Day 8 � Shanghai
Today is a free day so we decide to take the morning a little slower than usual, so breakfast is not the hurried affair it has been. We also decide to do some sightseeing on our own. Yesterday we asked Mrs. He to write down, in English and Chinese, �The Bund� and �Old Town Shanghai� for us to show to taxi drivers. We also had the card for the Equatorial Hotel, which even included a little map. We made it to the Bund without any problems. The Bund is a long walkway along the river flanked by beautiful old 1930�s buildings. There were many people out and about and quite a bit of sculpture, including a huge one of Mao Tse Tung. We apparently made quite a spectacle, with Jude carrying Grace in the Snuggli. Many people stopped to look at us and point, but were very nice about it. Adoption by Caucasians is not as common in Shanghai as it is elsewhere in China, so we were an unusual sight. Unfortunately, it was cold and windy next to the river so after a little while we decided to head back to Old Town to do some more shopping and get something to eat.
We successfully made it to Old Town. One of our goals while here was to pick up some more clothes for Grace. We found a large department store and located the children�s department. As usual we were swarmed by the clerks, one of whom quickly took Grace out of Jude�s arms. This is a common and normal practice among the Chinese. True to form, Grace quickly voiced her displeasure at being removed from her Daddy�s arms. The clerk quickly gave her back to Jude and you could see the wonderment on their faces at the fact that this little Chinese girl would rather be in the arms of a blond haired, blue eyed, Caucasian man! We quickly purchased a couple of items and left as it was HOT! I would have liked to look around a little more since the prices were so good, but the heat and the persistent sales clerks chased us out.
By this time Mommy, Daddy and Grace needed food. We would have liked to eat at the wonderful restaurant we�d eaten at a few days ago, but Grace was a little cranky and we didn�t think we belonged in a nice restaurant. After walking around for a few minutes we found a cafeteria-style restaurant. All the food was put up on a long counter and you just pulled the plates you wanted and put them on your tray. We chose a plate of large, yummy looking �pot stickers� and proceeded to check out. We found an empty table and I fed Grace while Jude went and found us a couple of cold drinks. It was here that Jude had his first �there are no such things as lines in China� experience with someone stepping directly in front of him to get what they wanted. We were also the only non-Chinese in the restaurant so we garnered quite a few stares and questioning looks, though no one approached us. The food was o.k., but again it was HOT and we quickly ate, enjoyed our cool sodas and left.
We made our way back to the hotel with no problems and put Grace down for a nap. I rested while Jude went out and explored. I hadn�t been feeling well before we left for China and it was getting worse so I gladly took the chance for some extra sleep. Once Grace was up we met Mrs. He and a travel agent in the lobby to pay our hotel bill. To this point we had no idea how much our room and breakfast cost since Mrs. He had made the reservations for us. It turns out, that though the hotel�s web site says the rooms are US $200 a night, we only paid around $80, including breakfast! After paying the hotel bill, we walked back to the expatriate section of town and had dinner at Tony Roma�s. The ribs were good, but Grace was cranky so Mommy ate while Daddy walked her around and then it was Mommy�s turn to entertain Grace while Daddy ate. Our walk back to the hotel was lovely.
Earlier in the day we had arranged with the family of our China Coordinator back home, Phil, to meet them at the hotel so they could meet Grace. Phil�s father, brother and niece were to meet us at 7:00, but didn�t show up. They called us in our room at 7:30 and said they were running late and they�d come up to our room at 8:00. We decided to put Grace down anyway since she was really tired. We were very anxious to meet Phil�s family. Phil had been on vacation when our travel approval came in and we worked directly with his dad, Victor (a retired physician), via email to make our final arrangements. We wanted to take this opportunity to thank him in person for doing this for us. In addition, since Victor�s spoken English is not very good (he reads and writes it well), Phil�s brother Tom had called us twice since we�d arrived in Shanghai to make sure everything was o.k. and to see if we needed anything! What wonderful people they are. Victor, Tom and Tom�s daughter Betsy arrived at 8:00 and we thoroughly enjoyed meeting them. We very proudly introduced them to Grace and thanked them so much for being such a big help to us in our journey to be united with Grace. During their visit, Jude presented Victor and Tom with chocolate �It�s a Girl� cigars and explained to them the American tradition of presenting cigars at the birth of a child. They didn�t stay long since we had to awaken Grace to meet them. After they left Jude and I packed our bags in anticipation of leaving Shanghai the next morning to travel on to Guangzhou. |
