carseat tourist's Travel Blog - carseat tourist
Teaching English in Harbin and adopting from Hefei. Relocating back to America and trying to make my way...Feel free to leave a message!

care package/ fundraiser
Harbin, China
care package
We have sent little guy a care package. When we volunteered in Shenyang at the orphanage we saw that the kids were able to see photo albums of their new families and the staff and the kids would be so proud to show the pictures. The kids would say Mama and Baba(Daddy) and point to the pictures. The orphange staff even would prop the album up so that when they were in the cribs they could see the pictures. We know one family sent a stuffed animal, but when we volunteered we never saw the stuffed animal. So when we found out our son where our son was, we immediately sent off a photo album. We followed a couple of blogs of people adopting from the same orphanage and noticed that it seemed that the kids were getting stuffed animals that were sent, but not being shown the pictures until just before the adoption. That broke our heart. We really wanted our son to know that he had somebody out in the world who loved him and was waiting to make him a part of a family. And we wanted him to be familiar with our faces, so maybe he would be less scared when we met. Soooo....we found the solution. A stuffed animal with a photo face.
the stuffed family
Actually it's a keychain. The Chinese seem to love keychains. They are always giving them to our daughter and have one attached to zippers, phones, etc. So we think that the staff will think it is very cute and novel. It's personal enough that it should be distributed! We went to a kiosk and had our pictures taken and then they made our face into 3-d plastic model. It is very funny!
Bunny and chics at the kiosk
Then they put it into the keychain stuffed animal.
froggie baby
Behind our face they had sewn shut the little critter so that the stuffing was really in there and not going to leak. It is small but seems safe for kids. I think it could be hung on the side of a bed. We sent him a set of our family, mom,dad, sisters, and him. We kept another set for our daughter to see how they hold up. They have held up well. It's great for roleplays. Our daughter kisses her brother toy one minute, then gets mad at her sister and puts sister toy in time out.
mom and sister chic
little miss playing with her chics
We got little tigers for dad and little guy and bunny's for the females in our family.
Little tiger
For the second set we got tigers and chicks. We got a panda too, its a little bigger and more like a small beanie baby size.
Mom Panda
I like the small ones best. Anyway, we'd be happy to send a set of any other adoptive families to their orphanage. I talked to the maker and they started in Japan and are only in a few places in China so far. The pictures have to be high resolution so the referal photos might not work, I was lucky and had a picture that someone else had taken on their digital camera so it worked. We thought having his little face on a toy was a bonus, our main goal was sending our love with an image of us he could hold. Little ones are $5 and the panda is $8 plus actual cost of shipping and we are in China so shipping is quick and not too much. Email cbilik01@gmail.com if we can help you out.
Mom chic
written by  carseat tourist on June 18, 2009 from Harbin, China
from the travel blog: carseat tourist's Travel Blog

One step closer
Harbin, China
The Black Swan, a resort on the otherside of Harbin. We celebrated Dragon Boat Day with our "work unit" there.
We bought the tickets to Anhui today!!!! As always it was not as easy as going to Expedia and few clicks you're done. The chinese airlines don't take foriegn credit cards online. So, our previous ticket purchases had worked out that we found the rate we wanted and then went to a travel agent and bought it. In Dalian, we had the best boss ever, and they would get the travel agent to come to us and deliver tickets, it was so great. That was last year, in another city. So we printed the list of tickets prices from Elong (Expedia's Chinese cousin) and jumped on the bikes and went to where we bought the tickets for trips last year. Except, they were gone. The subway is being constructed infront of our univeristy and the roads are torn up and detours everywhere. So since the detour led everyone on the road away from their shop, I guess they moved or something. I knew there was another one a few blocks down. Since the road is torn up the sidewalk has a big baracade edging the road. Blocks and blocks of these baracades. We were on bikes so we thought it wouldn't be a problem. Some stores or restraunts had done away with the sidewalk, and have grand staircases. So we ended up carrying our bikes up and down these stairs. It was just crazy.
Swapbot scrapbook page
The new travel agency was empty, and had 4 ladies working. For some reason the woman who chose to help us didn't speak English. 2 of the others had a conversation in chinese that I understood as, "oh, I can't remember anything in English, just a dialogue about the weather" Her coworker, then said, "I studied Russian." Luckily, we had reviewed our dialogue on tickets and could conduct almost the whole thing in Chinese. I was just so pleased with myself. We didn't get the price we had found on the net, but were able to get cheaper than the next price range of tickets, so we were happy. I even got the child discount for princess. They tried to tell me that she didn't get a discount, but I knew better. So we have the tickets to Anhui!!!! As it stands it is just for the teaching job, but we can hope the fates let us get our son while we are down there!
written by  carseat tourist on June 24, 2009 from Harbin, China
from the travel blog: carseat tourist's Travel Blog

