It's Groundhog's Day in Guangzhou

The title for this day's blog borrows from that ever-entertaining movie starring Bill Murray where he gets stuck in Pennsylvania during the Groundhog Day celebration and EVERY day he gets up.....it's Groundhog's Day! We're starting to feel that way here in Guangzhou as each day is (almost)like the previous. I'm sure we'll appreciate that consistency when we get home and things go the other way! Most of the families are on cruise control @this point. Some had their "interviews" w/the Consulate already. Others have them today (Tuesday) or tomorrow (us). It's kind of weird though because we don't actually go to the Consulate. Our guides for this leg of the trip go on our behalf and one member from the family has to stay in their room from 9-11 a.m. during that process in case they need to call.
Anyhoo, the rain continued yesterday, light but consistent. In spite of that we managed to get to the clinic for a negative reading on Nate's TB test (yeah!). According to our one guide, there were 260 people @the clinic to be seen, and the clinic was to close in about 2 hours!

After the visit to the clinic we wandered around in the rain, going from shop to shop. Denise found a few prints we will have framed and hung in Nate's room. She also came across a barber shop, which was a stroke of genius! Nate's hair was pretty shaggy and what perfect time to get it cut but w/someone who could explain to him what was going on! He did pretty well w/it, bouncing between not sure what was going on, to gawking @himself in the mirror.

Mama sporting the latest in "Homeless Visitors to China" rain gear!

Many of the shops were quaint and there was one where the artist uses no brushes to do his prints, just his hands!

We had dinner w/several of the families @Lucy's, kind of a low grade Planet Hollywood. Denise had spaghetti and I had sweet/sour chicken. Not too bad. Nate works off either plate, but mostly sticks to his milk, and some conjee (spelling?). Congee looks to be what you get when you cook the daylights out of rice, dump in a lot more water and cook some more. Very bland, but I'm sure it's cheap and the fills the children up. Our orphanage made no mention of Nate having to eat this, but it seems to have been popular elsewhere.

Today (Tuesday) is low key. We though we would be going to the Consulate w/everyone else to have our Oath Taking Ceremony, but we are kind of the stragglers along w/one or two other families that haven't had their interviews yet. So we went to CarrFoure, kind of a Chinese Wal-Mart, to pick up some milk for Nate and other items. He did pretty well, actually rode in the cart as long as Mama was pushing! We took a taxi there and back (about 20 yuan one way including tip). The exchange rate is approximately 1 yuan = $7. So here we all are running around w/fat rolls of 100 yuan thinking we're big stuff! After the taxi ride back to the hotel we had some lunch and Denise and Nate took a nap (actually they are currently taking a nap as I type this blog, it's about 14:45 here). We have the evening free, which is nice, but it makes the day go by very slowly. Maybe another trip to the park or around the block, we're not sure.

It was interesting last night, after our trip to the clinic, the shopping, dinner, and the taxi ride back to the hotel, I checked my watch....and it was only 18:00. Nate usually goes to bed around 20:00. I had to double check my watch to make sure it was working! So Denise gave him and bath and we all played for a little while, THEN it was time for bed!

Hope we make it to the hotel alive!