Second day in Guangzhou

I have to type this fast, as time really is money in Guangzhou. We went from having the internet in our room for 20 Yuan a day (around $3) to having to pay 50 yuan for 15 minutes. I guess that is the price you pay when you go from chickens running in the sidewalks to having a Maserati showroom in your lobby. Things are going well. We are going to a Buddist temple today and Gabe will get a blessing from a monk. (We will take all of the blessings we can get!) Then we will go to the Pearl Market. Miao, one of the Mandarin teachers who taught in the district, stopped by with her husband and her friend last night. It was SO nice to see a familiar face. One of the other Mandarin teachers who taught at Von Steuben, Sun Junfang, has called us several times to check on us. Miao was able to tell us some good places to eat and shop. They also gave us much information regarding things to do in Hong Kong. She wanted to hold Gabe, but hasn't had much experience holding babies. She was worried she was going to hurt him and said he felt like a "soft meatball" which is a name that has now become a running joke. Speaking of names, Gabe is really starting to respond to his name. His Chinese name is Jian and they called him Jin Jin at the orphanage. We started off called him Jin Jin and then we went to Jin Jin Gabe. I think now he responds to Gabe as well as anything else.

We had the medical exam yesterday and we are very pleased to say that we have put a little more than 2 pounds on him. This kid is a great eater. I really think that he wasn't getting enough just getting rice cereal, formula and a little white rice everyday at the orphanage. He is really taking to foods and hopefully, we will get him off the formula completely when we get back home.

Tomorrow we complete all of the paperwork for his visa. Once we have that, our business in GZ will be complete. Until then, there is a very large, beautiful park across the street and many things to do here. We will be relaxing and waiting for the next leg of our trip. I am so excited that we will get to be home at the end of the week. We will write more tomorrow.

Brian, Ang, and Gabe

ps:
Since we are still not able to access our blog, anyone can email us at ancal1976@yahoo.com. We should be able to ready the blog in Hong Kong, but we would love to hear from people in the mean time. Thanks!