Aug. 5

I'm going to write about Aug. 5 from our hotel room in Nanning. I still cannot view the blogger, but at least I have a good Internet connection in the room.

I had a very difficult time trying to sleep on the night of Aug. 4-5. I woke up at 1:20 a.m. and could not fall asleep again until about 6 a.m. (for a 30-minute nap). While I was awake I graded some papers on the computer and then tried reading newspapers, but I just couldn't fall asleep. Peter woke for the day around 4 a.m.

We went upstairs for breakfast, checked out of the hotel and met Angela in the lobby shortly after 8 a.m. We packed our luggage in the van and Mr. Tom drove us to Tian An Men Square which is the largest such square in the world. The weather was warm (low 80s) and there was visible smog everywhere which made it seem dreary. But there was still excitement in the air!

Just beyond Tian An Men Square was the Forbidden City. We walked inside here as well. Many of the buildings had scaffolding on them as the citizens prepare for the Olympics which will begin in 369 days. (There was a countdown clock.)

Beyond the Forbidden City were the Imperial Gardens, and they were quite beautiful. It felt good to walk around, too.

Then we went outside to meet Mr. Tom. He drove us to a restaurant for lunch. It wasn't even 11 a.m. yet, but we needed to get to the airport for our 2:05 p.m. flight to Nanning.

Inside the restaurant, Angela spoke to the servers and told them to bring us vegetarian food. Peter ordered hot Chinese-style tea, and I ordered Sprite. Fortunately they also gave Peter a portion of Sprite because the glasses only held about three ounces of soda and some of the food was spicy.

The food was plentiful to say the least. I know that many people have commented that they have had a hard time dealing with the unusual tastes of Chinese foods, but we have had no problems. I would tell you what we are eating, but we usually don't know the proper names. But I will describe the food from the lunch to give you an idea:

We started out with a plate of pickled vegetables such as cauliflower, carrots, etc. Then we received a plate of hot potatoes that were almost like slivered hashbrowns. We also had a bowl of Chinese cabbage which was similar to a green salad. They brought us a separate plate of regular cherry tomatoes which I think was to be our dessert. I added some of the tomatoes to the salad and ate a few as a dessert as well. We each received a bowl of white sticky rice and a big plate of roasted eggplant; we mixed the two for a delicious combo. We also had a big bowl of soup. I think the recipe for the soup was to bowl water, add some oil and salt and some sort of white cabbage leaves. (We liked it.) We also had a plate of scrambled eggs which Peter thought were delicious, but I didn't bother with them since we had so much food.

We probably ate about half of what they brought us. I am quite sure that we had the "fat America lunch" rather than normal Chinese portions. But this way we could have the equivalent of a Chinese buffet right at our own table without actually having to order anything.

After lunch we went to the airport. We gave Angela and Mr. Tom a tip and some bags with treats in such as Disney pens, a coin purse from Guatemala and American candy bars (about eight bars of Snickers, Milky Way, Three Musketeers, etc.). Angela continued into the airport with us and helped us check in. We thought perhaps we had too much luggage, but it turned out to be fine.

Peter and I said goodbye to Angela and thanked her for her help. She taught us one more important thing before she left and that was how to say twins in Chinese: shuang bao tai. It literally means "double babies."

We walked around the airport and saw a lot of unusual things. I was able to get a copy of the Asian edition of The Wall Street Journal.

We flew on Air China (accruing frequent flier miles on United). We received a hot sandwich and drinks on our three-hour flight from Beijing to Nanning (which is the capital of Guangxi province). The sandwiches consisted of a hot bun with sesame seeds and a slice of ham. Peter took out the ham and added some peppercorn cheese spread that we had with us and ate both of them. We saved the ham in the hope of finding a dog or cat to feed it to. Both of us slept for nearly the entire flight.

In Nanning, we met our guide, Cindy. She explained that Glen will be our guide for our other days in Nanning, but he had an appointment today and couldn't make it to the airport. Cindy also had a driver with a very similar van.

Cindy explained that Glen will come to our hotel room tomorrow (Aug. 6) at 10 a.m. to go over some paperwork. Then he will meet us at 2:30 p.m. in the lobby to escort us to the place where we will receive the twins 30 minutes later. We understand that there will be a lot of emotion involved and that the girls will probably resent the situation initially. And we also know that they may reject me in favor of Peter because they have bonded so closely with their foster mother.

We are staying at the Majestic Hotel which is right downtown. Nanning is about the size of Chicago, so it is quite large and bustling. Our hotel room features a refrigerator, a water cooler (so cute!), a computer (which I'm not using because I need to access my personal hard drive), an Ethernet connection and two twin beds. In addition we have two cribs in the room. It is quite evident that our wait is nearly over!

We quickly got ready to head downtown to the local Wal-Mart. It was fun! Peter forgot to bring his camera, but we will try to go again today. The Wal-Mart is in the second and third floors of a building on the main street. There is a moving ramp (like and escalator, but without steps) that takes you and your cart between the second and third floors. Along the way you can continue to put things in your cart from either side of the "Travalator." One of the things we wanted to get was some clothing and toys for a 6.5 year-old boy who lives in Guilin and will soon be adopted by one of my new friends from the Guilin Yahoo Group. (This is a very supportive group consisting of families who have adopted from or will soon adopt from Guilin. I belong to numerous other supportive Yahoo Groups as well.) In addition, we bought some milk, apples, bananas and some books for our twins. We want to hold off on buying any additional clothes, shoes or toys for the girls until we can take them to the store and get exactly what we need (instead of guessing). In order to purchase produce, you have to have it weighed and priced in a separate line. Then you can procede to the check out.

On the way home we stopped at a bakery and Peter got some pastries. He cannot resist Chinese bakeries -- wherever he may be. We also saw an orange and white kitten (probably six weeks old and most likely male because of the orange coloring) and we gave him the ham; he didn't initially eat it, but I suspect he did later as he was quite then.

When we got back to the hotel we had a simple dinner consisting of nuts and fruit (and Peter had some of his pastries). Soon we were asleep.