Just a Walk in the Park

A Change of Pace

Today was a free day. We were going to sleep in, especially since I was up past 1 AM last night checking e-mail and posting the blog, but Melody decided 5:30 AM was a good time to wake up. After a late breakfast, we spent awhile instant messaging with Jordan and Philip in Klamath Falls . . . pretty amazing to be able to shoot notes instantly all the way around the globe. We’ve been gone a week and this was really the first chance we’ve had to find out how and what they’re doing (or at least the part they’re willing to tell us about).

After that, we walked across the street (which is accomplished by going down into the subway station and following the tunnels under the street) to Yue Xiu Park. After we paid our $2.19 admission—total cost for all five of us—to enter the park, we discovered a lush park covering about 95 acres. At first, it looked like it was just going to be walking paths through the greenery but soon we discovered an area that was a combination of playground equipment and exercise equipment, such as elliptical trainers and chin-up bars. There were some strange contraptions that we figured out were stand-up teeter-totters.

We also came across a small, somewhat run down amusement park and Jameson and I took a ride on a little roller coaster. The price was 8 yuan each, or $1. However, I wasn’t sure exactly what currency I had on hand and when I showed it to the girl in the ticket booth she just took it all! I’m pretty sure I ended up paying 30 yuan for our two tickets. She then directed us to enter the ride via the exit. We kept trying to go to the entrance where the line was but she insisted that we go the other way so finally we obeyed. Turned out that she was basically telling us to cut to the front of the line rather than waiting behind all the school children.

Speaking of school kids, there were a number of groups on field trips today and we felt like celebrities as they all gathered around us and said “hello” and waved to us.

As we left the park, we spotted an area of the park with old statues of jungle animals, Tarzan and Jane and, for some reason, a couple of dinosaurs.

One interesting note: We were the only people wearing shorts today in the park. We’re not sure if they’re considered immodest or, more likely, the locals think it’s too cold for shorts now. The weather has been very nice with no rain (it rained all of last week) and a high today of about 75 degrees.

This afternoon, we moved from the apartment into adjoining rooms in the hotel. I think we’re glad we did. The rooms are much cleaner and it feels more like what we expected from this place. We don’t have quite as much room now but it’s a pretty good set up. The view from the 16th floor is of the city rather than the back side of a tenement building with laundry hanging from every balcony. I felt a little bad complaining about our dirty, ill-equipped apartment, knowing that right across the alley were hundreds of people who gladly would have traded places. Still, it feels like we’re getting what we paid for now.

Since we now had a bathroom and bathtub that sparkled, Jeannette decided to give MelodyJoy her first bath in a tub. MJ wasn’t sure what to make of this at first but eventually she calmed down and we all survived the experience without any permanent scarring.

Being all cleaned up and wearing yet another new pink outfit, MelodyJoy wanted to go out for a night on the town so we met seven other couples from our group and took a string of taxis through Guangzhou’s rush hour traffic to a restaurant called Little Italy. They seated us on the roof and we just had a very relaxing and enjoyable time. There were occasional translation issues that led to things like one of the women getting three different dishes of penne pasta, but we just thoroughly enjoyed being together. We decided that we’ll try to put on some sort of mini-church service on Saturday night in one of the family’s large apartments. (Some of the apartments are gigantic and pretty nice . . . just not ours!)

Tomorrow is a short trip to the Guangzhou Zoo and, perhaps more importantly, Pizza Hut. Thanks for your continued prayers and interest in our journey. One week from today we’ll be home!

If you would like to check out the blog for another family that is traveling with us, go to www.fairclothadoption.blogspot.com.