Chinese kindergarten
Harbin, China
Shenyang Preschool
Princess has been going to Chinese kindergarten since September. It is very different from US. When she enrolled, the head of foriegn affairs handled everything for us. So we just paid and dropped her off the next day. The first week she came home speaking all these Russian sounding words. We were confused, but thought great-another language!
So, I asked some of my students whose children also go there if they have Russian lessons. They said no. Then when I went to pick her up, the staff was talking to me in Russian. I think they thought we were Russian since most white folks in Harbin are Russian. It took a few days, but we did finally come to the understanding that we are American. In the beginning everyday, we took her and they redid her hair. At home she won't let us do anything with her hair, but at school she wound up with all sorts of fancy hairstyles. It was the same in Shenyang when she went to preschool. Except they took it a little too far and gave renamed her Barbie. I was mad, but quickly got over it because they couldn't say the "r" in Barbie, so what the called her sounded like "Bobby" at that is my uncle and Grandpa's name so I figured that's ok.
Princess only goes in the mornings. They feed them breakfast at 8:15 and then lunch around 11:30.
Eating at Shenyang Preschool
They don't have a cafeteria so they eat in their classrooms. They have whole rooms of bunk beds for them to take naps. Princess doesn't do naps. The room full of beds really scared her. I think that because we had volunteered at the orphanage, when she saw those beds she thought we were leaving her there. When they feed the kids, they bring the food in big stainless steel buckets. At the orphanage they used plastic buckets.
Delivering lunch
When I first saw the "slop buckets", I was quite taken back. But I think now, I understand that there isn't any malice in the food delivery, it is just practical. The kitchen is down stairs. The classrooms are all over. Instead of big bowls, it is easy to carry buckets. Even in our home the ayi thinks we are crazy when we use a big bowl to cook with sometimes. They use big bowls to wash dishes, clean stuff.
Her class is pretty big, over 25 kids. They have 2 main teachers, then a chinese English teacher comes in a few times a week. The lunch ladies also help out when they are not cooking. Since this is a university, students do community service or student teaching as well. So although the class is very big, they are always lots of adults.
Halfway through this semester, they began teaching pin yin. Before that, maybe they just taught characters. We couldn't decide if Princess should learn pin yin or not. How confusing to learn different sounds for the letters, what if when we take her back to Lummi Island & she can't read English? They handed out little books for homework and Princess was very upset. We thought about giving up on kindergarten, but decided that we would just leave the books at school and what happens there, happens there.
Princess's best friend is a fellow princess who is part Russian. She just loves her little friend. When we went to America this winter, princess suffered from culture shock and would wail that she wanted to go back to school to see her friend. We think that if she missed school that much in America, she must really like it.
On Children's Day they had a big show. It was 2 hours long and the teachers did dances too. It was very cultural. Princess and her fellow princess apparently didn't like the spot light as much as the teachers wanted. Her teacher said about a week before the show, "we wish she would dance like the other children. " It was about that time, that princess became distraught at bedtime when we put in Enya. She'd heard Enya forever and we couldn't understand why all of a sudden it was "the scary music" . At the big performance, her class did a dance to an Enya song that begins with thunder and the Aiy Ayi Aiiiiii chant. The princesses were given the job of running across the stage during the thunder and pretended to yell "Ai Ayi Aiiii" and there was big thunder and the stage was dark with flashes of light. I think she maybe afraid of Enya for life. The rest of the class did a very well rehearsed dance to the rest of the song, while the princesses played off stage somewhere.
After the big show, Princess in Pink, fellow Princess in White
Princess has 1 week left of kindergarten.
written by  carseat tourist on June 26, 2009 from Harbin, China
from the travel blog: carseat tourist's Travel Blog

Beijing, just as hot and smoggy as we remembered
Beijing, China
Rainbow in Harbin right before the last piece of paperwork for the adoption fell into place. It must be a sign of good things to come.
Riding the rails
The hope was short lived once we arrived at the train station. I think train stations in China are in a special level of Dante's hell. We have learned that we need to take a native with us, not for the language but for the general know-how of how to negotiate the maze of people and customs. Even our buddy said to us, he hated the place and thought there must be no where like it in America. I tried to explain my theory of where the train station fit in Dante's level of hells, but he had never read Dante. That made me appreciate my liberal arts degree, and I wondered how I might look at things differently if I had just always memorized facts and formulas my whole life.
Getting on the train was off to a good start, our buddy was able to get down to the train with us and was all ready to help us on the train with the luggage when we looked at the ticket again and realized that Chris was not a few compartments different than us, but 12 cars away. So they made a run for the other end of the train. I loaded with the girls. Our car was not full of students. Nor were any other foriegners on our car. Our compartment was not happy to see our white shining faces. In fact one lady on the top bunk started whining and moaning that she could not sleep her with us. Then this dude tried to get us to trade our middle bunk tickets for the highest bunk. Like he was doing us a favor...no thanks! So we squeeze onto our bunks and Princess has grown a lot since our last train voyage. It was not comfy sharing with her. The bottom bunk where you are suppose to get to sit until night time was occupied by two people already pretending to be asleep. Everything was clean enough, but with in minutes the smells of China were everywhere. The conductor came around and collected the tickets. He gives you a credit card one that you carry on the train and then when you get off, they give you back your paper one which you must have to escape the train station. So whining lady sets in on him, but he says in English, "I like America, Obama has a warm heart. I feel kindly towards Americans. I'm learning English" Yahoo, whining lady was truly shoved aside and he told me, " move", so he could talk to teenager. This is always interesting to watch your teenager get hit on, this is the first time someone has told me to move so they could talk to her. I didn't know how to take it, but I was thinking this guy could make my next 10 hours much worse and I was pretty sure teenager was going to shut him down. Teenager is pretty clever, so as he practiced his English, she just answered in Chinese. It was quite funny, and I admire teenagers tact in dealing with him. He took it in stride and said to me, "I'm practicing my English and she's practicing Chinese!"
So with our tickets turned in, we were free to move about. So we walked the 12 cars to see Chris. It took 10 minutes. And what do you know, his car is considerably better. He had the second bunk but there was much more headroom. Nobody was eating in his car, the ac was cranking. So lucky! We only visited for a few minutes because they cut off the lights at 10, and it really is dark.
Chris's bunk on the train
So we are hurrying back and this guy sticks out his foot and trips Princess. She went flying and cut her shoulder on a ladder. It was so sad. She's a tough little thing, so when she started crying big tears, I knew it was pretty painful. The guy didn't even say he was sorry. We found some female conductors and showed them her arm. You would think they would have a 1st aid kit, but no. The lights went off and we were waiting for a bandaid when this older woman told me she was a teacher of medicine. She wanted to put something that looked like a raison on her shoulder. Our Obama fan conductor came to our rescue. He talked with the medicine teacher and whipped out his nail clippers and popped the thing and put it on Princess. It must of helped, they gave her the thing to use later. Almost all of the conversation took place in Chinese and Princess like her sister is much more fluent than I, but she was really facinated by the medicine thing. She stopped by every emergency lighting fixture to try to examine "the nut".
Back at the bunk...teenager had stayed behind to guard or stuff. Whining lady convinced some guy to switch tickets with her. Well just before the lights went off, both guys on the top bunk striped to their briefs before climbing up to the top bunk. Of course Teenager was not pleased and quite creeped out.
So we try to sleep. About 2 in the morning our Obama fan conductor and a cop came and woke up the guy above us. The very one who wanted to switch tickets with us. Well apparently he tried to use a child's ticket and he need to correct this situation immediately. So in his briefs he climbed down and paid at least 100RMB. And just in case I didn't know what had gone on, the conductors explained to me in English. What was really amazing to me was that he didn't even have a flashlight. The whole thing was done with the shining of the cell phone screen.
We made it to Beijing. There is nothing to remind you of how many people are on the planet like the Beijing train station.
We used the subway to get to the airport, where we caught the free shuttle to our hotel.
We met the social worker and successfully exchanged paperwork. She showed us the gourmet import food store and the best Mexican food in Beijing. And we went to the English book store, before becoming too exhausted
Raspberries-3 years since I had fresh ones!!!!!
Mexican food in China!!!
written by  carseat tourist on July 10, 2009 from Beijing, China

