Day 9/10/11 - Cooper Day 7/8/9

Things continue to go well here in China, except that I got sick for about a day (nothing major, and I'm fine now). Jennifer took us to a huge city park on Sunday, which reminded me of New York's Central Park with its large exposed rocks and how it made you forget that you were in the middle of a giant city, except that it had dense, lush, tropical vegetation. In its center was a large statue of 5 rams, whom myth says gave people the knowledge to grow rice (and boy, were they good learners!). After the park, we visited the temple compound of the Chen dynasty, a set of brightly painted, intricately adorned buildings that served as living and educational quarters for the dynasty's children. As for the weather, it's very much like Houston here, hot and sticky.

A STROLL THROUGH THE MARKET
On Monday we went to have Cooper's TB test checked (he came out OK) and I sat with Jennifer for a while to sign some more paperwork for the US Consulate. Afterward, we decided to brave the city streets again, unguided, to see some sights and get out of our tiny hotel room. We followed directions to the "shopping area" from Jennifer, and started to enter an unforgettable Southeast Asia open-air market. In small 10-by-10 foot booths side by side, shopkeepers were selling virtually anything they could get their hands on. We saw live chickens and ducks, turtles in tubs of water, plastic pans of scorpions, hunks of tree fungi, dried sea horses, and thousands of shiny, black insects laid out on the sidewalk on a blanket. Meghan even got a real-live coconut for a drink. We saw several shopkeepers slumped over asleep in their stores, small groups of men playing cards literally on the street, men pulling ridiculously loaded rickshaws, and people sweeping the curbs with these primitive, handmade thatch brooms. Had we not been full aready, Meghan and I would have feasted at this place (right).
Anyway, after we got back, I took Cooper for (possibly) his first swim ever. The hotel has a pool on its roof, and it was cool to see the city from 9 floors up, with the pool extending to the very edge of the building. OK, so what will be Cooper's reaction, I wondered? Might he be scared or at least reticent about this huge "bathtub"? Well, true to form, he did great and loved it. By the end, he was riding on me piggyback and jumping into the water for me to catch him, his mouth open as wide as he could get it, that trademark, high-pitched staccato baby laughter tumbling out.

MORE SHOPPING
With our new navigational confidence, we decided to set out again on Tuesday while our guide interviewed at the American consulate on our behalf. This stuff is just mentally exhausting without a guide. Will the cab driver understand where to take us? Will we be able to find the right shop when the street signs everything is in Chinese? Do we have the right form of payment, and if not, where do we go to get it changed? It was these very factors that made purchasing a new camera lens---even better and cheaper than the one I had stolen---a hilarious, protracted affair. How do you ask about a warranty? Or a user's manual? Or even that "I want to buy it." Then we had to pay in both dollars and yuan, since I didn't have enough yuan, and that further complicated things. (Yes, I've been saying "yen" the whole trip, but that's Japanese, not Chinese---a perfect example of American ignorance!) We bumped into a McDonald's and decided to give Cooper his first french fries, but for some reason the meal was unsatisfying for both Meghan and I (too many noodles?).
We also took a spin through the "shopping mall" after a short cab ride (giving the driver the address written out in Chinese by Jennifer), and it was very different from your typical American mall. It was 7 stories high, no large "anchor stores" as far as we could tell, and each floor was a rectangle of small, glass-walled stores not more than 12 feet wide, selling very specific products. I had wanted to go to buy a cool, Chinese-label sport shirt, but all we could find were American labels (or knock-offs), like Polo, Nike, Jeep, and even "US Coast Guard." That may have been the only time on the trip that I got too much America.

TODDLER OATH
This afternoon was the big day for Cooper, when he was to visit the American consulate to take his oath. We were in a group of 50 families also adopting, nearly half of which were adopting for a second or third time. One family was adopting for the sixth time, and one father---with his 12-year-old daughter---was adopting a 12-year-old girl. Twelve years in an orphanage---ugh! As we talked to them and I could see how happy the adopted girl seemed with her new family, it made me feel very happy for her.
So we all stood and raised our right hands, and Cooper swore that all the information he had supplied was accurate. After our guide picks up his visa tomorrow, he becomes a US citizen the moment he hits US soil (Saturday).

COOPER PROGRESS
We finally solved the diarrhea problem, and boy, am I relieved. I'll take solid poop any day of the week! We finally followed the advice of a doctor at the clinic, who said to give him warm foods only. We thought it was silly folk wisdom, but it seems to have worked (something did). Strange, but after my trial by fire of messy diapers (which for some reason I thought was normal for toddlers), I get all excited now about changing dirty diapers. It's all downhill from here!
We think he said "daddy" today, as well as "doggie" and "yay". He lowered himself off me tonight to go see Meghan, stopped, and turned around to give me a slow wave good-bye before leaving the room. Very cute. He was also tapping the toilet seat yesterday, so I wondered if he was trying to tell me something and threw him on there---and he used it! He also likes to hand me the shampoo or start putting water on his head in the bathtub if I'm not expeditious enough. He eats everything in sight, is very inquisitive about buttons and doors and drawers and well, everything, and is finally responding to the word "no" (I messed up the other day when playing peek-a-boo with him by saying "boo", the Chinese word for "no").

FUN WITH TRANSLATION:
It's the little subtle ones that tickle me:
By a toaster oven in the restaurant: "warm attention"
On the pool railing: "do not across the railing"
Jennifer describing a low-price store: "It's like War Malt"

RESTAURANT PRIMER:
Some consistent things we've noticed in Chinese restaurants:
1. there are no drive-thrus
2. the wait staff is very attentive
3. the food is delivered one dish at a time when it's ready, not all together
4. napkins are non-existent or very small in size and number
5. The prices are low; we usually eat for 20-25 USD.

FINALLY
OK, I admit it: I'm homesick. Of course I'm very, very glad I did this, as I now have this incredible son, and I also like seeing other cultures. But I am SO ready to get back home to the United States. Today when I walked into the American Consulate, and read the sign "General Consulate of the United States of America" alongside an American flag, I reflexively got the biggest ear-to-ear grin on my face. I miss real pizza, baseball games, drive-thrus, iced drinks, English signage and conversation, less people and traffic congestion, blue skies, talking with friends and family, and yes, even work. Less than 48 hours to go.

Dave