Today we had our oath ceremony and, as a surprise, the US Consulate was able to get all our VISA’s done today.  Normally they have upwards of 30 familys in at a time, but today they only had six.  Because of the smaller number, they had time to process everyone’s VISA before we left today instead of coming back tomorrow.  That was pretty cool as that is the last thing we needed to get outta here!  I called our travel agent this afternoon and we are hoping that we might get out of here tomorrow instead of Friday.  The chances are pretty slim, but we have NOTHING to do here tomorrow so it would be nice to come home!

I do have to say that the entire adoption process here in China is MUCH easier and runs a lot more smoothly than Vietnam did.  And, our agency, Madison, really has done a nice job with the guides they have in country.  They really understand the process and make things a lot easier.

This morning, our family and the Dinn’s decided to go into the city and off of our little island.  It WAS different in there!  Much more urban!

First stop was a market right across the street from the island that had all kinds of different and exotic spices.

These guys were separating dead star fish, I think.  It didn’t smell real appetizing in this market!

The Dinn’s were looking for a coloring book at one of the local news stands.

Here is a typical scene on a China street.  The guy on the bike is trying to squeeze past the grey SUV that is trying to pull into the street.  However, what you don’t quite see is that the bronze colored car on the right is ALSO trying to get into the street and there isn’t enough room for everyone.  All the cars were kind of stuck here as the bronze car couldn’t move and the grey SUV had wedged himself into a position that he could move, either.  We just walked between them and kept moving.

 On of the construction areas must have hit a water main because at one point there was water EVERYWHERE!

It was so bad, that you had a difficult time getting up the steps that lead over the road.  You can see the level of frustration with the lady in the middle of this picture.  She wasn’t too happy about trying to figure out how to get up the steps without getting her feet wet!

As we climbed the steps, I just thought it was impressive to see the size of the buildings that they are building here and, it seems, everywhere else in China.

With so many people cleaning all the time, it is amazing that the place is so darn dirty!

Coming over the road we had a view back at our little island oasis.

We then entered into a fish market.  I’m not real sure if we were supposed to be there or not, but we headed on in anyway.  Just about anything you could imagine from the ocean was there.  Our guide, Connie, said that you can buy your fish in the market, and then take it to any of the restaurants along the street and they will cook it for you.

Look at these crabs!  Do they not look TASTY?

The market just went on and on …

We went back out on the street and saw some of the street vendors and the little shops along the main roadway.

I thought about getting a little trim in this outdoor barber shop, but thought better of it.  They might now be able to do my hairdo like the people in the States do!

This old guy was all happy because he thought I might buy some bananas from him.  Sorry, bub!

I thought this little guy looked so cute riding on the family bicycle on there way home from the store!  I didn’t realize the irritation of his father until I processed the pictures tonight!  Sorry, dad!

Although they do not use as many bikes for transportation here as they did in Vietnam, they still use them to transport a lot of materials from one place to another.  It really is amazing that these guys can balance things the way they do.

With the importance of these bikes for business, there are a lot of areas were street vendors have set up bicycle repair shops.  This one was pretty busy.

Brittany was wearing her new shirt, which says “sister” in mandarin on the front.  She is a good big sister.

The kids held hands as we walked back over the bridge onto Shamian Island.

We started back towards the hotel, but it was still early so we walked around a little more.

I found another old building.  Our guide was saying that this island was used by the French and the British as an outpost during the Opium Wars.  Therefor, there is a lot of European influences here in there architecture.  I could probably spend a couple of days here just photographing these buildings. 

I realized today that I had not taken a shot of the Victory Hotel, so here it is.

As we came by our hotel, a group of older chinese women decided to ogle over Brittany and how very pretty she is!  Literally, they wouldn’t let her go!

I wanted to take the next two shots to show you how fast these workers are getting things done.  This area below was under construction just a few days ago and as of yesterday afternoon there was very little vegetation.  Last evening and through the night, workers were planting and preparing and this morning THIS is what we woke up to!  This island will be so beautiful when everything is done.  I doubt we will come back, but I do with we would have been able to come when it was all done, and not just during the restoration and beautification process!

(Doesn’t it look like I did a really poor job of photoshoping Caleb into this picture???  I didn’t!  He was really there.  He wanted to be in the picture.  But, it looks strange, huh?)

We had been able to stay away from the Starbucks on the island all week, but today was the breaking point us!

(See that partially prepared bed behind Kelly?  Tomorrow that will be packed full of flowers and be beautiful, just like the beds above.  It’s AMAZING what cheap labor can do in a short amount of time!)

This place looked like we were RIGHT back home!

We had chocolate tort and cheese cakes!  It was great!  In this picture, Tay is looking at her legs.  She has become somewhat of a primary food group for some sort of biting insect on the island.  They have been chewing up her legs the last couple of days.

You have to love a drink with ice in it!  It is SO hard to find!

When I was taking this picture, some Brit came by and said “Nice picture.”  I told him that anytime I was able to find a drink full of ice in this country, I was going to have to take a picture of it!  It was at that point that I realized, by the look on his face, that he was actually just a grumpy old Brit and he was being sarcastic.  Whatever … life must not have been very nice to him!

Tomorrow, if we don’t get out of here, we have to go make ONE more purchase!  The problem is, it has to be done in the store that I had already told them I wasn’t coming back!  What to do about THAT?  I’m thinking that we will have to send our friend, Clayton, in there for us.  He didn’t make any ultimatums to the store owner like I did.  But, hey … he wouldn’t deal with us and told us we wouldn’t find a better price and we would be back.  We did find a better price on everything else but this ONE thing.  This may be a challenge!!!

We are so close to going home!  We can almost taste it!  It was nice to go to the US Consulate office today just to be around American stuff again!

Cameron