Exploring

We started our day (after breakfast) by taking a bus to Shamian island, where the medical clinic is.  That place was insane today!  Thankfully, we didn't have to be there long.  There was a huge line at the TB room, but it isn't the Chinese way to patiently stand in line and wait their turn.  We let our guides push us to the front, and were out of there in a few minutes.  Jeanette and Michelle were along with us.  Shamian island has quite a bit of green space to run in, lots of statues, and many shops and restaurants.  We picked up some clothes for Emmett, and a couple things for the girls.  We bought Emmett a native outfit that we will get photos taken in, then keep for him always.  We had a nice morning just wandering and shopping.  It definitely is steamy here! 

We had a quick lunch at a deli, then returned to our hotel.  The ladies and the grandparents had a rest then went out for coffee.  We took our tribe to a local park.  It is just down the street from the hotel.  However, you have to cross under the street to get there.  That sounds pretty intuitive, but if you think so you haven't traveled in China.  We experienced the same thing in Nanjing.  There is a whole separate world below the streets!  It's a complete maze down there!  We came up 4 different places before finally getting the one we needed to get to the park!  It was cooling down in anticipation of the coming rain, so wasn't a bad walk.  There were statues of bighorn sheep, which intrigued Emmett.  We watched a little Chinese girl getting her photo taken.  She was posing in a way that inspired imitation.  We let our 4 take turns going out on the rock she was standing on in the water, and getting their photos taken.  Emmett is a ham!  It started raining while we were in the park.  Emmett is clearly not used to being out in the rain.  He drags us under a tree or something else close by.  His sisters love to play in the rain though, and he can't quite figure that out.  He would go out with them in the rain, then return to us in shelter; back and forth several times.  In the end he was as wet as they were!  We arrived back at the hotel dripping wet, but happy.  The kids all showered, and Emmett hopped in the tub.  I had brought some small water squirter toys, that were a big hit in the tub!  He played in there for an hour!

For supper last night we took the metro 2 stops (again a different experience that in the US.  Once you find the metro and figure out which train you need; no problem.  We came out to a large shopping area with many restaurants.  We ate Cantonese food for supper, which was very good.  We shopped for some more clothes for Emmett.  I didn't bring much, because we didn't know what size he would be.  We also bought a computer program for Chinese kids to learn English, and some CD's of songs in Chinese, and stories in Chinese and English.  Emmett loves music!  Grandma has some children's songs on her ipod on Mandarin, and he loves that!  It was an interesting day!  We learned more about Emmett's fear of police.  We must have been in the underground at shift change during the afternoon, as we saw many groups of police moving around.  Each time Emmett would come running up to me and want to be held.  He would whisper in my ear something (clearly about he police), and let me carry him for a while (unusual).  This occurred several times.  Last night when we were walking around we saw an armored car with guards holding machine guns.  The poor little guy just about came apart!  He had a terrified expression on his face, turned pale, and was visibly shaking!  We gave him lots of hugs, and Michelle tried to reassure him.  He kept asking who the man with the gun was going to shoot, whither he would shoot a "good man" or not.  Michelle tried to explain he was guarding money, but I'm not sure how much of that he understood.  It was very sad to see him so scared!  Hopefully we can decrease that fear as time goes on.  All for now; kids are up ready for breakfast!