Day 7 Tianjin, Last Day

Taxi scooter Kevin actually rode in!

Hi everyone,

Today was an easy day...ok, except the part where we actually crossed busy streets. ACK! I kept my head down while Helen grabbed my arm and wove me in between moving bicycles, tiny vans, scooters, cars, trucks, etc. Positively frightening. And Kevin had no problem moving across the street with Qun Qun!

We picked up Qun Qun's Chinese passport at the police station, where people oohed and aahed over Qun Qun and murmered "lucky boy" (traditional phrase for an adopted orphan), and gaped at a silk rug with an entire mural of the Great Wall and mountains woven into it. Then we were off to Ancient Culture Street, which has neat old-style Chinese architecture and lots of street vendors.

Our driver warned us that it was "overpriced, Ancient Chinese junk", and he was right. But, it had Tianjin crafts, which we wanted to see. We were also the subject of great attention, and were followed by 5 curious Chinese men for a few minutes. It's funny, if you acknowledge the curious onlookers with a quick nod, followed by a "Ni Hao" (hello, how are you), they smile, nod back and move on. More "lucky boy" comments here, all sincere.

We hit a snack store for fried dough braids, which is famous in Tianjin (fattening but oh so YUMMY!) and various nuts covered in yogurt (I think). And we picked up Chinese drums for Qun Qun and Emily. Oh, and authentic Chinese hackeysacks, which Kevin and Helen played kicked around, making Qun Qun giggle happily.



Chinese musicians performed in one of the stores, one man playing a type of Erhu, another singing. Unfortunately, we only got the Erhu on video.



Qun Qun kept moving closer to Helen once he discovered her eating fried dough. He'd move over and smile up at her, then move over some more and smile, etc. She thought it hilarious.

An Eating Feast

The rest of the day focused on food, and eating as much great Chinese food as possible together since it was our last day before flying to Guangzhou tomorrow. Helen took us to some great restaurants. Qun Qun decided to use both hands to eat, and each time I picked rice, melon, chicken bits, etc., off him, me, the table, floor, coats, etc., for a good 10 minutes. But he was so proud of himself (the nannies typically hand feed the kids even at 5 years old).

One of the restaurants. We had chicken with cashews, dumplings, broccoli with melon, and watermelon juice.



In the evening we hit another great restaurant, and Kevin's fish meal was, er, executed right in front of him...ew! Helen and Kevin spent the day trying very spicy food, which Qun Qun also tried and liked! Here we had steamed egg (Qun Qun's favorite), spicy fish stew, spicy chicken bits (and I mean bits--but no beaks this time), and chicken with cashews.

Tomorrow we say a sad goodbye to Helen, who became our friend and Qun Qun's ayi (Auntie) during our stay here. Helen and the wonderful wait staff downstairs signed Qun Qun's life book ("When You Were Born in China", a wonderful book for adoptive families) with lovely words and well wishes. The flight to Guangzhou is 4 hours--YUCK!!--so we'll post Saturday night sometime, which is Saturday morning for y'all.

Take care, and hope everyone is well, especially my sister,

Caroline