Day 10, Six Tree Temple, Museum

Today we where blessed by some Monks from Six Tree Temple in downtown Guangzhou. Boy did we need some blessings!! Sydney has been sick as a dog the last couple days. She woke up yesterday morning fine, then threw up at breakfast. The rest of the day and the morning after she stayed in with mamma. She could not keep anything down. No fever though. She seems to be getting better now. Hopefully it will go away by Wednesday afternoon so we can come home!! Anyway..today, we went to Six Tree Temple. It surrounds a pagoda that is nine stories tall and 1400 years old! We were blessed by the monks there and climbed the stairs of the temple. Very nice experience for Nick and I (dad). Mom stayed home with Syd since she turns into the Devil when I try to pick her up! Ha! Anyway...we had a great time and bought some cool Buddas, worship bells, and good luck dragon statues there. We came home and went shopping with Kathi and Sydney. Bought lots of fun things and ate some incredable Thai food. Walking home, Nick joined in a game of Jian (hacky-sack with feathers) with a group of young locals. I joined in for a while myself. It was great! The people are sooooooo nice here. I really like the local people we have met. They are very friendly and kind. They LOVE America as well!

Sydney seems to be doing just fine now. Still grumpy as hell....but not as sick as she was. She loves her mamma for sure!! I'll work on the daddy thing when I return home with separate rooms and earplugs!!! Ha!

Check out the photos....3 pages worth!
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day10/index.htm

Day 9, Sydney Loo Hoo!

Today was a good day! Sunshine, smiles, great food! Finally!! On all counts! We had the final medical exam this morning. Pretty minor stuff. Paid the final payements...and we are done! We just hang now until Tuesday night when we have the final ceremony with Gladney Adoption and the US Cousulate. Then...we are off to NYC on Wednesday.

Sydney and family had a GREAT day. She was very happy and smiling today. A real turn-around from other days. She still has not warmed up completely to me yet. I can't pick her up...but she gives me stuff to throw away. I can just add that to my list of things I do...gardener, curb-side-pickup, and now, butler to Sydney. Oh well. She's comming around!!

The island is a very pretty little place. Full of great restaurants and giftshops. It really reminds us of Florida or something. Not China. Big Banyan trees with moss hanging down on cobblestone streets and side walks. No real traffic. Sweet!

Here's a link to some photos of Sydney in Guangzhou.
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day9/index.htm

Day 8, Made it to Guangzhou!

Well...we made it to Guangzhou today! The trip was easy. Sydney slept for some of the 2hr plane ride. She did great! We are at the White Swan Hotel. It is sweet!! Its on an island in the middle of the city. Nice little shops and restaurants all around the hotel. Western restaurants!! We ate a a little place called Lucy's for lunch.....it was AWSOME! Real western food, finally!! Nicky was thrilled to say the least! I don't have pics to post right now. Will do that after we go out today. (Saturday) Stay tuned!

Day 7, Buddist Temple, Tea Room, Shopping

Today, we visited a Buddist Temple, a brocade market (slik), and a Tea house. They were all great places to see. The buddist temple was big! Three different open air areas to pray and light incense to take your prayers to Budda. Nicholas prayed for some good food I think. Ha! We purchased some things in the brocade market and had tea at the tea house in the temple. We all wanted to come home after that thought since Sidney kept us up all night. She was crying and we could not figure out exactly why. Today...she has been fine so far though. Terrible 2's I guess. Tonight we pack, and tomorrow morning (Friday) we are off to Guangzhou for the final part of our trip. Should be nice in Guanzhou. Clear skys at least!! Chengdu is ALWAYS overcast and nasty looking. Ready for some sunshine!!
Take a look at todays shots. Very cloudy and gloomy..so shots are not very good.
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day7/index.htm

Day 6, Pandas, pandas, pandas!