Waking up to birds
Hefei, China
Today we woke up to birds!!! It was so pleasant. After weeks of the coal trucks, then the night on the train, then the hotel on the Beijing runway, we had good nights sleep. We have been in the urban jungle for so long, that we were so happy to hear the birds at 6am.
It wasn't the full chorus that we get on Lummi Island, but it was sweet.
Roses!!
So todays menu has not been our favorite. We are dining in the cafeteria with the friendliest servers and chefs, but the food...
It was registration day for the summer camp. It is actually a residential camp so the folk pay and go. Our job was to talk to the kids while the paperwork and money was being processed. Again, I HATE for profit education. I'd never seen the passing of the RMB before so it was uncomfortable for me. Really, if you look at camps in USA, this one is a steal if you translate the cost to USD. Course in the USA, families make US dollars so it is quite diffeent. Anyway I looked in all of these faces and I saw lots of similiar features to my former Anhui student and just a few that shared features with little guy. I can't wait to meet him.
Mowing the grass with a sythe.
In the afternoon we explored the shore of the lake. It was really interesting, little plots af gardens everywhere. One guy showed us his big cucumbers and tomatoes. There were huge lotus pads. There were lots of flowers and butterflies and dragonflies.
"Now I like this place"
Princess threw rocks in the lake and said "Now, I like this place!" I hadn't known she didn''t like it before! Teenager has island fever.
At night we had an opening ceremony for the school.
In the uniform
Then we took another walk and found the island market. Everything was closing so we will check it out more tomorrow.
written by  carseat tourist on July 12, 2009 from Hefei, China

Island sightseeing
Hefei, China
Sunset over Hefei
rainbow
Lets just say we saw something mind-blowingly cool. After my months of coal trucks and living by the stack in Harbin, I'm all for this.
Photo taken with permission on the island
Even Teenager thought is was cool.
We didn't have to teach in the afternoon so we could see the sight. We are officially halfway thru the teaching here.Yahoo!
The food has continued to be...well, not what I like.
cafeteria food looks the same all over the world
So Teenager and I took the bus to town for KFC. I have never eaten so much KFC as I have since I moved to China. On the way, this woman tried to sell us this bird. Looks kinda skinny, so I wasn't sure if it was intended to be a pet or a meal. Needless to say, we didn't buy.
for sale, live
written by  carseat tourist on July 16, 2009 from Hefei, China

TA---travel approval
Hefei, China
WooHooo! We finally have travel approval. We can get little guy!!!!!
We are hoping to welcome him into our family on July 22. We'll see how that works into the provencial appointment schedule. Soon we'll be together!!!!
The sunset was awesome last night. There were lots of bats flying around but I couldn't get a good picture of them. I'm so excited that his last piece of paper has fallen into place.
written by  carseat tourist on July 17, 2009 from Hefei, China

Travel Approval
Yesterday we got our travel approval, yeah! I can't wait to get Little Guy!
It was a really great day because the camp took a field trip.
We went to an amusement park in the morning. Then drove all the way back for lunch and nap time, then went back into town for a visit the the science museum.
Bow and arrow
Amusement Parks in China are old school. It doesn't mean that they are neccessarily old, but that they are from the pre-over-regulation time period. If you want a thrill, its a real thrill. Safety issues-that's your responisbility, not the operators. I've been to a few Chinese amusement parks, and this so far is the best.
Bike rollorcoaster
Even Teenager wants to go back.
It had your usual rides, but interwoven was a high ropes course. Of course, there was no team building course. Just the ropes and adventure. Harnesses, nah. We rode the ferris wheel and then did mostly rope and net bridges.
wooden plank bridge, in the water
It was very fun. I was totally impressed by the school because we all had to wear our shirts and I thought we'd march around as a group, ride to ride. Yuck, more supervision duty than fun.
Nope, they got everybody in the gate and it was a free for all. Be back at the bus at a certain time, see ya! Great, thats my kind of field trip. At the end there was a small paddock with 3 horses. It was blazing hot, so I thought maybe we shouldn't ride the horses. But then we thought, if nobody rides the horses than they'll have no money to feed them. So then we decided that Teenager could ride since she doesn't weigh much. I hate that facebook is down. We have the best video of the ride. So she is plodding around the circle. So Mr. Chinese Cowboy decides she should go a little faster. He tells her to post, she does.Her horse is still plodding along. So he decides he is going to get on the other horse and race. The other horse wasn't even saddled. He saddled that horse and jumped on it so fast and charged after Indigo and her horse. It was just amazing. Her horse got going!
The afternoon museum trip was ok. The science musuem was pretty good for China. The lighting was pretty dim, but the kids were so excited. I could tell that some had never been to a museum before and that was pretty cool.
Bed of nails
Today I asked the kids what was the funest thing they did yesterday. One little boy was so sweet, he said he helped one of the other teachers buy water. Everybody else is saying the rides, sitting by their friends, etc., and he said he helped someone. I hope my little guy is going to be a sweetheart like that!

Faster than Meg Ryan
We were able to adopt him legally and are finished with the paperwork in the province. Apparently our guide did the services for the adoption of Meg Ryan's daughter. Her adoption took 3 days. Ours took 2 days. Apparently he was just amazed that we could beat her. I really have no idea why we were so expediated suddenly. We just acted like of course, things always should be like this, we're not anything special. Although secretly we were freaking out because Nothing in the Adoption process has gone smoothly or quickly and we have no idea why there is this sudden change of events. The guide told us about his experience as Meg Ryan's guide.
stamp of approval
We got to meet his teachers and Foster family. I was pretty impressed with the orphanage. It was better than Shenyang and Harbin. Still an orphanage, not the happiest place in the world. We had passed it almost everyday we rode the bus last week and we didn't even know it. I know what bus lines go by there so in my mind I have any idea of where his 1st family might have come from. Lots of buses go by there and so I think for someone to drop off someone and get on the next bus, it wouldn't have been too complicated. The Shenyang and Harbin orphanages aren't as centrally located. They are building a new complex of orphanages and old folks homes on the outskirts of town.
His Foster mom was good. It was very interesting because at first they were just saying what they thought we wanted to hear. Is he a good eater, oh yes, of course. Does he dislake anything, no he likes everything. The we started asking some real specific questions, he doesn't seem to like hard boiled eggs. Well, the Foster mom laughed and said she forced him to eat one every morning and it came out that he is quite a picky eater. The sweetest thing was that he just loved his Foster Sisters.
lovin' the sisters
We went to the Temple near our hotel and discovered that Little Guy is quite spiritual. He must have been there before. He only bowed at certain statues and lit incence. He was very serious. All the kids banged the big bell, but we couldn't tell if if heard it our not.
Lighting up
He was so happy in the temple. He signed american "more" for money to put in the offering boxes. It seems that he is catching on to American sign pretty quick.
After the temple, we tried PizzaHut. We've lived in China for 2 1/2 years and never ate there because we heard it was over priced (for China) and not that great. So curiousity killed the cat and we tried eating there. The other expats were right, it was overpriced and not american enough. But the tragic thing was the service was slow. People were staring at us and the experience was just too overwhelming for little guy. He just broke down and I don't think it was anything other than realizing his life had changed and thats so scary for a little guy.
Pizza hut Hefei style

