Last days

Day 7

Today we visited the Guangdong Folk Art Museum, housed in Chen's Family Temple.  Definitely my favorite sightseeing place!  They had rooms with different examples of folk art and craftsmanship from Guangzhou.  First, the temple itself was beautiful, especially when you consider how old all the porcelain and wood carvings are.  My favorite was the embroidery.  It looked as delicate and detailed as a painting, but as you moved around, the light hit the threads and changed the look even more.  They were incredible, and if I had money to burn, I'd buy a huge one to put in my house.  They also had examples of ivory carvings, wood carvings, and many painted scrolls.  It's too bad we were meeting the other families at shamian island, because I would have loved to stay there longer.

Decorations on the temple walls

The picture symbolizes good luck, so our guide wanted us to get a picture with it

The beginnings of an embroidery picture

The full sized embroidery

Don't touch!

Tuckered out from shopping at the Jade and Pearl Market

We had lunch at Lucy's, and institution of sorts on the island.  They serve Classic American diner food along with some Asian flavors too.  I had a burger that was pretty good, although no mayonnaise.  :(

Day 8

Consulate day!  We met bright and early in the lobby with the other families to head out to the US consulate.  I was a little worried about this paper that we needed, but Lily had assured me we'd be able to get it there.  We pushed our way through the crowd at the entrance and followed he signs for "adoptions" to a bank of windows.  There were about 8 families in all who we're waiting to get visa paperwork.  Our paperwork was indeed easy to finish, and we took our oath with the rest of the families saying that all our paperwork was correct.  Then we each got our paperwork turned in, our fingerprints done, and we were on our way back to the hotel!

Ready to go!

At the Consulate

We had an early lunch and got Liz down for a nap because in the afternoon, we took a trip to visit her orphanage.  I think I'll probably write a post just on that when we get home, since I have too many thoughts to finger type on the iPad.  At least Liz did well and wasn't to upset to visit or return home with us.  I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet her foster family--her caretaker said that Liz had improved quite a bit when  she returned from the foster family.  I will always be grateful for their work with Liz.

Day 9

Our guide, Lily, took us on one last sightseeing visit to Yie Shu park.  According to legend, five fairies visited guangzhou riding five rams and brought gifts of prosperity and fertility to the city.  The fairies left, but the five rams remained and became a symbol of the city.  The park holds a small bronze statue of the five rams and a large stone replica of the statue.  It was a beautiful, large park with a lot of paths and steps leading all over.  We also walked up to a monument to the revolution, and visited the Guangzhou city museum.  The only problem was that I was a bit worn out from my cold.  We ate lunch at a little cafe and took a taxi back to the hotel.  We hung out till 4:30 when Lilly brought the precious visa back to our room--success!  We were not in the less than one percent who have issues.  :)

Hello, little snail!

The ram statue

Day 10

Let me just say that by this point, we were both sick and tired of eating out.  :)  I had a few more gifts to buy, so we took a taxi to shamian island one last time.  Some of those souvenir shops pack a ton of stuff into there!  The weather was the same as it had been all week--wet and gray--and probably the foggiest day yet.  So we didn't linger.  Back to the room for nap and then packing!  We took a little trip to the local version of Walmart for some snacks for the plane, but mostly we just hung out in the room and got ready to leave.

Day 11

I'm writing this post in the van--we are just coming up on the airport in Hong Kong, about 4 hours before our flight leaves.  That's just the way I like it...I wonder if I will ever feel comfortable getting to the airport.  And here we are!

Woke up too early!  Not even lunch would keep her awake, which is saying a lot.