What a day we had today.....Sydney's first field trip and Nicky's first time holding a giant panda!!! We went to the Chengdu Panda Preserve - one of the only panda breeding preserves in the world. You get up close and personal with the pandas. Nicky held a red panda cub and that was easy. Then it was time to hold a giant panda "baby". This "baby" was 100 lbs. and the staff was concerned that he would crush Nicky, so we settled on having him sit beside Nicky. Next it was time to meet an adult panda. While he relaxed on his tree stump, eating bamboo, Nicky walked into his cage and hugged him. It was an unbelievable sight.....these animals are amazing. Sydney was impressed at first, but since she's got a bit of a cold, she quickly tired of all of it and just wanted me to carry her. We went to the panda museum and learned all about panda breeding....some things you just don't need to know. Then we went for some authentic Sichuan chinese food. It was actually very good.....very hot, but very tasty. Charles and Nicky went exploring this afternoon for souvenirs for Nicky's class (and of course the daily stop at McDonalds). All in all, it was another great day in China. Sydney was worn out and was face down on the table by lunch (literally!)


See the photos for an up close look.
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day6/index.htm

Day 5, Paper Signing and hangin' out!

Well Sydney is officially our daughter today. We spent the morning at Registration and with the Notary....just formalities, no big deal. It's amazing what a difference 24 hours can make. She's more relaxed with us and has even started to smile. And, the big news is that she's stopped screaming when Charles comes near her....that's progress!!! We walked around this afternoon and saw some of Chengdu It's a nice city. People continue to be amazed by Nicky...today a couple of people came to shake his hand....it's quite funny actually. Our next 2 days are just fun days - no official business at all, so we're off to do the tourist thing.
Here's a link to the latest pictures:
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day5/index.htm

Day 4, Gotcha Day! Sydney comes home!

Today is Gotcha Day! We picked up Sydney at the orphange. It was a great place! At least, for what you would think of, of an orphanage. Nice, new building, VERY clean. Nice young caregivers and teachers. We were very impressed! Was not some gloomy, depressing place by any means. Sydney, afraid of any strangers, cried a lot when we showed up. She quickly stopped though, once we got in the van to go back to the hotel. Nick and Iwent out to McDonalds to eat and get "the girls" something. When we returned, Kathi was soothing Sydney because she was crying again. She stopped almost immediately when Nick came in. Thank God for Nicky!! She is deathly afraid of me though! I expected that. The are NO male caregivers at the orphanage so I must look VERY strange and scary to her! (No comments from the peanut gallery please!) Any way, take a look at the pics I took. Some from the front of building, entrance, inside, classes, her class, her crib, her caregiver, etc. Also..below the first link are some movie clips (.MOV files about 4mb each) of sydney and family.
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day4/index.htm

http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day4/sydney1.MOV
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day4/sydney2.MOV
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day4/sydney3.MOV
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day4/sydney4.MOV
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day4/sydney5.MOV

Day 3, Chengdu!

The road trip continues.....today we travelled to Chengdu and it's an awesome city. Lots of people, lots of cars and bikes but all very interesting. Our guide here, Sandy, met us at the airport and gave us the rundown of what will happen tomorrow when we go to the orphanage. Seems pretty straightforward and easy. We'll get to see her "classroom" and play area and meet all her buddies. Only one more day!!! Nicky is so excited today. Hard to tell if it's because we're getting Sydney tomorrow or because we took him to lunch at McDonalds!! Today was a day to walk around and explore downtown Chengdu. Nice city. Nicky seems to be a real point of fascination for people in China. They literally stop what they're doing to stare at him. A woman even asked to have her picture taken with him. A group of tourists from Japan came over to say 'hi'. A group of older men swarmed him as he was taking pictures. They're very curious about him and display their curiousity quite openly! Today is our last day as a family of 3....tomorrow we become a family of 4. Watch for the pictures!!

Email Request

Hey everyone!
Please leave your NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS if you want us to respond to your comments. The Blog does not tell me who sends the comments or the email addresses. Also..you can email Kathi or I with the email links on the right side of the page!

New post comming soon! We made it to Chengdu today!!

Day 2, Jade Market, Great Wall, Hutong Area

Today, we woke up at about 2:00 am. That's what happens when the whole family falls asleep the afternoon before at 4:00!! Jetlag is a bitch! We tried breakfast again....still not good. The food is going to be the hardest thing about the trip I think. Kathi and I can choke it down ok but its really hard for Nick. He is trying though! Everything is different...milk, butter, bread, eggs...everything! We have not made is by McDonalds yet as our tour came in late today and you would NOT believe the traffic on a Saturday afternoon! I've never seen so many people or cars in one place!

