So, I think I got us through our paperwork on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon was shopping. I had only brought one outfit for Huang-huang from the U.S., since I wasn't sure of his size. So I wanted to get four or five more shirts and a few pairs of shorts. On a friend's advice, we went to a certain supermarket RT Mart) which is not too expensive. With the exchange rate having changed since we were in China, it is no longer any cheaper to buy clothes here than it is to get them discounted at the places I shop in the U.S., so I was just going to get what we needed to get us through the rest of the trip. Huang-huang told us that he prefers T-shirts over polo-style shirts, and he likes the colors yellow and blue. We found several shirts that fit him (though some were a little big), but only one pair of shorts in the entire store! The shorts in the children's section were all too small, and the ones in the adult section were all too big. Afterwards we went to the KFC attached to that store, so Esther could play in the (very small) play place. At one point she had to go to the bathroom. It was a rather upscale bathroom, with squat toilets (of course) that flush automatically. So every time poor Esther tried to squat down over the toilet, it started making a loud noise and sending water rushing and gurgling under her. She decided she didn't need to pee after all. Overall she has been doing well with squat toilets, although at first she wasn't sure what to make of them. (About the third time we entered a public bathroom to find that our only toilet options were the squat variety, she exclaimed, "Not again!!")
Wednesday morning was the zoo. I tell you, one could spend a lot of money in that place!! The entrance fee was not high, but like a lot of public parks in China, it has all kinds of amusement park rides, which you have to walk past in order to get to the animals. Both kids were raring to get on some rides, but we told them we were going to see animals first. Then we came to a little...I don't know whether to call it a trolley or what, but they're pretty common in zoos, a bunch of open cars strung together. The lady in charge of it was Absolutely! Determined! that we needed to buy tickets on this thing to go around the zoo. We didn't understand, she said! It runs until six o' clock in the afternoon! You can't see all the animals by walking; it's too far! I finally convinced her that we were not going to buy tickets. We did see almost all of the animals by walking, and I was less tired than I am by the end of a trip to the National Zoo in DC. It's a nice shady zoo, with lots of walking paths and some pretty interesting animals. We paid extra to go into the marine house. I thought it was rather overpriced for the number of animals inside, but we did get to get right up to the seals' swimming pool and see them from a few feet away. Their keeper had them do tricks for fish. After we had seen all the animals we were going to see, as well as the inside of several bathrooms, we rode a few rides on the way out. I picked out bumper cars, since I have been wanting to take Esther on a bumper car ride for a long time. She had as much fun as I thought she would. :-) She and Tim rode in one car and Huang-huang and I rode in another. I let him drive ours, and I think he had fun too! Although he did a couple of fast back-ups into the wall that were...neck-rattling.
Wednesday afternoon Tim was picked up by his colleague from Shandong University to go give a scientific lecture. I planned to take the kids to the bookstore to look for an electronic translator. A while into naptime, Tim called to say that he had been asked out to dinner with some colleagues, and was I okay with having both kids by myself through dinnertime. I said sure. Then as we were out looking for the bookstore, I got another call saying that it was just Tim and his colleague for dinner, and could we come. So we spent a very long time trying to find a taxi during rush hour on a street where taxis couldn't easily pull over. When we finally got to the campus, it turned out that there were going to be multiple colleagues there after all. It was a rather formal dinner, which meant some expensive and unusual dishes (I think I spotted a sea cucumber in my neighbor's appetizer soup, although mine happily contained some less exotic seafood). There were some more "normal" dishes as well, but Huang-huang didn't really like any of them, so he dined mostly on watermelon slices. By the end of the dinner both kids were getting up and wandering around the room, and Esther was so tired she was about at the end of her rope. However, the meal was slightly redeemed for Huang-huang because the wife of one of the physics professors turned out to be a music professor who had once given lessons to one of his orphanage directors! So they talked about music and their mutual acquaintance for a while, and that was good. There was also a rather lively discussion (in Chinese, so I'm not sure what was said) of different customs in China and the U.S. It was nice for Tim to see his ping-pong buddies again.
Thursday morning was the orphanage visit. That requires its own post, I think. Thursday afternoon I let Esther take a three-hour nap in hopes that it would improve her disposition. Afterwards she and I went to our friends' apartment with some dirty laundry while Tim took Huang-huang to Walmart to look for clothes. They got one T-shirt but struck out again on shorts. So I got a little one-on-one playtime with Esther. Our friends gave us some little crackers and a fishing net, and we went out to the little stream that runs through their apartment complex, fed the goldfish, and tried to catch some. Then Esther went wading a little bit and got her feet covered in muck.
And I had better get off the computer and start getting ready for the morning. On tap for today: the science and technology museum! I'm gathering that Huang-huang is looking forward to going, since he reminded me at least ten times yesterday that we were going to be doing that today!
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