Day 9: Last day in ZhengZhou

Today marked the half-way point during our 18 day stay in China.  So much has happened on this trip already, we think that the second half won't be nearly as eventful as the first half.  We won't add any more kids to our family, at least!

We didn't have anything scheduled for today.  The guides offered the families a visit to a local Shao-Lin temple.  Supposedly, the monks at this temple practice an ancient form of Chinese martial arts.  However, that was a two-hour bus ride away and it would be an all-day trip.  We decided to stay close to the hotel however, so that the boys would be able to take their regular naps and rest up before the flight tomorrow to Guangzhou in southern China (near Hong Kong.)  It turned out that all the families in our group declined the trip.

After breakfast, we went out for a little walk.  We found a park and saw some people play the Chinese version of hacky sack.

We also run into a gentleman playing an er-hu which is played by running a bow over strings, like a violin.  If you have watched a Chinese movie, such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, then you have heard an er-hu played.

A lady was with him, belting out some song in Chinese.

We also saw a guy doing tai-chi.

By this time Xiao Yu was really tired because he woke up so early, so Emily took him back to the hotel.  Seeing his foster Ye-Ye (grandpa) yesterday was pretty hard and confusing for him, we think.  He did not sleep well last night, and woke up crying in the middle of the night.  After a night of tossing and turning, he woke up still in a pretty bad mood.  He didn't really eat much breakfast, and threw anything he could get his hands onto on the floor.  He was sound asleep in the carrier by 10:30 am, no matter how hard Emily tried to keep him awake on the walk home.  He woke up in a better mood, though, so we are hoping he will be feeling better as time goes on.

Elvin and Erica and the other kids pressed on and ran into a pool filled with goldfish.  Elvin struck up a conversation with a gentleman there and found out that you can rent a pole to fish in there--$3 for 30 min.  Whatever you caught--you got to keep to take home as pets.

The girls are always begging Elvin to take them fishing, so this seemed as good a time as any.  The gentleman baited the hooks for us.  They were tiny little hooks, as you can imagine would be used for goldfish.

He was very patient with the girls.  And helped them set the hook when the fish bit.

Eliana's first catch!  A 2-incher!

 Then it was Karina's turn.

 And Gabey caught one!  He got a black one.

All the kids took turns and in the 1/2 hour they caught about fourteen.  It was great fun.  They begged Daddy to let them take the fish back to the hotel but Elvin said "no".  So strict!  Today was a catch and release day.

We went to the McDonald's, with Elvin ordering the food again.  And...he got everything right this time!  At least he learns from his mistakes.

Erica got a combo meal, so it came with a Coke.  We never have soda at home, so the kids did not know what this black liquid was.  They wanted to try it and...they loved it.  It's funny that their first take of Coke is in China.  By the way, we had mentioned before that Karina had come down with the sniffles.  She is all better now.

On our way out, we ordered five cones.  A lady came by to hand us the cones...and she was holding all five with one hand!  It was amazing.

After getting back, Gabriel went down for a nap and the rest of the kids went to the pool.

This, we believe, was Xiao Yu's first time to a swimming pool.  But given that he likes taking a bath, we thought that he would like this and he did.

We spent about an hour at the pool and that let the cleaning people do their thing in the our rooms.  They have been superb...  On some days, every walkable square foot is literally covered with cracker crumbs and after they are done, the room is clean again.

After a bath, the kids played with toys...  Some friends from our church were nice enough to put together little care packages for our kids.  We whip one out every so often.  This is so that they would have something new and interesting to play with during our trip.  Here, Karina is coloring a new book she got and Eliana is playing with a travel version of a spirograph.

And Gabe is playing with these little colorful cars that go fast if you pull them back.  Thanks, church friends, for the gifts!

And we ate our last dinner in Zhengzhou at the hotel.  During the dinner, Yisha our guide came by to give us Xiao Yu's Chinese passport.  That was the last bit of documentation we needed before moving on to the next step.

Emily packed quite a bit throughout the day because the next morning, we are to leave at 9:15 am to the airport.  After we arrive in Guangzhou, we will be going to the American consulate there, to apply for Xiao Yu's visa so that he can enter the U.S.