Day 20

Our last full day in Guangzhou was also one of the most interesting.

The day started off simply enough. We had our consulate appointment. It was a big deal, but not a big deal. It's a big deal because this appointment means that we can fly home with the children we came to get. Since they are Chinese citizens, they have to get a visa from the US government that allows them to immigrate to the US on a permanent basis. It was no big deal because it went so smoothly.

Before our appointment, we went back to the doctor to have Seth checked for the measles. One thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that in the lobby of this building, which apparently hosts more than just a medical clinic, they have a wine vending machine. They had about 6 bottles that were small, roughly half the size of a normal bottle of wine, and you could swipe your card and hit the streets with some vino. Never seen that before.

Seth's appointment was simple, and he is measles free, as we knew he would be. After that, we walked down the block to the consulate. The kids thought it was cool when we told them that as soon as they walked in the building they were on American soil. I told them they should ask if there is a Chick-fil-a on site. At the appointment we turned in the paperwork, and tomorrow afternoon we'll pick up the kids' visas. Hopefully we won't have any problems, because we're checking out of our hotel, going to pick up the visas, and then heading straight to Hong Kong. We'll fly out the day after.

After the appointment, Kris went down to the hotel's business center in order to straighten something out with our plane tickets. The kids names on their Chinese passports don't exactly match the names we used to buy their tickets, so we needed to call and get their names edited. Seems simple enough, right? Well, one hour later we wrestled around with the United Airlines employee and finally got everything settled. She said initially that Seth's ticket was cancelled, which was news to us. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say that she won't be receiving any Christmas cards from our family this year. If she actually did what she said she did, everything should be fine, but I'm prepared to experience some surprises at the airport.

Speaking of surprises, our guide had told us that the business office would help you make phone calls to confirm your flights and that sort of thing. Since this call was more complicated than that, I made if myself, which might have been where I went wrong. I started to walk out of the office and the lady asked for our room number. I wondered why and she said, "So we can bill you for the call." Well, turns out that calling an 800 number from the business center costs about 10 yuan per minute. So, all time I sat on hold made the phone call cost about $100. That made me even more mad, since I really should have been able to change the names on the website. But, if it gets us out of China and back home, then it will be worth it.

In the afternoon, the kids went swimming, and Ruthie really had a great time. She let Kris take her all around the pool. The other kids were playing Marco Polo, and she kept yelling "polo" and laughing. She has picked up some fun English words, but she still will talk our ears off in Chinese, even though it is a very one-sided conversation. Tonight, Hannah taught her to say "cray cray." She still will randomly say "belly button" for no reason at all.

In the evening, we met the rest of our group and took a dinner boat cruise on the Pearl River. There must have been a full moon or something, because things got strange pretty much right away. For starters, Seth had been in a really good mood all day. Anne saw that his little teeth had poked through, and he was pretty content. But when we got on the bus to go to the boat area, he started screaming. All these other families with their newly adopted kids and everybody is driving peacefully, except our boy. We took a group photo all together, and he cried during that. I can't wait to see a copy of it. So, we knew that it was going to be a long boat ride, but at that point there was no turning back.

When we got to the boat dock, strangely nothing was in English. So many things here are in both English and Chinese, and you would think with a tourist attraction like this there would be English, but there wasn't. Our guide told us which boat to get on, luckily, because there were several choices.

While on the boat, a voice over the loudspeaker gave instructions in Chinese while an employee modeled the life vest for us. Again, no English, so we were glad that we didn't need the life vests, because we wouldn't have known what to do. The boat ride included a dinner buffet, and at some point after the life vest instructions the voice must have said "it is time to eat" because suddenly everyone on the boat who could understand Chinese jumped out of their seats and ran to the buffet. Needless to say, we were not first in line.

