in need of some wildlife!  First, taking pictures of the scrawny squirrel, now feeding nasty pigeons!  Malia would let Joe hold her hand if we would swing her, otherwise, forgetta bout it! 

Once again, when we went to lunch, we were the main attraction.  They could have charged admission!  I told Malia she couldn't do something and that got her pouting, so she wouldn't eat.  Well, the staff thought that was hilarious.  At one point, we had no less than 12 workers standing around us, blatantly staring.  The one worker was standing so close to my chair, he was practically touching it.  The Chinese, we've learned, have no sense of personal space, nor do they try to be discreet in their obvious shock at seeing 2 white people with a Chinese child.  Of course, during Malia's pouting, the workers were talking in Chinese and sort of giggling.  Well, Malia understood and she was playing it up.  She eventually did eat, but we've learned that she doesn't really care for rice and prefers noodles.  I wonder how she'll feel about spaghetti?  2 nights ago (Tuesday night), we went to Pizza Hut for dinner.  They paraded us to the VERY back of a large restaurant, which I think they did so everyone could see us white folk.  The pizza was ok-more like a DiGiorno frozen pizza, than pizza hut, but it did have ham and pineapple on it.  Malia picked off the cheese, ham, and pineapple, and just ate the crust and some sauce.  I don't think she knew what the cheese was, as it's very expensive in China, and she's probably never had it.

After lunch yesterday, we walked through a very nice market area.  All of the shops were inside some older, nice-looking buildings.  We bought some nice chopsticks that we can use for special occasions.  Emma really tried to talk us out of buying them.  She said they were to nice to use.  We bought them anyway because we wanted to buy one nice item from Hangzhou, Malia's hometown.  This way, when we use them, we can tell her they came from her city, and she can be proud of how beautiful they are.  Besides, by American standards, they were not that expensive. 

After we walked around the market and got back to our driver (who is a super nice guy), Emma took us back to the police station.  She wanted to talk to the woman who is processing Malia's passport, and have us gift her a gift (not a bribe:).  After she spoke to her, I was to carry Malia up to the counter and have Malia give the lady the gift.  Apparently, because they were a lot of people around, she had to accept the gift-especially because Malia gave the gift to her.  Who could refuse a child?  The woman said, in not so many words to Emma, that we should come back on Friday to see if the passport would be ready.  Emma thinks she was trying to say that it would be ready, but that she doesn't want people to overhear what's going on.  I hope our bribe, I mean gift, worked!  That would be one less thing to worry about! 

After that, Malia fell asleep on the way back to the hotel.  OH!  I forgot to mention!  We will switch rooms once again!  Our 4th room since we've been in Hangzhou.  This all came about with this whole passport thing.  I was so upset about that whole situation and our room has just, well, SUCKED!  Dirty, hard bed with springs that you can feel in the back, no air conditioning, old smoke smell, etc, etc!!!  I fired off an e-mail to our agency re: every complaint.  Aside from the room problems, we just don't like the locations of the hotel, and we REALLY wish the breakfast buffet had some "normal" Western foods.  It may have been that I was PMSing and I did rant a bit.  Well, the squeaky wheel and all that, our travel advisor had contacted the office in Beijing, and what do you know, UPGRADE!  We are now on the 26th floor.  Only 1 floor above us.  This room is the same size, but is newer, higher end (Kohler vs. American Standard) (granite vs fake), and has an amazing view of the lake and mountains.  Still, the air didn't seem to be working.  Emma talked to the front desk and they forgot to turn the air for the hotel on!  It had been cooler earlier in the week, so they had turned it off.  Although the rooms have individual thermostats, they only control the fan speed, not the actual temperature.  It was a pain to move all of our stuff, but we are here to stay.  Only 1 more night though!  It is Thursday morning here and we leave Friday night for Guangzhou.  That makes me happy!

Malia has been sleeping great.  Tuesday night, she slept 11 hours!  Of course, she's only taken cat naps for us.  Tuesday, she fell asleep while I carried her around for a walk on the street.

Feeding the pigeons

Feeding the coy

A windmill in China!