Amusement parks and crazy cab rides

Today is the 14th, our consulate appointment and as I said you don't attend the all important consulate appt. your guide goes and clears everything and then calls you and gives you the all clear. Connie called around 10:45 and said everything was ok. We went down and spent some time in the pool again. Jie enjoyed it and is beginning to be a little braver and kicking around and having fun. Nathan was doing great and wanted to go (with his duck) by him self and so we let him and he had a little problem but he is doing so much better.

Glenn ran and got us some lunch, McDonald's is right next to the hotel. We ate and then tried to get the kids to nap as we were going to the amusement park at 3:00. Glenn went down and had a massage. The amusement park was fun and I think everyone really enjoyed it. There are 5 families here and 4 went. It was a small amusement park but really nice. The kids rode the Carousel, the bee (kind of like helicopters) that went up and down. We were afraid that Jie might be afraid but I don't think she is going to be afraid of anything. I think she will be really good for Nathan. Just a little while ago we went down to the concierge lounge for a small snack and there were two women sitting and relaxing and we asked them where they were from. They were both from Australia and they were complimenting the kids. The one lady said that Jie was beautiful but she bet she was "cheeky" and that is probably a great word for her.

Anyway, we had a great time at the park and rode several rides and had great ice cream cones and then came back to the hotel. Yes, we got plenty of pictures and no Glenn's computer will not let Ofoto install. We are beginning to think that there is so much SAP hardware and firewalls on it that it just won't accept it. Sorry, we will upload as soon as we get home and I can get to my computer. When we got back to the hotel we were hungry but didn't want to go to the Chinese restaurant we have been eating at (very slow) and didn't want any of the fancy restaurants in the hotel so we asked one of the women in the Concierge Lounge where we should go to get a quick meal. Bearing in mind we are tired and so are the kids. She gave us the address of the closest(not) KFC. We have seen many KFC, Pizza Huts and McDonalds here and everywhere in China. She also said it was close to a wholesale market and we could shop there but to watch our wallets and that outside of where we were going were men on motorcycles and to ignore them if they wanted to take us somewhere. Not much in the way of a confidence builder. Anyway, we left and the driver drove and drove and I really thought he was taking us for a ride. We were involved in 6:00 traffic and it was literally bumper to bumper. When you say that in the US you mean that the traffic is stopped but here you can literally reach out and touch the next car and they will pull in front of buses that are packed and just ignore the horns blaring, etc. We finally arrived and noticed immediately what she was saying as there were at least 20 guys on motorcycles trying to act like taxi's and take people home. They were literally blocking the driveway. Anyway, we made it inside and it was better there. There were police everywhere which made us feel better. We went in and I took the kids and tried to find a seat. The Chinese have taken to fast food in a big way and all you see is a sea of black hair. Anyway, I finally found a place for us to sit and then Jie started flirting and talking to the people next to us. I am trying to get her to stop this but so far no luck. She will smile and try to touch people and just start talking. I hope this behavior stops once we get out of China. After dinner we went shopping. I wanted to get Jie some new shoes -not squeaky shoes- and a bracelet. It didn't have to be expensive but I thought she would like just a simple elastic style bracelet. We looked for awhile but the Chinese buy their children expensive jewelry such as jade bracelets and we couldn't find anything. So, we decided to look for shoes and found Nathan a shirt he liked. No shoes. Finally we were directed to go downstairs and there was a large Walmart (Chinese style) store and so we did do a little shopping. We found Jie a pair of shoes and did find the bracelet. Her new. shoes are cute pink sandals but I couldn't find Church shoes or even any tennis shoes for her. We found Glenn a couple of dress shirts and I guess that was it. As we checked out an old Chinese man was watching us. I noticed him several times standing maybe five feet away and when we checked out Glenn told the cashier he wanted a receipt. She told him she had given him one and he said no, she hadn't. She waved him away and then we had to leave the store. They have people checking receipts like at Sam's or Costco and we didn't have a receipt. Glenn said we didn't have one and the man kept insisting and finally this little old man came over and vouched for us and then they went over and talked to the woman at the cash register and finally we were released. Yeah!

We are back in the hotel and the kids have had their baths, scriptures and stories and are in bed. Nathan and Glenn are sound asleep but of course, our little Princess is still wide awake. She isn't doing anything bad just talking to herself in her bed. Oh, by the way, she has been very good about folding her arms for prayer since day #2 but tonight she said amen, which was really cute. She keeps coming up with new words, she really has hello down and usually she remembers what you tell her. I was reading her a book about farm animals and she saw a cow and let out a low moo!

Oh, I forgot to tell you about the police today. We were walking over to a store that Glenn wanted me to see and in front of us two policeman come running out of a group of stores and grab a boy and make him and another boy squat in front of them. They start manhandling them a little and I looked up and there are two or three other police offficers coming out of the shops. My guess is that they got caught shoplifting but I don't know. We didn't stick around very long to find out. The street peddlers that sell the tiger skins decided to move on also. This is an interesting place, the high end electronics and they use sythes(the long curved blades) to cut the grass in the medians.

This is getting too long so will close. I hope I'm not getting off subject too much when I talk about what is around us. It is an interesting world we find ourselves in.

Love, Mama