Webless in Beijing
Beijing, China
Going back to Harbin
Life has handed us a strange turn of events. After completing the adoption and visiting the orphanage, we took our tired boy back to the hotel for a nap. A different boy woke up from that nap. Angry. I think it hit him that a big life change had happened. Poor princess became the object of all his frustration. She had no idea how to react and it broke her heart.
With the adoption complete were were free to leave Hefei. Without his passport we could only travel by train. We were able to get tickets for the next day. On 2 different trains.
All the teachers at the school came in and took us to an amazing lunch before our train. Because we were comfortable, little guy seemed more comfortable and he finally had a good meal.
Little guy seemed to be bonding with Chris, but it made the most sense for Chris to travel alone and for me to take the kids since we had two sleepers, that way Teenager could help out with all the trips to the W.C. and guard our stuff. Chris's train let 30 minutes earlier than ours but came in 4 hours and a different train station than ours.
Divide and Conquer
I have never felt so defeated as I did on that train ride. For some reason at 1am they hadn't turned off the lights. Princess and Teenager had sacked out and little guy was still wired. He was going up the ladder and then wanting me to get him down. An hour of this and I was over that game, so I decided to just hold him on our bottom bunk. He began screaming and hitting me. Everybody on the train came to gawk at us. It was awful. Groggy teenager woke up and told them in Chinese to turn off the lights and leave us alone. They turned off the lights and he was still screaming. The conductor brought over someone who spoke English and told me I needed to make him be quiet and asked "Where is his mother?" Augh!!!! I'm his mother, he's deaf and I have no clue how to quiet him at this time, please get out of our face.....It was truly awful. He liked watching the lights go by and so he stood in the aisle along time and then I got him to sit on my lap and watch the lights and then eventually he fell asleep. It gets light very early in China and on the train people start making their noodles so that if you aren't awaken by the sunrise the aroma will get you. So with just a few hours of sleep, little guy woke up, ANGRY! He climbed up the ladder and started pounding Princess. It was just awful, my midnight audience came back to see how this crisis would be handled. Augh! Eventually we made it to Beijing with Princess and myself covered with bruises from the battle.
Then we had the joy of waiting for hours at the train station for Chris to arrive. The battle between Princess and little guy raged on and we had the rudest spectators. They would say, "punch him back" and awful stuff like that in Chinese. Poor us. Eventually Chris arrived. Little guy was so happy to see him. And so was princess. It nearly killed her when her Daddy carried her new brother and not her out of the station.
Enter a new nightmare
I had a job offer at a Korean International School that paid really well, but didn't have housing for the family. Actually they said I could keep Teenager with me since it was a shared flat and we could share the room. Our plan was for Chris to get a hotel and sort out the stuff at the embassy, homestudy update and fingerprints and then figure out housing, etc. We went to a hotel that we had been to 2 years ago. What you are Americans? No Americans here!!!! After pleading and producing numerous things that showed we have been in China since March and don't have swine flu they said ok. Then we go to check in with the adoption certificate for little guy. Apparently it doesn't have an id number. The id number is EVERYTHING here. We basically adopted somebody who technically doesn't exist. When they told us they would mail us his passport and that we couldn't fly because he didn't have a passport, we didn't realize that meant he couldn't check into a hotel. It was a real eye opening experience. How could this have happened to us? We did everything we could to make sure the adoption would be legal in both countries and here we were with no ID number. We convinced the hotel to let him stay the night (less than 24hours). So Chris stayed with Princess and little guy and Teenager and I hopped on the subway to the burbs.
I actually live across the street from "A Decent Life"...so close
Wow the apartment is the best I've had in China! Complete with bathtub! The school is really nice and the other teachers are great too!
Back at the hotel, Princess was continuing to be Little guy's punching bag. And the 24 hour clock was ticking. We made the difficult decision to have Chris to go back to Harbin with Little Guy. Without the id number there was no way for him to remain in Beijing. I spoke with my new boss about having Princess stay with me and it turns out he has 3 daughters and is a big softie so he let her stay.
Statues near apartment
It was really sad to have our family separated. But actually it is the best thing for Little Guy. He was not ready to be part of a family yet. His deafness is not his biggest problem right now, it is the institutional behaviors. What he needs is lots of attention and a routine. So Chris has gone back to Harbin. And they are getting along great!
Why can't I have my saddle? He just couldn't bear it.
written by  carseat tourist on August 2, 2009 from Beijing, China

