I wonder if they learn the Electric Slide too?

I wasn't there for the taking of these pictures and not sure what this is all about so I am inventing my own story. Feel free to add your own embellishments.

This school specializes in training people to be DJ's and entertainers at weddings. Every morning this school comes outside and performs YMCA by the Village People.

This kid got in trouble because he was a clown and kept spelling YWCA.

Things I learned. Bug spit edition.

At the Beijing silk "factory".

Silkworm larvae of about 3mm are hatched from eggs. For about 20 to 30 days, they are fed five times a day on chopped mulberry leaves. Now they are ready to spin cocoon for which racks, clusters of twigs or straw are provided. The caterpillars have small openings under their jaws called spinnerets through which they secret a protein like substance. This substance solidifies when it comes in contact with air and the filament thus formed is spun around the silkworm in the figure resembling the digit 8. In three days the cocoon gets completed which is about a peanut shell's size. The silkworm creates its cocoon out of a single silk thread that is continuous for approximately 3,600 feet. The filament is held together by sericin or silk gum. The life of the worm is ended by the process of 'stoving' in which the cocoons are heated. The cocoons are then soaked in water to allow the workers to easily locate the end of the silk thread, which is necessary to unravel the silk thread from the cocoon. The soaked cocoons, when ready, are then placed into a water tray in preparation for unraveling. A single thread is too thin to be of use and, therefore, multiple threads must be joined and unraveled to form a single thread. The worker locates the ends of about eight cocoons, and combines them onto the spinning machine. The spinning machine then automatically unravels the eight cocoons simultaneously creating a single strand of silk from the eight cocoons. Pulling raw silk to make quilts.

Yogurt Monster

Dear Stonyfield, she is available for commercials in exchange for free yogurt. Lots of free yogurt.

Eye of newt, and toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog

These were all the rage in Beijing. They are not hooked up to anything, they just bubble like they are boiling. I couldn't get an explanation as to how they worked. I'm thinking dry ice, but does anyone know what they are and how they work?

I'm thinking we will be seeing these in the US soon if they are not already here.

Congee Monster

我想粥

The first in a series of Monster posts.

You have got to be....

Squatties of different designs.

Never actually had to use one while there, just took pictures of them.

Guess the western toilets are strange to the Chinese as I heard a story of someone who would go into their office bathroom in Beijing to find foot prints on the western style toilet seat.

Draining

We are now moving into the random posts era where I post things that I have on my mind from the trip, but didn't post while in China. Also, I have a ton of videos that i am having trouble uploading to Blogger. When I get it figured out, I will have random video posts too.

One of the more curious elements in China were the drains in the bathroom floor. I thought that in our hotel in Beijing that it was there because they had funky "rain forest" showers that got water all over the bathroom. However, the Victory Hotel in Guangzhou had them (good thing because their shower covered the floor in water) and even the Disney Hollywood Hotel in Hong Kong.

In reality, they are a great feature because any water that gets out of the shower or tub goes in the drain, and when you clean the bathroom, you can just use a power washer.

Our house, in the middle of the street

After we took Beatrix in the house, she ran from room to room seeing what was there and touching things and getting settled. It was like she really understood that we were finally home and that this was her new home. I don't know if I am projecting that on her because it makes it a happy story or if she truly understood that this was home, but she settled right in and is very comfortable going around the house.

She knows there the garbage is, she likes to help load the dishwasher, she loves the playroom and playing outside with the street kids. I really can't believe how great she has adjusted.

Her problem now is that she keeps waking up at 5:30am and has regressed somewhat in potty training, but we will take those minor issues any day.

We are now working to figure out what she is going to eat. There are a lot of unfamiliar foods here and even the Chinese foods we have are not the same. We loaded up on bananas and broccoli, made rice Congee and filled a cart with dumplings down at Lotus Foods. we also find a yogurt she will eat, for now. We were told that she is not a picky eater and will eat anything. I think they got their data mixed up based on the amount of food I have seen her spit out.

Home is where the signs are

When we arrived home we found our house all decked out in artwork and signs made by the street kids. That was pretty

awesome, but wait, there's more.

We had a huge greeting party from all the street people who came out to see us. Most of it was not registering in my sleep deprived brain, but there were al lot of people and kids there when we got out of the van.

Beatrix was actually very comfortable with the welcoming committee. She shot some smiles and waves and "HI"'s and even allowed a hug from a street girl who is almost her same age.

In the house we found a big bowl of chili and pasta with a salad waiting for us. Along with that were homemade cookies, cheese and crackers, and burritos and lasagna in the freezer. I can't imagine living in a better place than this and all the help and attention is truly appreciated. But wait, there's more.

On the kitchen counter we found this book. It was made by the street people and contained pictures, and children's artwork. It was wonderful and will make a great addition to Beatrix's adoption collection. But wait, there's more.