First thing we did today on the way to the Great Wall was to stop at a Jade factory. That was very interesting! Amazing pieces that have been carved out of Jade. It NOT inexpensive though!! Maybe the prices change when the westerners arrive! Ha! Then we made our way to the Great Wall. Very cold, but TOTALLY AMAZING! We walked quite a ways up toward the top of one mountain. Some of the stairs were so steep, it was like climbing up the face of a mountain. Got some cool photos I think. Of course, all the great wall swag was being sold at the bottom. After that, we were taken to lunch at a Chinese restaurant near the wall. It was ok. Nicky did so well at trying things, but I must admit, it is just so different from what "we" consider to be Chinese food, its just hard to really eat much! He tried though. Then we shopped at the market around the restaurant. We then took off for out Hutong Tour (original Beijing part of the city) but stopped at a Pearl store first. This was actually very interesting as well. When we got to the Hutong part of the city, we were taken by rickshaw around the area and actually got to go in and visit with a resident. That was pretty amazing I must say. VERY nice and polite people! After that, we headed back to the hotel.

During our tour today, we got to meet most of the other people here with our group to pick up there babies. Very nice folks as well! We leave tomorrow morning at 7:00am to go to the airport to fly to Chengdu. Its about a 2hr flight. I'll post more from the hotel there....as long as the internet connection works for me!!

Here's a link to the photos I took today...there are 4 pages so make sure you click through them. The Great Wall photos are the best!
http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day2/index.htm

Day 1, Tianamen Square and Silk Market

After taking showers, we took off for the Silk Market. Actually, it was a market for just about everything! Stalls filled with girls, calling out stong man, boy, pretty girl!! I make best price for you! I think we should get them to teach us how to sell stuff! They don't take no for an answer!
It was fun though. Of course, Kathi was able to haggle well with them. She got a Gucci bag for 5 dollars I think. Nick got some shoes. Then we went to Tienamen Square. It was pretty cool. You DO need a translator for it though, so you know what you are looking at! We did not have one but had a great time just looking at these HUGE buildings. The taxi rides are as amazing as the site though. No real rules it seems! Bikes, walkers, buses, taxis, cars all swarming around. Its amazing there are not wrecks everywhere and dead bikers all over the roads!! Anyway..things are going well. The food is still a little freaky. Especially for Nicky. Even the hamburgers taste different. Kind of "gamey". We go to the Great Wall and some temple tomorrow with the group. Should be fun! I'll keep you posted!
Here's a link to all the photos I took today....2 pages so click through!

http://www.metasisdesign.com/china/Day1/index.htm

Beijing, Arrival at Plaza Hotel

Well, after 18hrs of travel from Atlanta, we made it! No poblems at all. The luggage made it all the way. The guy was there to pick us up and drive us to our hotel. Beijing is pretty damn cold! This morning when we arrived, it was 14° F! It's pretty ugly in the winter they say. Looks like Toronto to me!! ha! Anyway....we are just getting some naps in and heading out to go to the silk market to haggle and then to Tienamen Square to look around. If we can stand the cold that is!

The rooms here at the plaza are small. Especially in comparison to US rooms! They are very nice though! Everything is small when it comes to real estate because there are 13 million people in Beijing! The people have been VERY friendly and helpful so far. The food...well...that's another thing. We are trying to be open minded but things DO taste completely different from our American Chinese food. We have only had the food on the plane and breakfast so far though. We'll try some things while we are out today and report!! We need to sleep and wake up tomorrow with a fresh perspective though. We are all so worn out right now! More later. I was actually just testing my computer out in our room to see if I could actually hook up to the internet to get to this blog! So far so good!

Latest Family Portrait!

This photo was taken before we got our black belts. Nicky actually got his Black Belt a few months ago, and Kathi and I are Novice Black Belts. We test in March for the final belt. Thought some of you would be interested in seeing this!

We're Goin' to China!

Hi Everyone,
This will be the spot to check out pictures and read about our adventures in China while we are gone! We will try to post new photos every day or two. We'll set up another photo area to show lots of photos you can click through as well. Meanwhile, I've found a link with lots of pictures from Chengdu. This is the city that Sydney (Wan Lin) is actually from. We pick her up at the orphanage there: http://search.pbase.com/search?q=chengdu&begin=0

Sydney Kaylyn James