Orphan Whisper
Beijing, China
Orphan Whisperer
These 3 weeks apart have been awful. Never since the beginning of my time in China have I wanted to jump ship so badly. Huai Rou is the burbs of Beijing. I don’t even like the suburbs of America, so this has been just the pits. Like USA, Huai Rou has swept away all the beggars and street urchins.
street kids in Huai rou, cops asked them to leave it was so sad
They have landscaping and boutiques. There aren’t a lot of foreigners out here, so there are nearly zero Western foods in the grocery store, there is no Wal-Mart or Carrefour. There is a McD’s and KFC. And I have been put up in a luxury apartment. The apartment would be lovely, if it had consistent utilities. I’m to teach a total of 28 days, so far with 4 days to go we have not had electricity for 7 days, gas for 5 days, and water for 2 days AND INTERNET ANY DAYS. Plus the fact that it’s all white and glass everywhere and my Korean roommate doesn’t like Teenager.
So to top off our situation, we wanted to get Chris and little guy a hotel for when they came to do the medicals in Beijing before we go to Guangzhou next week. Well, we walked all over Huai Rou and found out just how prejudice this little burb is. They are not lovin’ the Americans here. Flat out refusal to give us a hotel room. “No, no we’re full” even if online we could see that reservations could be made (using the net bar, we didn’t want to whip out the credit card so all the hackers could have a heyday). There is even a Super 8 our here, I believe that’s American owned, “No, no, You can’t stay here.” We pulled out our old Super 8 card from some vacation long ago and said, “We’ve VIPs, online we know you have rooms.” You can’t stay here. So we asked (in Chinese of course), “Can all foreigners not stay or just Americans?” No answer to that one, just a polite there are some other hotels down the road, go there.
So Chris and little guy booked the youth hostel by the train station downtown Beijing. They were arriving at midnight by train and taxi drivers after dark in Beijing are especially likely to drive in circles, so they needed an easy place to walk to. Kudos to the youth hostel for taking them in with out any problems.
Yesterday we were reunited. My husband, the orphan whisperer had worked wonders. Little guy is a new little man. He was so happy to see his sisters and me. He was all smiles and hugs and kisses. We walked places with no fits. When I told him no (well, signed), he handled his frustration much better. He stomped his foot and faked going to hit my hand. When he and Princess disagreed at dinner, he put his head down and gave himself a little time out from her. No big battles! They actually met me at the school in the cafeteria. He likes Korean food! All the students were interested in him and he was able to handle the attention. Little guy seemed much more relaxed and was able to share his dad. He definitely was watching Chris to see what to do, but was not anxious when Chris was out of sight. He has so many new signs!
The medicals went as well as could be expected. Nothing besides being deaf was noticed. We’re waiting for Thursday when the labs come back, but it looks like he’ll be able to get the visa in Guangzhou. One ear has an eardrum, yeah! The other ear has “something in it”. A foreign object of some sort. Maybe a bead, maybe an earplug. Chris thinks it may be an airgun pellet. We have a picture of little guy and his older foster brother who is toting an airgun. Anyway, they can’t get it out. We’re not sure what to do about that. Clearly it’s been in there for the whole time we’ve had him. We have specialists lined up in Harbin, but don’t know anyone in Beijing. Chinese hospitals are pretty scary. We know he’s deaf, but we’d hate for them to damage his ear anatomy if it is in there. I’ve seen the Chinese do some things to ears in my visits to the hospitals that I know should never be done to ears. But we’d hate to have him be in pain too. The dental exam showed he has good teeth and is getting his molars, so probably has been given the correct age. Little Guy is little, only 15kg.
One good thing about Huai Rou is the park near our apartment. It has a hill with a pagoda ontop overlooking the reservoir and several horse statues. There is a farmer who brings in his horses everyday for rides. He is pretty good to the horses and doesn’t take them out in the heat of the day. So we decided to celebrate the last week by letting the kids ride everyday. Little Guy (who is well named in the real world) just loved the horses! He rode like he was the grand marshal of a parade. Waving at everyone, so happy!
written by  carseat tourist on August 18, 2009 from Beijing, China

