Tuesday,
September 9, 2008
RED COUCH PHOTOS AND
TRIP TO THE PEARL MARKET
This morning we met the other three families in our group for
the infamous red couch photo. Just a little history about the
tradition of the red couch photos… When the first group of
children was adopted from China in the early 1990’s, the
families took a picture of all of the babies lined up together
on a red couch at the White Swan Hotel. It is something that has
become somewhat of a tradition as most families have continued
to do this. It was fun and surprisingly there were no tears!
Just a lot of Cheerios : ) The babies were happy to sit on the
couch and look cute. I think we took about 80 pictures : )
Later in the day, our guide took us by taxi to the Pearl Market.
Ian and I laughed when we got in the taxi and the driver tuned
into a radio station that had English instructions for us. I
felt like I was boarding a ride at Disneyland with instructions
to buckle our seatbelts and to keep our arms and legs inside the
ride at all times : ) Our guide had written our destination in
Chinese for the taxi driver. Each family took a separate taxi
and as the family in front of us left, Ian told them that if we
were to never see them again, it was nice getting to know them :
) Fortunately for us, the ride was much less exciting than our
ride in Hangzhou! The Pearl Market was interesting as it was
basically an incredibly large indoor mall with store after store
of jewelry. Our guide took us to a couple of reputable stores
and we were able to look around and make any purchases that we
wanted to. We were able to pick out the actual pearls that we
wanted, and they strung them for us while we waited and watched.
We bought a little something special to give to Sophie on her
wedding day. It was even more fun when we found out that the
pearls were harvested from Zhejiang Province …the province where
Sophie is from!
Jocelyn, our guide, then took us as a group through some old,
outdoor street markets. We saw all sorts of interesting things.
The first street we walked through was a pet market. I never
knew that chipmunks were kept as pets here in China : ) We saw a
lot of lizards and turtles too. Christian and Michael, you would
have loved seeing all the different animals that were for sale.
Nate, I think all the reptiles would have made you a bit jumpy :
) Next, we walked down a street that sold different kinds of
herbs and remedies. Jocelyn told us that the shopkeepers, even
though they may not look it, are quite wealthy. We even saw a
little school boy doing his homework. He was using the top of a
barrel for a desk, and it looked like he was practicing his
handwriting. We have been told that the children in China attend
school from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. —a very, very long school
day. Now back to the market, I’m still trying to figure out what
the dried seahorses are used for…
We ended the day at Lucy’s—a restaurant that serves American
food. It tasted good, especially to Sophie who ate two entire
bowls of mashed potatoes and then put her head on the table and
fell sound asleep. Nothing like a full belly…
|
I'm really not in the mood for this...
Especially when I'd rather just slide around in these slippery
new clothes :)
Maybe I'll feel better if I have a little snack...
Let's give it another try... |
