News from China, Day 10 - Shopping

Today we shopped until we dropped. Jaime hung in there really well, at times watching the haggling from the MEC backpack, at other times riding around in the stroller. We also visited a silk "factory", although there wasn't much "factory" to it and it was more like a silk "historical demo" and "shopping outlet". We learned some amazing stuff about the silkworms and how the Chinese harvest silk from their cocoons. The red bag of white eggie things in the bottom of the picture are the cocoons, which get boiled (to soften them) and then hooked up the machine, which pulls the silk from them.

We went walking in the evening and found a really cool artsy district along one of the side streets. They had mini North-American style wine bars, cool T-shirt stores, and even one quaint little pizzeria which served freshly-ground North-American style coffee ! We splurged and ate a cheese lovers' while David sipped a Columbian.

We were asked in one of the comments what Jaime's favourite foods are ... Well, she's been drinking her Nestle bottles steadily, and has made it clear that she prefers them hot to lukewarm. Nestle is the brand of formula that the orphanage was giving her, so we've stuck with that for now so that she has something familiar. She's also been eating watermelon at breakfast, although it's not clear if she really likes it or not. When we eat at traditional Chinese restaurants, we give her some of the scrambled-egg dishes, which she devours. And Melissa bought some North-American style baby food in the grocery store, and Jaime has loved the carrots and the mixed fruit. She's completely nonplussed about rice congee (watery rice porridge), for which we can't blame her.

We were also asked if Emily could contribute to the blog, so here are some of her thoughts ...

Dad : What's your favourite thing about China ?
Emily : It would probably be the shopping that we did yesterday.
Dad : Why ?
Emily : Because we bought some nice dresses and some hats for the boys.
Dad : What's the thing you miss most about home ?
Emily : The trampoline, and the boys.
Dad : What's your favourite thing about your baby sister ?
Emily : That she makes dinosaur noises. Like, she kind of does a "rahh, rahh" sound.
Dad : What's your favourite food here in China ?
Emily : Well, I've had a lot of the watermelon, umm, it would probably be the meatballs that they serve out at the place where we went not yesterday, but the day before. [ed: she means the pork balls in sauce]
Dad : What would you say if you could say something to everyone back home ?
Emily : I would say "I miss you" probably, and, ummm, hey boys, I'm home !

We were also asked to branch into multi media ... and post a video ! So here is the clip from the moments before we got Jaime, literally 120 seconds before we were holding her. All the babies were carried in by orphanage workers, and although we didn't know it as we were filming, Jaime was the sixth one in (note that two and three are being carried by one person, so Jaime's with the fifth adult, carrying a white plastic bag). Just try to imagine the energy and anticipation in the room !

Tomorrow is our last full day in China ... we'll be home soon !