There was a letter and some signs for Olivia to giver her encouragement on being a big sister. Olivia has struggled with this sister thing, but she is slowly moving forward on becoming more comfortable with it.

Yes, we have no Bananas

When you land in the US, the adoptee has a Brown Envelope. That's the official name.

Guess the State Department and Homeland Security couldn't be a bit more creative.

Here it is:

Very important not to open it.

When you hand this over at the point of entry (Detroit for us) you have become an American Citizen. So welcome to Motor City and welcome to America. Now go stand in that big long line to tell the officer you don't have any fruit.

However, we did have fruit. We forgot about the bananas we took from the lounge in Hong Kong.

So we started out Beatrix's citizenship by bringing in illegal fruit. But, we corrected this evil by remembering before we left the area and went back to toss them in the bio-hazard trash.

No harm, no foul. Right?

Oh, and we took these pictures in the immigration line. It appears that photos are prohibited in that area, so that makes 2 laws broken.

They're coming to America...TODAY!

Actually, last Friday but I hadn't been able to post until now.

The plane ride home was mostly ok. We left Hong Kong at 9:50am which meant another 5:30am wake up call.

We flew home in Business Class where they had individual pod seats that reclined flat and were pretty awesome. However, this amenity was largely lost on us since Beatrix didn't want to sit by herself and didn't want to watch tv. Our plan was that she would occupy herself for a large portion of the flight by watching the myriad of cartoons showing on the personal entertainment system. Yeah, not so much. She doesn't have any interest in watching tv or movies. Mostly that is good, except on a 14 hour flight.

She was entertained with walking up and back down the aisle throwing away trash, cleaning the seat with a baby wipe, pushing the seat buttons and squirming.

Olivia had a great flight. She was awake the whole time as she had unlimited movies and snacks.

By the time it was all said and done, she had been awake for 28 hours. I was going on about 29

The worst art of the flight was the smell. Someone had really bad gas and was letting it rip constantly throughout the flight. It seriously was making my eyes water. I wish I had brought one of these from the hotel:

.

There's Magic Everywhere

Bubble magic.

Magic that Jennifer donned a tiny hat around the park all day.

The It's a Small World 1st time. This would be Beatrix's favorite and she rode it 3 times. Olivia, on the other hand, hated it but loved Space Mountain. She rode that 4 times. With no lines, why not.

Pinocchio kept throwing himself on me. Notice my bracing leg position.

They also have these awesome velcro bricks here so that you can stick your children on things.

The Happiest Food on Earth

Disneyland Hong Kong was on the agenda for today.

This place is awesome as far as Disney goes. It s super clean, it is small enough that 1 day is enough to do the whole park, it is cheap (for Disney), the "cast" is super friendly, there was no one there and the food was awesome.

These dim sum buns were on the buffet at the hotel and in the park.

We had lunch at the Riverview Cafe in Adventureland. However, Olivia was quick to point out that there is no view of the river from the cafe. That was the only fault.

This place had a set menu that included chicken soup, vegetables, rice and an Asian dish of your choice. Since Olivia was being ornery we only ordered for 3. I was shocked that they let a table of 5 only order for 3 people. Disney usually drains you for each person. However, the 3 set was perfect for all 5 of us.

The dish choices we got was sweet & sour fish (which Olivia ate most of) shredded pork and celery and beef with green beans.

We also found out that Beatrix loves soup.

We have been to Disney world and tried many places there to eat. None was very good. This place was the best Disney park food you can have.

Also, the frozen "lollipops" as they call them, were

great too. I had the chocolate sesame.

They also have the bbq squid I ate at Lucy's.

Hong Kong Phooey

Beatrix Looking out at her airplane for her first flight.

Don't be fooled by this picture. There was about 30 minutes of fussing with the seatbelt before takeoff. After take off there was a bit of amazement, followed by a need for a nap.

This was about 3 seconds before the airport people told me to "no do this". I wanted to ask them to be the one trying to wrangle her through the airport as she was not a fan of walking or being carried.

Hong Kong is really very beautiful. I wish we had more time here.

This was our taxiWe are staying at Disney's Hollywood hotel and going to Disneyland for a day.

Here is O in the O.

Here is Beatrix's first time in a pool. (we think) It is kinda cold here so she went in the whirlpool

that was warmer.

Red Couches

For anyone who has adopted from China, you will know exactly where this picture is taken.

For those who haven't, there is a strange tradition for Americans who adopt in China that they

always have pictures of their kids taken on the red couches in the White Swan Hotel. There is nothing special about the couches. they are just a bunch of couches set up in the lobby, but

everyone has their picture taken there. We did as well.

This is Maddie, Collin and Beatrix. Collin and Beatrix had the same consulate date and Maddie was the day after. We are all CCAI families.

Collin kept falling over onto Beatrix. She kept looking at his mama and pointing down at him to say, "uh, can you get him off me."