Our Last Day in Nanchang

Yes! It was YUMMY!

Who are those BLONDS?

2/28/05

Finally! The sun has set on our last full day in Nanchang. Our business here is done and now it’s time to move on the Guangzhou for the U.S. paperwork. We received Katie Lin’s passport this morning so we can now travel with our little China doll. It’s pretty cool having five passports now – four blue and one red. For the moment, Katie Lin is still a Chinese citizen, and therefore, has a Chinese passport. I’ve loaded a few pic’s under the “2-28-05” folder of our official documents.

After leaving the Chinese government building with our last piece of official Chinese paperwork in hand, we went porcelain shopping. Oh boy! Was that exciting for us guys! Actually it was quite interesting. Drew and Ben even bought a few things for themselves. Of course, the whole time I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockin’ chairs. I just knew the boys were going to break something, but we made it without having to pay extra expenses for broken pieces.

After stopping by McD’s again (remember, I promised yesterday not to say anything negative about McD’s), we headed back to the hotel for an hour or so. Then we (Jeff, Sonya, Drew, Ben, Katie Lin and Grandmother) decided to go shopping – no guide, no interpreter, just our funny looking faces and pretty blonde hair. There’s a shopping area a few blocks away that is for pedestrians only. It’s a very safe area with big crowds and lots and lots of stores so we thought that would be our best bet.

Some of you are already aware of this, but the Chinese are VERY curious about us white people from a distant country. They are especially intrigued by blonde hair, which everyone in our family has been blessed (?) with except for Katie Lin and me. We’ve been followed around by quite a few people, which can be pretty intimidating at best and make you very paranoid at worst. On the way to the shopping area, some young man walked along beside us staring at us the whole time as if he were peering through some one way mirror through which we couldn’t see him on the other side. Weird! I like how Tal Prince put it in one of his posts recently. When you’re in a van or bus traveling with other Americans in this country, you feel as though you’re on display in some sort of rolling aquarium. Oh well, we’ve been told by countless people not to worry about it, it’s just a different culture and the Chinese are very inquisitive people.

After finally losing our biggest Chinese fan in a local grocery store, we hit a few shops before Sonya, Ben, Grandmother and Katie Lin decided they were tired and would wait on some park benches for Drew and me to finish shopping for luggage (by now we are in desperate need of some extra storage capacity). As we walked off, Sonya was showing a couple of local elderly ladies a little card that says, “We have come to China to adopt this little girl. We will always love her and teach her about beautiful China.” I took about 20 to 30 steps and turned around and a huge crowd was gathering around our family (minus me and Drew) so I decided I’d better go back to help out, but not before snapping a few pictures (again, see the “2-28-05” photo file).

When I finally broke through the crowd, Sonya looked pretty stressed, but I think Ben was enjoying the attention. Of course, he had no idea how many people were gathered around them or it would probably have freaked him out. I counted approximately 50 locals gawking at our little girl and beautiful blonde-haired boys. They were all very sweet and were obviously saying a lot of nice things to us, but we made like Bill Clinton’s personality and split as quickly as possible. As long as we kept walking, no one would approach us. Once we got the rest of the family safety on their way, Drew and I decided to finish our shopping and we all met again at the hotel about 30 minutes later.

Our last dinner in Nanchang was at a small restaurant with our guide, Grace. She wanted us to experience some local Chinese food before heading to Guangzhou. To say it was hot and spicy is like saying I’m a slight Auburn Football fan. In other words, it was HOT!!! We did have a great time with our friends, but now it’s time to pack up our things and go.

This is probably the last post you will receive from me until we arrive and settle down in Guangzhou tomorrow. I assume I’ll have broadband internet service at the White Swan Hotel. If not, I’ll find an internet café somewhere. I’m sure we’ll have lots of pic’s and stories to post during our last few days in China. Until then, God bless.

Jeff, Sonya, Drew, Ben, Katie Lin and Grandmother