Thursday, July 4 - Wenzhou - TongJie's finding place and trampoline park

We didn't have to leave our hotel until 10:00 this morning, so we let the boys sleep in as long as they could. TongJie didn't wake up until after 8:00! We had a leisurely breakfast and then met Sarah in the hotel lobby. We are using a van in Wenzhou with a driver, sort of like Uber, but contracted with Sun Travel to be our ride while we are here. The first thing we did was drive around to try to find a store with super glue because Ezekiel's glasses broke last night in the airport. Luckily it was a cloudy, rainy day so not too bright outside, but still uncomfortable for him without his sunglasses. They are prescription sunglasses, but any sunglasses would help, so if we couldn't find glue we were going to just buy a cheap pair of sunglasses. We had tried taping them last night but this morning at breakfast the tape stopped holding and we realized it wasn't a good solution. I guess it was the area of town we were in, but there were no big stores like supermarkets or grocery stores around, so the driver kept stopping at these little hole in the wall convenience and gift stores and most of them were closed. Sarah ran in to a couple of stores with no luck, but on the third try she had bought some super glue and she fixed Ezekiel's glasses in the van. She needed to cut the tip off of the glue bottle and asked the driver if he had anything to cut it with, and he pulled out this big knife and handed it to her, it was kind of funny. So far, the glasses are holding up.

After the glue, we went to TongJie's finding place, where he was found when he was only a few days old. It was at the orphanage gate, but the orphanage moved to a new building just a few years ago, so we went to the old orphanage building, which is still there and has the same gate. Sarah says that the building is still used, but now as a home for elederly people. We didn't stay long because it was in a narrow alley and vans and cars were honking and trying to squeeze by, so we just took a few photos and then left. We drove around that area of the city and looked at the sights. Sarah said that a lot of the older apartments in the old area of the city have been abandoned because it has become too expensive to live there, but also too expensive to tear the buildings down, so there were a lot of abandoned apartments that we saw.

Next, we went to a mall in Wenzhou. It was a big mall and had a trampoline park. We stayed there pretty much all day. There was a fee for kids, but not for adults, and the boys got bracelets and then we could go in and out. They played for a couple of hours and then we went to a McDonald's in the mall for lunch. The boys were so excited to FINALLY be able to go to a McDonald's in China and they got Happy Meals. Then we went back to the trampoline park and stayed until 4:00. The trampoline park was really fun, and was great for them to be able to play hard and use up all their pent-up energy! I bet they will sleep well tonight. We stopped at a juice place at the mall on the way out and got juice that was really good. TongJie got orange and apple, Ezekiel got pineapple coconut, and me and Jeff both got fruit tea that had real pieces of fruit in it. It had watermelon, mango, passion fruit seeds, lime slices, and cherry tomatoes. Ezekiel's drink had cherry tomatoes in it too. We've seen tomatoes on the fruit plates a lot here, which makes sense becasuse tomatoes are actually a fruit but we treat them more as a vegetable in the US.

We got back to our hotel around 5:30 and took a trip up to the top (23rd) floor of our hotel to look out the window, then came back to our room and the boys are taking baths and playing. Ezekiel's hat was soaked from sweat and humidity from the trampoline park, and both boys' hair was soaking wet. I will wash Ezekiel's hat tonight and he might need to wear his other one tomorrow if this one is still too wet. It is SO humid here - everything feels damp all of the time. Tomorrow we get to visit TongJie's orphanage that is now in the new building. Sarah communicated with them and asked if his caregiver, YiWen, is still there, and they said that she is and that she should be there tomorrow. TongJie doesn't seem like he cares too much one way or the other about visiting his orphanage so it will be interesting to see how it goes tomorrow. He doesn't seem nervous or excited but I'm not sure what he's really feeling like. Ezekiel says he's getting ready to come home because he misses Albert and Caspian, our cat and dog. But then he said he wants to stay in China for another month.

Photos: TongJie at the orphanage gate, and two photos of the trampoline park at the mall. At least I think that's what they are, I can't really see which photos I am actually attaching. :)