Thursday

Today we visited the Teng Wang pavilion. We started on the fourth floor and watched a beautiful short show that included a singer, dancers and musicians. You could then wander down the different levels. I don't seem to be getting great pictures of the places we are visiting because I want to hold Lyvi -- I may have to get some from others in the group. It was fun looking at the things for sale (and buying some, too!) You wouldn't believe the prices on tea sets -- if only they weren't so hard to get home. Also, it was my first time to ask (I guess they really didn't ask) to be in a photo with a local family. I was in the photo with the women, then they had Jason pose with the man.

The building is very colorful, but today it was so hazy it is hard for our photographs to do it justice. It is an important part of the Jiangxi culture and history. It has been destroyed 28 times and rebuilt 29 times because there is a famous poem that goes along with the building so of course they want the building to be a place people can visit. I learned about a poet called the Asian Shakespeare. He was writing during the Ming dynasty, which is also when Shakespeare is around. Mary said that he died the same day Shakespeare did -- I'll have to find out more about him.

After visiting the actual building, we wandered around the grounds. This sweet grandmother brought her grandson over to chat with us. She had him do all sorts of things like say hello and grin. He was so very cute and her enthusiasm for him was just as precious. Half of it all was in Mandarin, but I sure knew when he was blowing kisses.

Lyvi didn't handle being out so well and cried every time I tried to feed her something -- does she not feel good, want to feed herself, not like what we are serving, etc. It will take awhile to read her signals better. She did finally eat some steamed egg at dinner when I used chopsticks. Her chest, nose and eyes aren't any better and she pulls on her ear so we went ahead and started antibiotics today -- some others are doing the same.

She is still the cutest little thing and it is so fun to make her laugh, coo and giggle. She isn't much for deep cuddling when we hold her, but she seems to like us just fine. She rolls up in a ball on the bed to grab her toes and stick them in her mouth. She cracks herself up when she does this. I also love watching the other 8 babies in the group. They are all precious in their own ways and it is such a gift to get to watch them with their new families.

This afternoon I went with two other families for a foot massage -- it was SO much more than a foot massage and only cost $5 (including tip) for 30-40 minutes! I will be getting Jason there and hope to make this a daily ritual while we can. Two of the guys tried to get a massage at the hotel and ended up with a prostitute so I think we all are happy to be introduced to this place down the street.

A local store has Lyvi's finding ad (the orphanage puts a tiny photo and description in the paper -- I'll have to post a picture of a page of these sometime. It is very sobering to see 100 little faces looking out from the paper.) Her picture isn't very clear so I am glad I did not pay to get it before we came here, but of course we are very happy to have it.

More excellent Chinese food for dinner with the group. There were clear noodles, spicy beef dishes, great tofu dish, some kind of pancake-like thing, plan noodles, shrimp mixed with tea on and on. The amount of food they serve at a meal is amazing and I wish I knew the dish names better so I could order similar dishes in the States. Certainly some of our friends know where in Texas we can get Chinese food like this. Now we are off to dreamland. Actually I just don't sleep more than 5 hours a night! Today was the first day that I didn't take a nap and I think it might have been because of the massage. In the morning, some families are heading to a park to watch the locals do their morning exercises. If the weather cooperates, we will be visiting a local village tomorrow and then I hope to wander around Nanchang the rest of the day (and end up back at the foot massage place again.)

Uploading photos to the blog is a pain, but there are a few new ones in flickr!