Onward -- Guangzhou Here We Come!

Katie reached up for Daddy for the first time on the second day.

Neil is approached by a student wanting to practice English.

We leave Changsha for Guangzhou tonight and for me, it cannot be soon enough.  Everything about this city feels gray, anonymous, and chaotic and the perpetual shroud of gloom (they refuse to call it "smog") does little to invite exploration or wonder.  Our guide Shirley, however, did introduce us to a number of local restaurants where we enjoyed dishes that we would have never found on our own.  Her boast that this is the city of the best foot massages did not materialize for any of us and, in fact, we have not noticed any massage store fronts during our excursions with Mr. Jo and Shirley.  We did make a pitstop at a KFC so that Mason could make a taste comparison between the American version and the Chinese.  His assessment based on an order of popcorn chicken:  similar, but not as good.

Mark, who has been to China twice before, warns me that in his experience, many of China's big cities are very similar to what we're experiencing here and I shouldn't get my hopes up about Guangzhou.  And just to prove how anonymous these cities can be, he didn't realize that he had been to Changsha once before in 2008 until he stepped over the threshold of the Hunan Province Museum and realized that it felt very familiar.

Changsha is not an international travel destination and as a result, there are very few people in the area who speak English.  Communication with  the hotel staff has been a real struggle for us (and for me, those weeks of Mandarin lessons completely elude me in the moment) Thus, Neil's popularity as a guinea pig for eager university students anxious to practice their English (picture of Neil with a student he met at the park attached).  Yesterday, Neil was hotly pursued by "Alex," a 4th year computer science major who wants to come to the US to pursue a more "social" graduate degree. Alex invited himself to sit with us during breakfast and  Mason enjoyed the exchange immensely, taking the opportunity to pepper him with questions about life in China  (i.e.  "What sports do you play?"  "Does China have a professional football or baseball league?"  "What do you think about Yao Ming?"  and "If the people in China mostly live in apartment buildings, do they have swimming pools?")

Although still very sad that Tong Tong has not taken a strong liking to him, Mason made great strides yesterday to improve their relationship.  They walked to hotel halls together and played a sorting and stacking game that she created for hours together.  He got her to laugh on several occasions and she allows him to feed her.  When we remind him of these signs of progress, Mason is dismissive about the feeding.  "She loves to eat.  She'll take food from anybody."  Which might be true.

As for Tong Tong, her mood has improved considerably since that poopy day 48 hrs ago.  She loves to be out and to be nestled in her baby carrier as we sight see and somewhere along the way, she has picked up "Oh-oh!" and is delighted to use this phrase when she sees something drop or fall.  Sleep will be an ongoing struggle for us that we will need to figure out together.  She loves sleep and does it well, but something about lying down is terrifying for her.  Last night, she sobbed and screeched for hours while sitting up next to me in the bed.  Completely exhausted, she refused to lie down and teetered half-conscious sitting up for an hour before I was finally able to get her to lie down next to me.

Finally, I want to thank all of you for your lovely comments, your support, and words of encouragement along our adventure.  I read every single one of your comments -- multiple times -- and it makes me cry even now to know that you are all out there thousands of miles away and yet on this journey with us.  I cannot respond to the comments that I receive on my blog (in fact, I don't get to see my blog at all -- I hope it looks nice  ;0)  or on my Facebook, but know that we are reading them and feel so fortunate to have you in our lives as we move into 2012.

With love,

Taf, Neil, Mason, and Katie