Aug. 4

Okay, here's the deal: We now have Internet access in our room. In order to get it to work, you have to make a request in the business center for them to activate the in-room port. So I'm finally using my own laptop. And while I am able to get into my blog and view the buttons in English, I am unable to view anything I do. Once again I apologize for any weird formatting that may result.

Today is the third anniversary of the twins' Finding Day. (Their July 31 birthday is an estimate.) Also, happy birthday to Michele, Crystal and Brian.

This morning we woke up early. I began the day at 1 a.m. local time. I decided to play beauty shop. I "reaffirmed my commitment to blondeness" and then painted my fingernails and toenails. On my left hand and right toes I used scarlet (just one "t" in the color itself, but two "t's" in the name) nail polish and on my right hand I used sienna nailpolish. This is going to be a cue to other adoptive families that we might encounter to introduce themselves. It will probably be more effective in Ghangzhou where there will be many of us all in the same hotel. But why wait?

Peter slept until 3 a.m. and then woke up for good (whereas I went back to sleep around 4:20 a.m.). He figured out how to download photos from the digital camera. Those will be forthcoming very soon.

We had breakfast at the executive lounge. It was actually lunchtime for us, so we were pleased that the menu included a lot of lunchtime items such as vegetable fried rice, lo mein, salad and various fruits. We look forward to going again tomorrow. Peter wants to get a made-to-order omlette. I'm going to skip that part because I always order mine without eggs (basically just stir-fried vegetables with some cheese), and that is hard enough to explain to someone in the States.

We met Angela in the lobby at 8 a.m. and got in the van driven by "Mr. Tom." As we drove, Angela helped us master the numbers from 1 to 10 including the corresponding hand signs. Our first stop was the Great Wall of China. We went to the Badalings section. It was very crowded! The Lonely Planet guidebook for China warns against going to the Great Wall on a weekend in the summer. But it was today or never. The wall was very steep in places. And some of the steps were extremely high. Plus the steps were all different heights. Then it began to rain fairly hard. This seemed to thin the crowd a bit.

We experienced an unusual restroom at the Great Wall. The front part of the restroom contained sinks on both sides of a big room with men on the left and women on the right. Then the toilets were in separate rooms. There were Western toilets (which had a line) as well as squat toilets. The latter were porcelein rather than just a hole in the floor. I inadvertently used a Western toilet on the way in, but later used the other type on the way out.

After that we went to a jade carving factory. They showed us some craftspersons at work and some of their best carvings. Then we ate lunch there. The travel agent forgot to mention that we are vegetarians, but our tour guide called to let them know. The food was plentiful and quite good.

Next we went to Hutong which near the center of Beijing. (On the way there I had a short nap during which time I missed seeing the various stadiums built for the 2008 Olympics!) In Hutong we rode in a rickshaw through a typical neighborhood. We even toured a typical home. Actually, I'm not sure it was truly typical because they had a lot of pets there including a big turtle and a hatchling, six cats, six grasshoppers and several different types of birds. I met three of the cats and Peter met both of the turtles. Our guide then told our rickshaw driver that I would like to drive the rickshaw. At first I did it with no one inside. Then the driver got inside which made it a bit harder, of course. Peter didn't get in because he was photographing everything.

After that we went to the Acrobatics Macrocosm. This one-hour theater-style show featured many different acrobatic artists from approximately age 8 through 30. We took miniature naps during the show because it was so comfortable and dark.

We're about to go out to buy milk and then eat some dinner. I'm hoping we will sleep a little longer tonight. We are going to check out tomorrow and meet Angela in the lobby at 8 a.m. for some more touring prior to our flight to Nanning.