One odd cultural difference between China and the US is that no one waits in line here. In the US, if there is a crowd all trying to do the same thing, generally a line will form so that one person can go and then the next and so on. It's just part of our culture. If you go to McDonald's you wait in line to be able to order at the counter. Or, you stand at the counter of a store and wait until the salesperson acknowledges you. Such is not the case in China. Everywhere we've been, people just walk up, crowd around a counter and start talking or ordering or whatever. It looks to us like total chaos, but no one is bothered by it here. At McDonald's, or at the doctor's office, people don't even wait to get a receptionist's attention, they just walk up and start talking, or hand over their money or whatever. It is very strange, especially because in one-on-one situations, people are generally very friendly. But this crowd mentality is still surprising to us. When we checked in to one of our hotels, we stood a couple of feet back from the desk waiting our turn, and two or three other people walked right past us and up to the counter to start checking in. We were laughing about this cultural phenomenon at the doctor's office today, because attached to the fire extinguisher box were two gas masks. Anne was looking around and saying, "50 or so people in this waiting area. If there's a fire, which two of us get the gas masks?"

All this to say, this mentality was taken to the next level at this boat buffet. As soon as the OK to eat was given, people approached the oval shaped buffet area from all sides and started serving up food. People were piling plates up with noodles. Anne and Kris just looked at each other and laughed. We were regretting getting on this boat to begin with, because Seth was so tired, and now it looked like we wouldn't even get to eat. I (Kris) took the kids up to get some food, and it was like a prison cafeteria. You would have thought that these people hadn't eaten in a week. Folks were grabbing 3 and 4 of everything before we could even fight our way over to get to the plates. 

As it turns out, not eating might have been better. It was possibly the worst meal we've had here (not counting the meal that made me violently ill). Even Ruthie just sort of picked at her noodles. But, it was for times like this that we brought meal replacement bars, so we knew we could eat that when we got back to the hotel.

We walked out on the deck in order to enjoy the skyline. The evenings here get bearably cool, and even though the river stinks, we had a nice time enjoying the breeze and watching the city sail by. Anne and Kris took turns passing Seth off, just trying to keep him calm. He is such an active kid, especially when he is tired, that we were both worn out from wrestling with him through the whole ride.

As the ride grew peaceful, we had some quiet moments to reflect. This was our last night in Guangzhou, and it certainly has been quite a trip. We were talking about some of that, and Hannah said she knows that Walla Walla is really her home now because she misses it.

Just as we were enjoying this peaceful moment, a loud alarm sounded, and Latin music began blaring. I'm talking Ricky Martin, La Vida Loca blasted at nightclub volume level (because I know that is a valid reference point for all of you). We didn't know what was going on at first, but then out comes this clown to entertain us all. I mean, maybe this was all explained in Chinese beforehand, but when you can't understand the instructions, everything is a surprise. And none of us saw this clown coming. She came out and started juggling. I must say, she was a pretty good juggler. Calla downplayed her performance later saying "She was just a typical boat clown." She juggled balls, and then knives (in close quarters with a crowd of kids, thus continuing China's awesome sense of safety) and then she started doing tricks with a soccer ball. Again, she was impressive. She was spinning the ball around. After her little routine, she started grabbing people from the audience, holding their fingers up and spinning the soccer ball on their fingers. She did it to Ruthie and Elliott, who both enjoyed it. One fun thing is that as soon as the Latin dance music started blaring, Seth started clapping and bouncing. And Ruthie, who as you know from her videos loves to dance, started jumping all around. Apparently, no one else on the boat was living La Vida Loca, because only she and Hannah were dancing, even though the music absolutely could not be ignored.

Finally, they dialed down the volume, and we got ready to dock. Seth got cranky again after his brief dance break, so we couldn't get off the crazy boat soon enough. What a weird experience. On the bus ride back to the hotel, Ruthie was non stop chatter. It makes us laugh so much that she is just "talk talk talk" and we'll say something like "oh" or "yeah" because we have no idea what she's talking about, and then she jabbers on and on. I think she was just excited from being on the boat and playing and dancing. 

We got the youngest two to sleep right away at the hotel, and Calla and Elliott went for a brief night swim before the pool closed. Then, we all crashed in bed with exhaustion.

Tomorrow, we pack, head to Hong Kong, and then head home in just one more day. Start praying now for our adjustment back to our own time zone, for Seth on the flights home, and for tomorrow to go well.