almost an American
Guangzhou, China
Exactly one month since we met Little Guy, we have made it to Guangzhou to finalize the adoption. And when I say we made it to Guangzhou, that would be because we barely made it here. Some people say adoption is a journey, etc. I would say this journey is Rough!!!!
I'll back up and recap the last few days of the rough road. Anyway we turned in our paperwork to the You-Know-Whos at immigration like the second we got Little Guy and started begging to have them issue some new form BLAH BLAH#A, becausethey no longer accept form WHATEVER#B. Then they wanted our fingerprints. Why? They have the prints already and they are suppose to be good until 8-29-08 and like, even on that magic date of fingerprint expiration, my prints are going to be just the same as the other 4 sets they took last year. Like baring my fingers getting cut off, my prints aren't going to change. Anyway when we first were printed for the adoption, you fill out a little card with everything, everything about you on it. We were printed and waited 2 months and asked, hey whats up, why haven't you given us any more forms? They responded, oh, ooops, we lost them. No sorry or anything. It was much more like a demand, get on the next plane up to Beijing and redo them. Anyway we complied.
When we switched to the Waiting Child program, it was the fingerprint expiration in the back of our mind that encouraged us. We were waiting to be matched with deaf or cleft anyway, the Waiting Child program is a little faster and you get more info upfront.
Anyway so this summer, we again complied and were reprinted. Chris was printed before he went back to Harbin and I was printed one week later. When I was printed I asked, could I go ahead and make the appointment for Guangzhou on day x, so I could get to Guangzhou and back to Harbin before I have to teach on day z. The guy said, "sure, I don't see why not. Call back in 2 weeks to see if we got your clearance back." I noticed he said "if", lost fingerprints must happen enough to use the word if in a standard speech. So I made the appointment. Patiently we waited 3 weeks and 2 days. Our appointment was coming up so I called and asked about our case. You-know-who at immigration told me, "we'll tell you when you can make an appointment in Guangzhou and I thought I told your husband to tell you to come here and be refingerprinted." So as patiently as one can be, I kindly told You-Know-Who at immigration that I had been fingerprinted 3 weeks ago and that her agent told me that I could my appointment and so I had an appointment in 3 business days. So typical of my dealings with immigration, she said "call back tomorrow afternoon". So I asked her name so that maybe I didn't have to be transfered all over the embassey when I called. She said, "You don't need to know my name. They know who to tranfer the call to." So much for government for the people, by the people.
As you can imagine, the next day, Friday, there was no answer that extension that we were tranfered to. So Chris and Little Guy went down to the Embassey. Lets say, US citizens without appointments are not very welcome. After standing an hour in the shadeless heat, they were allowed in.. And ya gotta love the Marines, cause the guy knew sign language! So hours later he gets out of there.
Back in the burbs, the Korea roommate actually put on white gloves for the moveout inspection of our room. And at the school they assigned me a bunch of busy work that had to be done before they could pay me. Augh, I finished and got that envelope of cash. I did like the higher pay there, but I'm not sure I could do that again.
So we huff and puff or bags to the bus stop and then ride to downtown and do the Great Wall of subway stairs with the bags. We were hungry and tired to we decided to just get McD's. They have changed the hambuger meat!!!! When I go to McD's I want it to taste just like McD's everywhere, thats the whole idea behind brand recognition. I hardly ever eat McD's in America but when I eat it in China and pay the same price as I would in USA, I want the American taste.
So our travel plan was to spend the night at the youth hostel and take trains on Sat night. We figured we check out the Lama temple since Little Guy is pretty spiritual. Then the Big Bookstore one more time. Youth Hostel was great! Free bag storage! The foriegners that are there are cool, the chinese are themselves, its not pretentious.
Most temples in China I find very calming and relaxing. It is not my religion, but I respect the beauty of it and love the architecture. The Lama Temple was in Lonely Planets book as a not to miss. Everyone must have that book because it was packed. Totally full of venders on the road to it and then inside was crowded. Then add the element of fire. 2 four year olds and insence sticks, the furthest thing from a relaxing experience. Little Guy is totally business in the Temples, this stuff is his belief system and he prays his little heart out. He certainly is interested in some statues more than others. Previous visits to a Temple must have been on a limited time basis because he runs and prays to everyone in there like there is not enough time to get all your prayers in. Now Princess thought this was great, she just imitated him and giggled loudly. So then we had to be the enforcers of whispering in case there were people who were not tourists and were there for religious reasons. It was definately not peaceful for us. Then Teenager bought Little guy a Peking Opera mask and he decided to wear it everywhere.
So we went to the bookstore. I love books. Again 2 four years olds, no looking at books for me! Little Guy had a throw down tantrum when he couldn't get The Monkey King. Now I know he didn't come from an environment where the throwdown tantrum resulted in the purchasing of things. And I know that it must be frustrating for him to not have language and live with us must be very different. But I'm not giving into tantrums. In general, I don't see Chinese parents giving in to tantrums either. Actually Chinese kids don't seem to have as many tantrums or they aren't as loud about it. Anyway, Chinese people are not understanding Little Guy's tantrums. They think I don't know what they are saying, but my comprehension is actually quite good. They think I should make him stop crying or that we have stolen him, or just general foriegner distaste. When we tell them he's deaf (in Chinese) they act like they don't believe us. So, here we are with a screaming on the ground (nobody touches the ground here, much less lays on it) kid and people saying stupid stuff to us. It's just awful. So we pick him up (carefully, he kicks, scratches, punches) and let him continue his fit outside. Soon we have a crowd. Now Princess hates crowds. So she starts telling them off in Chinese. Then they start laughing because they think its funny that she speaks so well.
So by train time, 10pm, we were pretty frazzled. Princess and Teenager were headed back to Harbin. They had a nice sleeper, no problems. Things headed South for us. Now, I thought my last train trip was hell. This was a much lower level of hell. We had car 3, Seats 4,5, and 6. Yes, seats, not sleepers. Now in most transportation situations, you would imagine that 4,5,6 are together. Wait, we're in China. 4 is an unlucky number. The train seats were grouped in a set of 5 on one side and a set of 4 on the other at the first grouping on seats. So 5 and six were together with the other lucky numbers 1 and 8 and 2. Now 4, back corner window, far way. Did it matter that we were a family and clearly wanted to sit together. Luggage, the fact that we had 3 seats should mean we could have part of an overhead bin. No. In fact car 3 of the train was Marshall law. In fact we were lucky to sit at all. 2 seats. No one ever came to check tickets. We showed a ticket to get on and after that you were on your own if you got in there. The capacity of the train car on the sign was 118. Probably 300 people were in there. It was insane. We only got our seats because I was tired and frustrated enough that I mustered enough Chinese to be able to argue for our 2 seats and bargained to put some luggage in seat 4. So we had 2 seats and Little Guy and half our suitcases in our laps, people at our feets and ontop of our seat backs. The guy that was suppose to sit next to us, sat down for 3 minutes with his briefcase and then freaked out and sold his ticket to somebody on the floor and got off the train. People were everywhere, in the bathrooms, aisle, under the little train tables. Little Guy was overwhelmed. He put on his mask and went to sleep. Chris has been to Kenya and said that this train was like the bus there accept after 3 stops in Kenya they cleared the bus and put people on the roof and people had chicken. We rode for 11 hours. Chris took Little Guy to the bathroom once. He got up and somebody crawled in his seat so quick. It took him 45 minutes to crawl thru the people to get there and back. The conductor never even set foot in the car. Very interesting sociology. So with in an hour this one group of dudes took over the water and bathroom on our end of the train. If you control the water, you control the train. We watched person after person try to go in there and be refused. Nobody could use that bathroom. So 300 people 1 bathroom. People were using water bottles, right in front of us. It was gross. Woman that sat next to seat 4 was actually pretty nice to Little Guy. Now the train kids were not nice. It was hard for him to make an effort to be friendly and be rejected. And it was hard to watch that or understand the parents of the kids not saying be nice. But we couldn't move. We couldn't sleep either for fear of being robbed. Luckily Little Guy slept most of the time.
So we arrive in Hefei. Our thought was to journey halfway by train and then spend sometime in Hefei and fly to Guangzhou for the appointment.
We battle our way off the train. We get off the train and Little Guy wants to be carried by Chris. It was impossible with the luggage and exhaustion. He had sleep and we knew he could walk. So we decided that we did indeed have all day and could wait out this tantrum. Well, he had his fit and the train was unloaded and he was still carrying on. We were incrediably patient and just kept signing walk. So a couple of people were milling around to watch the scene play out our rob us, I dunno. Anyway Little Guy is just going on and on. So the train personel come. We explain he is our son and we just want him to walk. They are all standing around making us very uncomfortable. We exhausted but we really felt like that if we gave in, it would make make the next time even worse. So we stood our ground for a while, then I heard them radio for the police. So I picked him up. He did not want me. I could not carry all our bags (usually we travel light, but we've been on the road for 6 weeks) So I carried him screaming and fighting thru the train station with the posse of train people and whoever a short distance behind me. We get out of the train station and at this time the only way I can handle him safely is with my arms under his and him facing forward and when he kicks I kind of just set him down on the ground slightly to have his feet kick the ground instead of me. So now we are in the crowd of the train station and this woman comes up to me and says in very good English. "Is that a Chinese child? Why is he crying?" I explain in chinese he's ours and he's deaf and he's mad that his dad can't carry him. A much larger crowd starts forming. It was insane. We started yelling at the crowd in Chinese because they wouldn't leave us alone. Chris ended up dropping all the bags and taking Little Guy and grabbing a taxi. The minute he left the crowd dispersed and the beggars started hounding me. I couldn't believe it. I was standing there and exhausted and trying to guard the bags and I thought I would just collapse. I dragged the bags to the street in a non-taxi pick up zone and waited for Chris. Then the police came because I wasn't suppose to stand there with luggage. Luckily when the taxi arrived, the police decided I could get in. We just went straight to the airport.
In the taxi, Little Guy was a happy fellow. He was looking out the window and clearly saw things he recognized. We pulled up at the airport and he was so excited. He likes planes. The airport carts were wonderful. We just pushed him around and he was happy. The plane ride was great. He was so happy. He kept signing plane and when it was time to land, I signed that the plane was going down. He did not like that, he would sign the plane rising again. It was so cute.
We were able to take the airport bus almost all the way to our hotel. The hotel is in walking distance to the consulate. There are 2 subway sandwich shops and 3 Pizza Huts with in a 5 block radius.
The consulate in Guangzhou seems to be staffed with very friendly people. Coincidentally one of the ladies that notarized something for us remembered us from Shenyang where we first filed our paperwork. It felt nice to have someone remember us. It felt that things had come full circle since we started the journey of paperwork in Shenyang. So everything went smoothly and tommorrow we will take the oath and get the magic envelope that will make Little Guy an American.
written by  carseat tourist on August 24, 2009 from Guangzhou, China

