Day 11

Day 11

Shopping. And more shopping, all day long. It was fun.  We walked to Shaiman Island that is targeted at the Adoptive families that come here and complete their adoptions at the US embassy. Got some souvenirs there, went to lunch on the island as well. It was an “American” restaurant, meaning they had figured out how to make some favorite American dishes pretty close to what we are used to. The sodas were very expensive and cost half of the meal! It ended up being the most expensive place we had eaten at so far. Won’t be going there again. We ordered Amy a peanut butter sandwhich. She is getting pretty good at adapting to our diet. Yesterday she had her first McDonalds nugget happy meal. She dipped the nuggets in Sweet and Sour Sauce and loved it! Today she added her own flare to the PB sandwich as well. I think she saw me putting lettuce on my BLT so she opened her sandwich and put a sliced cucumber on it. She seemed to like it. After she ate most of it, she dipped the crust in ketchup and finished it off!
Towards the end of our meal it started pouring down rain. We waited it out for a little while and then decided to go ahead and slush through it. Amy was in a stoller and held an umbrella over her head, I had an umbrella and Brent pushed the stroller and got soaked. Poor Brent. The weather here is like Houston. Unbearably humid and hot, and the rain only makes it worse. It seems like our clothes always feel damp because of the humidity. I have been washing some laundry in the sink to save some money. They usually dry by the end of the day in Lanzhou. Here, at the end of the day, I can still wring some water out of them and they’ve been drying since breakfast!

After lunch we briefly went back to our hotel and then took a cab to the electronics outlet and spent the rest of the day there. We were told it was 9 blocks of Electronic gadgets. We’ll just have to take their word for it. We went to one building took the elevator to the top floor and spent the entire time on just 2 floors. There was so much to look at. Brent had fun bargaining and pitting the different sales booths against each other. Amy and I were pretty bored, but I must say she did fantastic. She said in a good mood the entire time and never whined. She didn’t get a nap, because we thought she’d fall asleep in the stroller but she didn’t, way to much to look at I guess. There is no way my other girls would have sat through that! Sorry babies! Tomorrow is payback and I intend to take Brent to the Children’s Clothes Outlet! 

I forgot to tell you about two things we saw while leaving Lanzhou yesterday that we found amusing. We saw a man on a bike and he was carrying a bucket of open fire on the back! It looked like the flames were going catch the seat of his pants on fire at any minute! Then about a mile down the road there was yet another accident. A truck carrying brick had skid and turned over and scattered bricks across the whole street. All the cars slowed down just a little and drove right over the bricks including our driver! We we’re holding on to Amy and each other (no seatbelts) because THAT was a bumpy ride!

Here’s Amy eating her Cucumber Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich!