Kiyomi's first online performance

And now for something completely different! Thanks to Kohji's family and their gift of a video camera, we bring to you our first boring baby video!

Just click on the link below. It'll take you to a site called "streamload.com" where the video is stored. You just have to click on "kiyomi.mpg". It'll take a while to load since it's 5MB in size.
http://mediamax.streamload.com/kojtam/Links/DBCFE136E1

Enjoy. 

Day (oh, I've lost count)

Climbing the walls - literarlly and figuratively - is the theme for today.

After a couple of great nights, where Kiyomi went down like a dream, tonight we learned that there's more than "umbas" to this little monkey. She was in full scale, man the torpedoes, all lungs on deck wail this evening. We think she may have been overtired as she really didn't get a proper nap today (more on that later). Worst of all, just when she had finally nodded off in her crib, we learned of a traitor in our midst. Seems "sheepy" (previously referred in this blog) has a little short circut. As some of you may know, "sheepy" baas when you squeeze his little belly. Well, I was ready to ring his little neck when he went off without prompting just as Kiyomi was finally snuffling to sleep. Sheepy, at the moment, has been banished to the little hotel fridge - we're hoping he'll either freeze or the batteries will conk out as the blasted thing keeps baaing every few minutes.

However, other than the occassional little meltdown (which we're starting to figure out are mostly a result of our errors), she's doing great. We're learning what she likes to eat (steamed egg - popular with all the girls - and noodles) and starting to come up with solutions to the liquid intake (other than watermelon). We've also started to see her less serious side, and killed ourselves laughing with her when she's in full funny-face mode. We've alos made the pleasant discovery that if she's gotten the requisite naps during the day, she will happily chortle herself to sleep in her crib for the night, giggling to herself and playing with her toes. Hope we can figure out how to maximize that, especially after having to have cold pizza on the floor tonight because we were too fearful of making any sounds that would stir her or get sheepy going!

Her referral also said she was a very active little girl, and today she proved it by climbing the Great Wall of China. Yup, the little nipper went all the way to the top with no complaints. It took a few pieces of cookie on the way down, but generally she was content the whole hour and a half up and down. She also drew a number of comments and cooes from other passers-by, including a couple at the top who asked to have their picture taken with Kiyomi. Here are a few pictures of the adventure:

On the way up

At the top

Coming down

As you can tell from the pictures, it was a fairly overcast and foggy day, so we didn't get much by way of views up there. However, the Wall itself in an engineering marvel. The stairs go on forever, and it was a particularly haunting effect when they dissapeared in the the fog. There were thousands of people climbing today, despite the damp and light occassional rain. Young and old alike scaled the stairs - some to the first few towers, others all the way to the top. It was particularly impressive to see an elderly Chinese woman make her way up. She was moving slow, and resting every few steps, but you could tell she was determined to make it. I think Kiyomi, and a little girl from our group, Jenna, were the youngest to make it to the top that I saw.

Yesterday, a few of us took a freelance wander over to an ancient observatory that's just a hop, skip and jump away from our hotel. It was an interesting place, and provided a calm oasis from the constant traffic noise of Beijing. The instruments, for the most part, seemed to have been crafted in the 1600s, and were beautifully intricate metal casts. Unfortinately, the guide there didn't speak English (and I couldn't wrestle the phrase book away from Kiyomi in time), so I couldn't find out is the instruments still worked. The girls were a little less impressed with the instuments, but Kiyomi seems to love getting out and about, so it was definitely worth the trip.

Well, blogger seems to be causing me some problems tonight, so I best post this before I loose it (I've already had to rewrite about half of it when the program crashed). Tomorrow, it's off to the Western clinic for medicals. Hard to believe that we only have 4 more days left before we leave for home. Good night all.

Airplanes and other fun things

Whew! In Beijing and back on-line.

I know you're probably all tuning in to find out how Kiyomi's first airplane ride went. Well, let me tell you, it was completely and utterly... uneventful. In fact, yesterday was her best day yet. She had no realy fussiness, napped well and was generally in a good mood all day, even on the plane. This, despite the fact that she had dinner of leftover egg and ham in the airport (waiting for our delayed flight) and didn't get to sleep until 11:30 at night!

Our morning started out pretty easy, although she gulped down a huge breakfast. We headed for the Security Office at 10:30 in order to pick up the girls' passports. Needless to say, given that it was paper, Kiyomi took a huge interest in the passport. It only took a few minutes to get all the passports, but we had to go as the officials needed to see us and the babies. With that, we had finally completed all the paperwork to get her OUT of China. Now, we need to do all the paperwork to get her INTO Canada.

At 3:30, we all met in the lobby in order to get to the airport for our flight to Beijing. In some ways, it was a little sad to be leaving Kiyomi's birth province. We didn't get to experience much of Nanchang, but we at least have some stories and photos to take away with us. Unfortunately, once we got to the airport, we found out our flight was delayed an hour. Let me tell you, killing time in a waiting area with 18 babies is an experience. Luckily, we had brought some dinner for Kiyomi, so we entertained her with food while we waited. It was really entertaining though, when some announcement was made in Chinese, and all the Chinese people in the waiting area started to scramble away. We were convinced the announcement said - "if you want to get away from the babies, head to gate 5 NOW!" We caught on though, so they didn't escape us.

Our guide, Marui (on the right), has taken a bit of a shine to Kiyomi. We think it's because Kiyomi tends to scrunch up her face at people to make them laugh. Kiyomi likes Marui too, and will reach out to her when she comes by to say hello. We got a picture of Kiyomi with both our guides, Jenny (Nanchang) and Marui (Nanchang and Beijing). They are very sweet ladies and try to make things as smooth and comfortable for us as possible. They are also trying to teach us a few Chinese words. One we've heard a fair bit is "piao- liarng". It means, "beautiful", and many Chinese have come up to Kiyomi to play with her a little and cooed "piao-liarng". She generally just stares at them or makes a funny scrunched up face!