Saved by IKEA
Guangzhou, China
Following the train adventure, we decided we were adventured out. Instead of exploring Guangzhou we decided to venture only to the closest things to our former American life that we could find. That would be Subway sandwiches, KFC, and IKEA.
swedish crayfish
Our business in Guangzhou was to obtain the visa for Little Guy. I feel a little weird that we didn't take in more of Guangzhou, but my students stories of Guangzhou are better than what I probably would have experienced.
If adoption is suppose to be like giving birth (which I would say it is not), really it would be quite crazy for somebody to have a baby and rush out and take the baby to all the tourist spots, just so later you could say you went there when we first had you. I understand the families that come to China to adopt and need to see the culture and lifestyles to better understand their child. But we live in China.
So, the consulate was next to IKEA. After our first visit to the consulate, we went over to IKEA and just crashed on their couches (their beds, chairs, anything that was soft). Little Guy was just entranced by the Swedish videos of the factories and furniture testing. Who knows what was he was thinking--look at those blond people and the kids get to jump on everything, hmmm, I'm with blond people, will I get to do that? Then we went to the cafeteria, oh, so yummy and clean, and reasonable. We sampled half the menu the first day and decided that before we went to the consulate the next day, we'd eat the other half of the menu.
We were in walking distance of the consulate and we actually got Little Guy to walk with only 1 throw down tantrum with just a small audience. So we planned to eat our big IKEA meal and then go back to the hotel and get our baggage and then take a taxi to the consulate and go directly to the airport.
Well we pig out (salmon and cheesecake) and walk out of IKEA to a big tropical downpour. It takes 15minutes to get a cab, actually the day before it took 1/2 our in the blazin' sunshine. So time is cutting close. But while we were waiting we struck up a conversation with the freight delivery guys. They could take us to the Airport!!!
Our biggest fear had been that the oath was at 4 and our plane left at 6:30 and if we had trouble catching a cab then we were stuck.
So we arrive at the consulate appointment drenched and carrying our bags. We are struggling to get in and the big adoption van arrives. These families get out and their clothes are all clean and they are so fresh. I justed wanted to cry. I want the big bus where someone else handles all the mishaps. So we get there to the security officer first. The guy asks what we are doing and we say taking the adoption oath. He said, "where's your guide." I looked him in the eye and said "I'm an American, I don't need a Chinese guide to see my government." He looked at the guide for the bus standing behind us and let her by without asking for any id and then said passport please.
The rest of the process was a piece of cake. The head of the adoption visa unit did a speech and it was mind boggling. Since USA started the program they have issued 70,000 orphan visas. Last year over 4000. We used to volunteer at an orphanage in Shenyang and it just makes me so sad that there are so many orphans. But I was happy for everyone in that room because they have big hearts and all the kids have new families. Because we were pressed for time, we didn't get to talk to anyone, but it was really nice to hear their American voices when they were answering questions and stuff.
We grabbed our bags and headed out to clear skies and noticed the void of taxis and were so happy to have the arrangement with the IKEA guys. Our driver was pleasant and he seemed happy to give us a ride rather than haul some furniture.
Driver of the Ikea Mian Bao Che- chinese for bread van
We made it thru the airport and early enough to watch them change the tire on our plane. We were quite amazed that they hand tightened the lugs. Shenzhen Air was great. They had the safety video with a sign interpreter and then at the end of the speal all the stewardesses (on the video) do in sign that its a pleasure to fly with you and we wish you safe travels. Little Guy had never seen the sign language on tv and the interpreter was so quick, he was just in awe. Then later in the flight they had a making of the safety talk documentary that had the auditions of the signing stewardesses. Little Guy was definitely thinking he was on cloud 9!
signing airplane
The girls were happy to see us.
Today we went over to the University's clinic. They (for FREE) extracted the object from the ear. They used the combination method of tweezers with dental vacuum.Little Guy is tough cause he didn't even cry. It broke my heart because
Big smile- got that thing outta my ear
it was indeed, an air gun pellet. What kind of world is this that somebody shoots a deaf 4 year old in the ear with an air gun?
written by  carseat tourist on August 25, 2009 from Guangzhou, China

Mainstream Man!
Off to 1st day of Kindergarten
The best thing that happened this week is that Little Guy gets to go to kindergarten with his sister. Princess wanted to go back to school on Monday, so we took her and Little Guy. We thought he would just meet her friends and then we'd go home. We arrived and everyone was excited to see Princess. She introduced her brother and they said, "oh will he go here?"
We had never imagined he could go to school with her in China. Over and over we had heard that the disabled were never allowed with the regular folks in Chinese schools. Well, maybe thats true for some, but not here!
We thought about it for a secoond and said "really, he can go here?!!" And we marched (both kids in tow down) down to the directors office with the kindergarden teacher. After a few minutes of my bad chinese and the directors nonEnglish, the new Chinese English teacher came in to translate for us. The new teacher is so cute!!! And her English is pretty good, so the gist of the directors concerns for enrolling our son was- has he been to America recently, we don't want the swine flu. Deaf, no problem! We can try Princess's classroom for a month and if that doesn't work out they had a teacher they thought would be really good for him. We went to a different office and shelled out the registration fee of about 200RMB and waved goodbye and that was it.
Did Little Guy seem sad that we were leaving-Nah. Was he confused-Nah. Was he happy-YEAH!!!!
Was he a good boy? Nope. Were we shocked that he had a throw down tantrum because they wanted to put up his coat? Nope.
Day two, was he a good boy? Nope, tried to choke a kid.
What shocked us-----he loves their food! He is eating bowls and bowls of the grub. Must be just like the orphanges, thats like home cooking for him! Apparently our taste in Chinese cuisine was a little richer than what he was used to, so thats why he eats next to nothing for us. But he just loves that bland school food! Now all across the world, lunch ladies are an easy lot to please. If you like their cooking- they LOVE you. So he has all the lunch ladies stuffing his little cheeks and thinking he is the greatest thing. And we think it is great! Everybody needs somebody at school that thinks your hot stuff-we are so happy for him. And one of Princess's teachers just loves naughty little boys and she is just met her little dude! What amazes us is the school staff's ability to be soooo patient with him.
I think it's great that they are treating him like a regular fellow, it is just what he needs!
Who couldn't resist those big brown eyes
written by  carseat tourist on September 4, 2009 from Harbin, China

