Only 2 more nights!
And we will be home!!!! Loving China, but ready to go! Today we had our usual buffet breakfast here at the hotel; due to having eaten a cold bowl of leftover ramen noodles immediately after waking up, June ate slightly less than her usual amount of food today. I think she has developed the idea that we live in a 5 star hotel...she breathes a sigh of relief each time we reach the hotel room, like "we're home"! Not quite yet, girlie. After breakfast we wandered over to one of the many 7 Elevens...can't go half a block without seeing one. Passed up the shrimp flavored Pringles, the tomato flavored Pringles, the section of unidentifiable dried snack meats to get to the plain M & M's and a sucker for Junie, featuring her favorite cartoon character, The Pleasant Goat. So weird.
We took an early swim, where June adopted what is to now be known as her "sassy stance". Hands on the hips, one foot tapping as she looked on in annoyance when someone else came to the pool. I think she believes it to be her territory alone. She'll be a bit sad to see that we don't have a pool or an elevator at home. Sarah opted to work out in the sauna-like gym while Junie and I (along with 36 other families) went over to the American Consulate to swear that all of our paperwork was true and correct, etc. It was organized chaos as all the families, lots of whom traveled with their other children as well, waited to be called one by one to sign a document and then we all stood up together as we took the oath. Junie muscled her way into a Little Tikes plastic playhouse full of about 8 other kids while we waited for our turn. She is so funny! I dressed her up in a cute red, white, and blue outfit for the occasion. She looked adorable, of course. A few hours after leaving we returned to the sight of Sarah curled up in bed, watching CNN footage of Naomi Campbell testifying in the Charles Taylor war crimes trial - so weird.
When we were able to tear ourselves away from the frightful sight of Naomi's wig, we ventured out for a Thai dinner. The hotel is on a six lane main road, and I have already told you about the traffic situation here. To cross over to the other side of the street, we have been going down half a block, where you climb up a bunch of stairs and then walk across to climb down again. Not very stroller friendly...today, our guide told us that it was easier to go down an escalator to the underground, cross that way and back up. She neglected to mention that it is the world's steepest escalator to go up and down! I carried Junie while Sarah was stuck hauling the stroller. After arriving safely back above ground, getting J back into the stroller and avoiding the throngs of human traffic...we realized that we didn't know exactly where the restaurant was...asked one valet and he didn't speak English (wasn't expecting him to, but thought I'd try). Asked at the information desk of another building (after terrifying the elevator guy by asking him) and was pointed in the general direction of the building. Passed people lying about and smoking on the street to enter said building. We hopped in the elevator and went to the right floor...unfortunately we had used a service elevator of some kind, which landed us inside the back of a restaurant...not the right one. We were kindly shown over to the other restaurant and quickly seated...then we waited and waited and waited to place our order, I finally flagged down a server (I don't know if there is some kind of etiquette I am missing about how to get the staff's attention)...after placing the order, we received our food (delicious by the way) in approximately 4 and 1/2 minutes...only to wait for our drinks for another 20....had to find someone again and ask about the drinks. Then, after we'd clearly been finished for a while, had to flag someone down to pay and request a napkin - we'd only been given two disposable napkins...they never seem to count kids in these things - and of course, J is a fairly messy eater with her chopsticks.
That was enough for us for the night!! Gave J an early bath and she was off to bed. We're squeezing in one last tour tomorrow - the temple and museum that we skipped when J was not feeling well earlier in the week. We'll swim, pack up and get to bed early for our departure on Saturday morning!