Our Journey to the Middle Country

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Tuesday 28 March 2000: Guangzhou

Today is Paul's 31st birthday. He's Kim's husband and Isabelle's new dad.

Kindergarten

Some children go when they are 3 years old. Various companies own some Kindergartens. When children are very young, it is more like a day care. There were ducks there, along with other animals.

It was right in the middle of town and an elevated highway went right through it. This had been cleverly painted to look like the sky with clouds, birds, ballons and even a plane which looked like a MIG - complete with the star on the wings. It was very nice kindergarten.

Bus trip after the Kindergarten

Cherry talked about the Five Wishes that people have and gave examples, but I got it a bit confused in my notes:

• Happiness - Health
• Prosperity - Wealth
• Long Life - Wisdom
• Children - Longevity
• To Die Naturally

Cherry also gave us more of a talk on Guangzhou. It is known as the city of flowers. There are lots of fruits and flowers everywhere.

David talked about Duran a mushy fruit which was smelly. He asked us not to bring any on the bus. It turns out that we can now get this at the Columbus Asian Market.

Golden Orange bushes are good luck. Everyone wshould have one bush by their door. Golden to represent money and orange a color for good luck. In the upcoming Spring Festival, everyone should have a peach flower and a golden orange to celebrate.

We talked some about gifts for people. Umbrella are bad because in Chinese the English word has the same pronunciation as "break up" or "separate". Good presents for older people are crane or pine trees since they symbolize longevity. But a clock symbolizes the end of life!

West Guangzhou is older than East Guangzhou which is newer. This is were the city is growing the most. Before 1978, there were few hotels in Guangzhou. Now, there are five 5-star hotels: Dong Fang, White Swan, China Hotel, Guang Dong International, and Cherry didn't know the other one.

Guangzhou was know as "Canton" and Guangdong was known as "Kwang Chow"

David would be picking the visas for 13 families in the afternoon at about 2:30pm.

At around 5:30pm, we would be taking the group photo and have the Celebration Party in the evening.

Tomorrow - we need the luggage in hall @ 1:00pm.

David showed me that the 4 directions on a compass can be found in the names of some of the places we have traveled to:

• North - Bei as in Beijing
• South - Nan as in Nanning
• East - Dong as in Guangdong
• West - Xi as in Guangxi

David and I discussed the meaning of Delainie's Chinese name, Zheng Xing. I knew that Xing was Happy or Joyful but I didn't know what Zheng meant. David never could explain it to me other than it was something "political" and by this, I think he meant that it was like all of the girls having common surnames given out by the orphanages.

We talked some about race and ethnicity and I talk about how that was recorded for people in the Air Force. To me it's always been a form of bean counting that shouldn't matter. There was a point on this trip where David said that all of us were now Chinese since we had adopted Chinese babies. (He always liked to refer to the girls as babies.) I was proud to be considered a member of such an rich and ancient culture. One thing this trip did for me was to really open my eyes up to how small the world really is. It feels good to have more than one foot-hold in the earth too.

I copied down the I Love You characters from the heart necklaces that Mary Lou and Mirian had worn all this time.

I talked to David some about Ohio and Pataskala - that it means Bright Waters. I wished that I'd brought a small atlas so I could show him more accuratly where we were from and where Delainie's new home would be.

He gave me his email address and the address of his website. He also explained that Hong Fei meant large and fly. Things like that make English seem boring. He drew out my first name in Chinese.

David and I had several good conversations over the course of the trip and I think he was very happy with my eagerness to learn all that I could of the language and of the country.

Dong Fang Hotel - Surrounding Shops

There are many shops adjacent to the Dong Fang. They are for merchandise rather than food. We went up several times when we had free time and browesed or shopped. Here's a list of some of our shopping:

• three tea cups painted with lids: Two for Jim and Carla and blue one with chipped lid that we kept
• a stone carving of Delainie from a my favorite referal photo of her
• 3 jade ball necklaces (for Tammy, Mary and Dena)
• 3 jade segmented bracelets (for Tammy, Mary and Dena) - Tammy's has sense broke due to the clasp
• 3 pair of pearl earrings (for Tammy, Mary and Dena)
• 3 pair of jade earrings (for Tammy, Mary and Dena)
• a 3-piece red tea cup with lid and saucer
• a glass ball painted with crane
• a glass ball painted with horses for Mike's sister Barb

Dong Fang Hotel - Group Photo

At the White Swan, the traditional photo is all of the babies on one of the red couches in the lobby. The Dong Fang has a lovely wall all in Golden sculptured metal backed in red. We did pictures of the girls in front of this and a pictures of us all on the grand staircase.

I had to run out and get a CR123A battery for the camera just before we took the pictures!

Dong Fang Hotel - Western Restaurant - Celebration Party

There was Karaoke and David sang John Denver. He has a very serene voice. It's really something to hear someone sing Take Me Home, Country Roads with a Chinese accent. Kim sang something.... I should have gone up, but they didn't have the song I've always wanted to sing for Karaoke - Play that Funky Music White Boy!

Delainie received a singing bird lucky box gift.

The food at the Western Restaurant was nothing like any of the other food in China. It was bad. I'm certain that the cooks did their best, but it took a long time and there were some odd mistakes which I smiled at since they are cultural. I'm certain that what I cook and call "Chinese" food, is not what David would have considered genuine Chinese.

Some one at our table ordered pork chops and they ended up with the with the tartar sauce that was to have come with my fish. Again, I'm certain that Americans use the wrong sauce for the wrong dish and think nothing of it.

One of the pictures that Mary Lou sent us is of the party. Her picture is erroneously dated 3/29/2000.

Delainie's Immigration Packet

At some point, I copied down all of the information off of Delainie's Immigration Packet:

• Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration - the form title
• Optional Form 155B Department of State - the form number
• # IV-##,###,### - the packet number - which is also on her entry stamp on her passport
• and the name of the Consulate officer who processed it

I also took a close up photo of the packet in good lighting without a flash which would turn out to be a very good idea since our daughter's packet took nearly a year to process. It was good ammunition to be able to not only provide the number and who signed off on it, but to print off a photo of the same which is very readable.