Shopping, stroller, and dinner

After TongJie woke up from his nap, we walked with Sarah to a supermarket nearby.  I think it was like Wal-Mart.  We took TongJie in the front pack, which he does pretty well in.  We bought a large bottle of water to refill our water bottles with for the next few days.  Also we bought a teething ring and Jeff got a couple of bottles of diet Pepsi, which we figured out cost the equivalent of 40 cents in US money.  Jeff was pretty happy about that, as you can imagine.  We asked Sarah to show us some traditional Chinese candies and snacks and we bought a few to take home with us.  She also showed us some weird stuff like packaged chicken feet that she said were really spicy!

Sarah asked at the front desk of the hotel for a stroller for us to check out for the remainder of our time here.  We were wondering if TongJie would like it or not, and it turns out he loves it!  So Jeff and I took TongJie for a spin in the stroller by walking a short distance to Starbucks.  We were a little disappointed because it was pretty much no different from the Starbucks in Wenatchee, they spoke English and everything.  I guess we were hoping it would be a little more Chinese or something.  Silly us.  The prices were about the same as our Starbucks in Wenatchee too.

After that we went to the Cantonese restaurant for dinner.  There were four families, plus Sarah and Elsie.  Jeff and Maureen didn't go because they wanted to have dinner in their room after a long day.  Once again, the food was served family style and Sarah and Elsie ordered a bunch of different dishes for everybody to try and they put them on a huge "lazy susan" in the middle of the table.  We like the idea of the family style dinners - I wish more restaurants did that in the US.  Jeff says that the Cantonese food at this restaurant was his favorite of all the restaurants we've been to so far, but I think I liked the Mandarin one in Hangzhou a little better.  They were both excellent though.  This one was a bit more expensive, at about 8 or 10 US dollars per person, but still not bad at all for all the food we got.  By the way, Cantonese is the language spoken here in Guangzhou, but most people still know how to speak Mandarin also.  Elsie speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, a local dialect, and of course English, so she knows four languages!  Sarah speaks Mandarin and English and just a little Cantonese.  But I think Sarah's English is easier to understand than Elsie's.  Elsie is a native of Guangzhou, and Sarah actually lives here in Guangzhou too, but she's not from here and I think she hasn't lived here that long.  She said it's pretty easy to get around in Guangzhou even if you don't speak Cantonese.  If you go to a store or restaurant, they will initially greet you in Cantonese, but if you don't understand they will speak Mandarin.  Also a lot of people speak English here as well.

Today was a nice day because it felt a little more relaxed: no plane or train rides and only the one medical appointment in the morning that we had to be at.  TongJie had a nice nap and did quite well this afternoon and evening.  It was still difficult to get him to sleep, but we were finally successful and he was asleep before 9:00, which was a first.  Still a lot of crying though.  Before bed we blew up a balloon and played with it for awhile and that was a big hit!  He's making great strides (literally) in his walking ability.  He can stand up without holding onto anything now and is getting a lot more steady at toddling around.  I'm amazed at the progress he's making in just a few days!  It's funny when he gets tired, because we can totally tell a difference in his ability to stand and walk, he starts looking a little tipsy.  His little legs must be getting such a workout - no wonder he's tired a lot!  He still doesn't really make any sounds, except for crying of course.  I mean, he laughs and makes a few little babbling noises, but only every once in awhile, usually when he's really happy.  He does not imitate sounds or anything like that.

Tomorrow we are going sightseeing in the morning, but it might just be us and Carey.  I know for sure that Michelle and Bakha and Fan won't be going because Michelle said Fan has been getting really tired with all the outings and she'd like to spend the day in the hotel and Bakha really wants to go swimming in the hotel pool.  I think Jeff and Maureen feel the same way, based on what they said this morning at the medical exam.  I'm not sure about Carsten and Nicole because I didn't hear them say one way or the other.  I guess we'll see tomorrow.  It's about time for Ron the pear to go on another outing anyway.  The sightseeing is only in the morning and Sarah said we'll be back in time for lunch and naps in the hotel.  We usually eat soup or oatmeal or something like that for lunch that we brought from home, or soup that we bought here in China.  

I think I still had the camera on the setting for the larger pictures, so that's why I couldn't post as many at a time.  I think with the larger files the limit is two.  So I'll attach some pictures two at a time.