Siberia Invades Guangzhou

It turned cold, cold, cold today! Yesterday introduced cool air, but today's wind tore through jackets and chilled to the bone. Suddenly we didn't seem so foolish to pack heavier coats, hats, scarves, and gloves. Only problem is that we packed these cold-weather clothes for Wuhan, yet Guangzhou has turned much colder than Wuhan was last week. At any rate, we've curtailed some of our shopping trips and found restaurants close to the hotel - or we've ordered into our room - in order to avoid the cold wind.

Today was largely a free day for us. We had to remain in our rooms for an hour or so while our CCAI representatives submitted Emily's visa paperwork to the U.S. Consulate. We needed to be available should questions arise while presenting the documents. I am pleased to report that no problems arose, and we were freed from our rooms far earlier than expected. We shopped a little bit this morning, but the cold wind drove us inside. We ordered food into the room, expecting to have to stay in the room longer than we did, then put the girls to sleep. Tom and I then joined several other families in our group to visit a nearby pearl and gem market while Deborah remained in the room and rested a little, catching up on work and staying out of the cold.

The pearl and gem market was amazing! Larger than any American mall I've ever visited, the indoor market contained what appeared to be thousands of small wholesale pearl and gem shops. We remained in the market about an hour or a half, and we covered only small fraction of the shops in the market. We were awed by the sheer size of the markets and the gigantic number of shops, each of which held rows and rows of loose pearls and gems. Several members of our group made large purchases of pearls, which ran between $60 and $80 U.S. for a customized strand. We don't know the quality of the pearls and gems; the best option would have been to visit the market with a jeweler in tow to assist in making education purchases. We think the gems and pearls are of good quality. At any rate, neither Tom nor I made any purchase. The market specializes in wholesale gems and pearls, so few designed pieces are available. Simple custom designs are available, but making such a purchase would be difficult in the time we had in the market. Neither Tom nor I felt the visit to be wasted - on the contrary, the experience was awesome! The gem market is part of a far larger complex of a couple different malls towers and a pedestrian shopping area that teemed with people hanging out, despite the cold wind blowing. All in all, the shopping arcade clearly beat any American mall for size, variety, and uniqueness.

We returned to the hotel to find Deborah and the girls awake and playing together. We chilled out in the room a little longer, then Deborah and Tom ran out to complete a couple of very quick errands - the cold wind made longer errands difficult. We returned to nearby Lucy's for dinner, where I enjoyed a tasty Malaysian fried rice dish that included satays on the side and a fried egg on top of the fried rice. Strange looking, but quite tasty! And then we took a couple photos with the huge Christmas tree in the hotel lobby, followed by bath and bedtime. Both girls were tired and fell asleep quickly. And that's how things stand now. Tom's nodding off in the next room, Deborah's watching TV, the girls are sleeping, and I'm posting to the blog. We're ready to get home, but we have one more day to shop until we drop. And tomorrow we take our traditional "red sofa" photo and take Emily's oath of citizenship on her behalf in the U.S. Consulate. This oath is the last step of our China adoption story - we return home the day after tomorrow and start the process of creating a four-person family!