Saturday Medical Appointment and Sunday Shopping

On Saturday morning we went out for Vivi Cate's medical exam.  Medical Exams for US Visas are only on Saturdays, so the 5th floor was pouring over with adopting families.  I should have taken more pictures of the crowds of adopting families, but I was so concerned about Vivi Cate passing her medical appointment, I couldn't think about much else.

 We finished our appointments early thanks to Miss Vivi screaming her head off and since she was under two years old, she did not have to get her blood drawn.  It was warm with so many people crammed together, so we waited in the lobby for awhile.

Yes, that is a wine vending machine with full-size bottles. I think the other mommas would agree these would be very popular if they were in the lobbies of US medical offices. 

After the medical exam, Miss Vivi was past her naptime, so we had to pull out some food to keep her happy. 

 We discovered that she loves 'nanas'.  Her record has been two whole bananas at breakfast, and I think she would have a third if we let her.


She did much better with not making me hold her all of the time. 

She even let Aaron play with her stacking cups.

 Her favorite game is to knock down his stacking cup towers.  I'm not sure her brother is going to be too impressed with that game once she gets ahold of his lego creations.

That night we went to Tekila, a mexican restaurant because sometimes a little chips and salsa will make you feel more at home.  Vivi Cate had her first tortilla chips and mexican rice.  She's a fan, of course. 

Earlier in the day, I had been corresponding with Ann from The Red Thread.  The Red Thread is a website that adopting families use to send gifts to waiting children. We sent Vivi Cate a package in early December.  Ann is great to work with and her prices are reasonable, and she also did a great job corresponding with the orphanage and requesting updates and pictures of our Vivi.  You can also hire Ann as a personal shopper once you get to Guangzhou.  For ten dollars an hour, she takes you to all of the markets and bargains with the shopkeepers for the best prices.  She gets booked up fast, but I had no idea of our schedule until we got to Guangzhou.  On Saturday morning, I heard she was booked for the whole week already, and I was so bummed!  I emailed her and asked her if she had any available time, and she emailed me back that she had cancellations and she could fit us in the next morning.  Score!

So the next morning at 10am, we met Ann downstairs in our hotel lobby.    Fortunately, I had written everything we wanted to look at and the sizes we needed to make things go a little faster.  We only had her for two hours, so she was ready to book it to the markets!  We took the subway from our hotel to our first stop.

Our first stop was the toy market, which had a lot more than toys!  She took us to buy traditional Chinese dresses for the girls.  There are a TON of Chinese New Year decorations. 

Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival, is when everybody goes home to see their families. They are off work for at least two weeks. Ann described it as sort of a mass exodus. In Guangzhou, everyone is busy buying things for their family because they are beginning to leave for home already. She said after next week, the markets and plazas will be completely empty because no one shops during the Spring Festival, and no one works. Chinese New Year is on February 13.

They were selling everything from toys, bikes, flowers, and street food.

Inside the market building there were floors filled with vendor rooms

I could have spent HOURS in here!

But we were on a time crunch and had an 18 month old baby.  I also knew we would get more done in two hours with Ann than we would in a whole day of walking through there.  Our first stop was for the traditional Chinese dresses.

 I gave Ann the paper with sizes and ages, and she began speaking very quickly to the shopkeeper.  All we had to do was tell her which ones we liked best, and she would go off in Chinese to explain what we wanted and then barter with him.  Once that was done, she told me how much money it would cost, we would hand the money with her, and she dealt with the payment.  It was WONDERFUL.  and she spoke almost perfect English!

This is Ann at a pearl market shop...

Once we told her what grade of pearls we wanted, she went through the strands and picked out the best ones. 

 She also inspects everything they do to make certain they are being fair. These men were nice and very curious of Vivi. They asked Ann a lot of questions about where she was from and if US doctors can do anything for her 'marking'. They were asking out of awe and curiousity, and it was not rude at all, so I was happy to explain the surgery to them. I placed her Playtex drop-in bottle on the counter, and they were also amazed at that. They asked us how much it cost in the US, and when we told them, they began jabbering in Chinese. The same bottle in China would cost around $35 USD and is considered a luxury in China.

It was getting close to naptime after we finished the pearl market, and Vivi was getting a little angry.  We had about 30 minutes of shopping left, and I thought I could get her to nap while we were walking. I discovered that she does not fall asleep in public easily. 

In fact, she screams at the top of her lungs. 

This is me walking, bounce, and soothing a very tired Vivi, while Ann and Aaron went in to pay and pick up something we had ordered earlier.  This is a big street with lots of people (think NYC), and we got quite a few stares... which was typical anyway, so I didn't care. 

After about five minutes of heart-wrenching screams, she fell asleep.  Girlfriend has a strong will.

Vivi woke up 10 minutes later right around here. 

One of the shopkeepers was trying to fit a jade bracelet on my wrist.  It was too small, so she said it just needed a little lotion to be put on with it.  She yanked my hand through the bracelet, and it hurt. a lot.  I was terrified that I would be stuck wearing a jade bracelet forever (as beautiful as it was) because they were never going to be able to get it off.  Finally I told Ann that I didn't want it, and it needed to come off.  There was lots of pulling and yanking by Ann and the shopkeeper, and I kept on murmering over and over, "This hurts. This hurts. Um, this really hurts." 

This was about the time when Vivi woke up to the chaos.  She was now screaming... and two tiny Chinese ladies were tearing my hand off trying to get the jade bracelet off.   I wanted to cry. 

Just as I was about to seriously lose it, the jade bracelet came off! It took about five minutes for my hand to not feel like someone had hit with a hammer, AND Vivi did not go back to sleep, not even when we returned to the hotel room. 

BUT that's okay because we scored on the shopping trip!  Ann hooked us up with great deals everywhere we went.  For example, something we bought for only $4, a family who went on their own bought it for $45.

Aaron's prized find was a set of Skullcandy Aviator headphones for $12 (knock-offs, of course)



My favorite is a jade pendant with a rabbit carved into it for Vivi Cate when she gets older.  She was born in the year of the rabbit.  It is beautiful quality, and Ann talked the shopkeeper down to $7 for it.  A family last week paid $85 for the same exact pendant.  They charge Americans full price, and I've heard if you have more than once child with you, they consider you 'wealthy' and will charge you even more.  Ann remarked that we had a 'big' family (with three kids), and we were very young.  I liked the 'young' comment a lot because I feel like I have aged ten years in the last few months!

Next post... Vivi Cate's first trip to the zoo!