Don't Have to Buy Christina a Present for a LOONNGG TIME!

On this fine Monday in Guangzhou the clouds are still among us but there were many pearly white smiles today because we visited the Pearl Market!  Most of our group went to the shopping district today.  A wild scene, no cars only foot traffic for 9 blocks.  There were buildings galore of all shops.  About anything you could think of was on sale somewhere if you looked hard enough.  The looking was half the fun.  At first blush the malls look like a traditional large malls with an open center atrium and a ring of shops around the perimeter and escalators at both ends.  The surprise here is there are several perimeters!  Not all the shops look over the center atrium opening.  You had to venture off the center ring through side hallways to find the best stores it seemed.  Our guides knew of a few pearl stores that are essentially wholesalers.  So I guess jewelry stores  around the world would come to them and buy in bulk.  And bulk they had.  They had bags and bags of pearls of all shapes, colors and sizes just laying on the floor!  Some of the better stuff was on display but it seemed you could walk quietly away with a bag from the floor and no-one would miss it there were so many!  After about 90 minutes the group was finally finished picking over this one store.  It was sort of funny, the workers had just opened and were really kind of still waking up when all these Americans with strollers and kids in tow walked in and disrupted everything.  I can also tease Lainey in the future, she fell asleep in my arms in a jewelry store, so she must not have a need for any!  Many of the stores must be used to long stays by buyers though, they had couches for the men to sit on, and toys for the kids to play with.  And I don't mean building blocks, they had razor scooters and battery powered cars and trucks the kids could ride and drive up and down the halls! Never seen anything like it!  Who knew one whole mall could be filled for 8 floors with all beads, seriously I don't think there was anything else but beads sold in this entire mall!  We're talking over 400 bead stores all next to each other.  Christina got her mother's day and birthday presents already checked off!  And we bought some nice things for Laine that will be special gifts as she grows up.  The prices were essentially a third of what we would pay at home.

 

The next stop was a DVD store for me. I joked I get a DVD for every pearl she bought!  We found the complete Baby Einstein video collection, some 26 DVDs for Laine for about 40 bucks. Back home it would be hundreds of dollars.  Plus we bought a couple pirated movies for about a dollar 50, movies that just came out over Christmas in the U.S.  Next was McDonald's for lunch.  There were actually two McDonald's right across the circle from one another,  and they were packed.  The whole area was packed with people buying lunch from street vendors and all sorts of restaurants.  We saw a mom feeding herself and her baby with fresh squid on a stick!  You can get all kinds of stuff cooked a stick for easy eating while  you walk or stand because there aren't many places to sit.  Laine had her first happy meal.  Christina was really thrilled with this and took pictures of it and kept the bag and toy! I didn't ask, just kept eating and feeding Laine the pieces of the chicken nuggets and french fries.  She frowned at the first fry, but quickly licked her lips, maybe her first taste of salt, and wanted more!

 

Christina is off doing some final paperwork our guides will take to the U.S. consulate on Wednesday.  We don't have to go in person we were surprised to find out.  Our guides turn in the forms and we have to stay in our room by the phone for about two hours in case there is a problem or question.  We will then go in person on Thursday to the consulate to take the oath pledging something I'm not exactly sure of right now!  Then on Friday we receive Lainey's visa to enter the U.S.  For some reason we aren't allowed to leave the country until after 3pm on the 30th and of course our last flight we would want leaves at 2pm so we have to stay an extra day.  We will fly to Hong Kong on Saturday and spend the night there.  Then fly from Hong Kong to Chicago and then home on Sunday.  Hard to believe we have to spend some much time here and the most time consuming part is the physical placement of Lainey's visa in her passport.  Oh well, its still smoother than a lot of other countries offering adoptions, so that is what we live with.  See you soon.