Where was I
Princess Wishing
Wish on Dandylion
Little guy just loves looking at pictures. He likes pictures from our American life, he likes pictures from other cities in China, he loves pictures of himself!
The school in Hefei gave us a picture CD of our experience there. So Princess loaded in the DVD player and is enjoying seeing it. Little Guy is watching and pointing "that's you" and "that's Teenager",
Ferris Wheel Hefei-We were sweating buckets in the bucket!
signing Mom and Dad.
Ferris wheel Hefei- it was SO HOT
After a while he looks at me and signs "Where" and points to himself.
View from Ferris Wheel
Wow...he clearly saw that these pictures were taken in the area he had been before. He clearly seems to understand that now we are a family unit. He wanted to know- why wasn't I in theses pictures.
His favorite teacher at the orphange school
All the pre-adoption classes give you nice pretty answers to tell your kids when these questions come along. But they don't really give you an answer for how to answer before you have enough sign language and actually the pre-adoption classes never address the deaf adoption complications.
All though the moment was sad because he felt left out of the pictures, I thought it actually was a sign of progress. Sometimes I have felt like he just thinks he is a visitor here, but this showed that he realizes he is a part of the family.
written by  carseat tourist on September 5, 2009 from Harbin, China

Self Image
It has been interesting to watch Little Guy use his sign language. He now talks to himself in sign. He was walking around the apartment yesterday signing "Where? Where? Shoes where?".
He is very close to Princess. They always are together. Yesterday he brought some nail polish to me. He wanted to paint his nails. I signed, "No, you are a boy. Not for boys."
Off to school, spider tie, wrist band, bug shirt, baseball hat. 100% boy.
He was bummed but he went on to do something else. A few hours later, he is very vocal and upset with princess. When he thinks someone does something wrong he puts on a face like his foster mom raises his hand in the air and starts shaking it like he is scolding. He holds out Princess's hand which is painted with purple nail polish.
He signs "Boy, no." I signed "Ok, girl ok." He just looked stunned. How could his sister not be a boy! In his mind they are just the same.
On the flip side Princess, the "maybe evil twin",
Princess, the artist
decided that she should give her brother a make over with her markers. As retaliation for not giving him the name she wanted, Cobalt (also the only name she refers to him by) she took that cobalt marker and made him a zebra.
Zebra
We started teaching this week. The reaction to our adoption by our students has been mixed. It varies from, "thats great", "you are so kind" to "YOU HAVE 3 KIDS NOW! YOU KNOW, I CAN ONLY HAVE ONE." to just the flat out confused, "How do you have a chinese child if your husband is white?"
I teach in the continuing ed. deptartment, so most of my students are actually university facilty and staff. I only teach actual university students once a week.
Some of my students are taking my class for the 4th (and final) time, so they have watched the adoption unfold. Their reactions to the adoption are most interesting. They ask many more questions. With one class, I was rather open and told them that we were having a challenge. I explained in my opinion that the difficulties we were having were due to the institutional situation that he came from. I carefully said that I have volunteered in Shenyang so I knew that all orphanages were different, but that I felt our son had been in a really bad place. And I gave some examples of things that we found a little shocking and were having trouble getting him to adjusting to life with a family. And I was very careful about how I said everything. I told them about the air gun pellet in his ear. The reaction was like I had said "Your mama....!" on the playground in an inner city school in Atlanta. Oh, no that can't be so. The self image of the chinese is very, very, proud. So when I said that the problems were from the care of the orphanage that was an insult to them. They firmly said, "No, those problems are because he's deaf."
written by  carseat tourist on September 10, 2009 from Harbin, China

Cabin on Lummi Island

the flower and the rainbow

rainbow

Artist

care package

the stuffed family

mom and sister chic

little miss playing with her chics

Bunny and chics at the kiosk

froggie baby

Mom and son

meow, tiger head, look at the cute tail!

Little tiger

chic head

Panda head

Mom chic

Mom Panda

BBQ at 5 mile park in Shenyang

Eating corn at KFC

Playing on the exercise equipment

Swinging family. Give the brother a push.

Beijing Olympics row 8, AKA front row, everybody knows 8 is a lucky #

Swapbot scrapbook page

I can't wait to hug the real boy

The Black Swan, a resort on the otherside of Harbin. We celebrated Dragon Boat Day with our "work unit" there.

After the big show, Princess in Pink, fellow Princess in White

Eating at Shenyang Preschool

Shenyang Preschool

Delivering lunch

Teenager and the conductor

Raspberries-3 years since I had fresh ones!!!!!

Mexican food in China!!!

Riding the rails

Chris's bunk on the train

My favorite corn dish

Western breakfast

"Now I like this place"

In the uniform

Mowing the grass with a sythe.

Roses!!

Princess and my youngest student, age 5 (maybe)

A book on the garden gate

Garden shack

Newspapers are posted for students to read

Butterfly

Mama cat feeds baby cat at island market

Sunset from Apartment

Wish on Dandylion

Princess Wishing

Off to school, spider tie, wrist band, bug shirt, baseball hat. 100% boy.

Zebra

Princess, the artist

Statues near apartment

Why can't I have my saddle? He just couldn't bear it.

I actually live across the street from "A Decent Life"...so close

Cleanest school cafeteria in China, cooks train at Korean rest.

Hefei Science Island

Photo taken with permission on the island

Sunset over Hefei

Year of the Ox

for sale, live

cafeteria food looks the same all over the world

gotcha

i love you in chinese sign

They love looking at themselves in the mirror

stamp of approval

Lighting up

lovin' the sisters

Pizza hut Hefei style

Big smile- got that thing outta my ear

swedish crayfish

signing airplane

Driver of the Ikea Mian Bao Che- chinese for bread van