We've also discovered that Kiyomi likes to dance and bite (although not at the same time). If you hold her under her arms, and stand her up, she'll shimmy like crazy and laugh while doing it. The biting was an accidental discovery. We'd notice she liked to nuzzle against our forearms, and kinda suckle, usually when she's getting tired. However, if you nuzzle into her neck, she reacts by laughing and searching for something to chomp down on. I've actually got a Kiyomi bite on my chin, when she grabbed my chin in her teeth and pulled. The little nipper's got a strong jaw I tell ya! We also heard her first laughs yesterday. She gets a big kick out of watching her mom and dad turn into blubbering idiots making faces and silly noises. She's also getting snugglier.

Once the flight finally left, she was tired and fed, so she fell asleep for most of it. Kohji had to quickly learn how to eat rice with his left hand. He didn't do too bad considering (only dropped a couple of mouthfuls on the sleeping baby). Kiyomi did take a souvenir from her first flight and it's become her new favourite toy (yup, that's a barf bag - nothing's too good for our little girl).

By the time we made it back it to the Beijing hotel it was almost 10 o'clock. Most of the babies were tired, but generally doing ok considering. I can't say the same for the parents. Watching our group walk in, I can honestly say, I've never seem a more wasted bunch of travellers in my life. What does it mean when our daughters are all better travellers than we are?

This morning, the Canadian paper chase has already begun. We took all the girls down to the lobby this morning to get their visa pictures taken and Kohji is in the process of doing immigration paper work with the group downstairs as I type (while Kiyomi naps here in the room). The visa shoot was hilarious - all the babies had to be held out against a white background, while about 12 adults stood around them trying to get them to look at the camera. I swear these kids must think we're all nuts.

We're planning on taking it easy today, as tomorrow is a big day - we head to the Great Wall. I've been looking forward to this, and Kiyomi seems to do better when we get her out and about during the day. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

A few more

Sorry, but I've just discovered a much faster way to post pictures, so I'm testing it out. This has the potential to cut the time it takes me to blog in half! Very excited...
 

A few more pictures

As promised, here are a few more pictures of the little rugrat, including one where she is kinda smiling. Note the paper clutched in her hands while sleeping in the stroller.


 

Day four

It's hard to believe it's only been four days. Every day, there are huge gains, and some pretty noticeable challenges. I'm opening today's post with a picture of Kiyomi holding her latest favourite toy - we think she's trying to hint something to her new parents.

The little nipper's personality is coming out more and more every day. It's amazing the difference over the last few days alone. Initially, she was withdrawn and suspicious, but she's very slowly coming out of her shell. She reaches for toys and food easily now, although she's not exactly sure what to do with it once it's in her hand. She chatters away to herself happily and regularly, although she's still a pretty serious baby. It's a bit of work to get her to smile, and you're never guaranteed success. We were also pretty excited to see her imitate movements today - moving her head to copy Kohji or lifting a ball in the air after we show her how. She ate a good breakfast and lunch, but the drinking thing is still slow - so we made sure to include watermelon with every meal.

There were some challenging moments today as well. She had a major meltdown this afternoon/evening that lasted about two and a half hours. Everything we tried was fruitless. Finally, out of exhaustion, Kohji put her in the Snugli - first facing in, to no avail. But then we turned her so that she was facing out, and she started to calm. Needless to say, we've had every single meal in the room today. We suspect that part of the problem may be that she didn't really nap much today - she seems to like a couple of naps, 2 hours each, in the morning and afternoon. Today, we only managed half of that. By the time she finally feel asleep at 8:30, she was spent (and so were we).

This morning was a trip to a state-run porcelain store. Once again, we were quite the spectacle on the street when we all streamed out of the bus with babies in tow. JiangXi is known as the porcelain capital of China, and is promoted heavily in the area. The pieces ran the gamut from traditional Chinese designs, to almost modern colours and textures. The really fine China was lighter than air. I was scared to pick it up for fear that I would crush it. I didn't realize porcelain could be made so thin and delicate. I think every one in the group bought at least a few pieces, but we've become legends among the group for how much we picked up. We really wanted a few special things from Kiyomi's home province.

After the porcelain place, we stopped for a wander through the People's Park. It's a nice park in the heart of Nanchang. If it weren't for most of us being caucasian and the strollers (they don't seem to really use strollers here), we may have possibly blended in at the park. There were mainly families, with kids in tow, wandering the paths. Again, we drew many inquisitive looks and comments. One group of women started speaking to me, and I looked helplessly over at our guide, Jenny. She said that they were wondering whether Kiyomi was a boy or girl. Apparently, they thought she was very beautiful, but thought she might be a boy as I had dressed her in shorts! The drive back from the park was interesting as we drove past a market area. While some of the shops seemed pretty typical, I was intrigued by the people who laid down blankets or baskets literarly on the street and sold their wares - usually few. It reminded me that outside the city, th is province is primarily agricultural and poor.

The rest of the day was pretty low key. It was a bit cooler and overcast today, so I tried venturing out of the hotel. Everytime we got organized and I made it downstairs, it had started raining, so we had to abort. We need to get quicker on the draw apparently. I'm told that there will be a time when it doesn't take us half and hour to leave the room!

I was going to try to leave you with some extra pictures of Kiyomi as I don't think I'll be able to post much, if at all tomorrow, but blogger isn't cooperating right now and I'm too exhausted to wait it out. We get the girls' passports and leave for Beijing tomorrow afternoon. I don't expect we'll get to the hotel in Beijing until 9 or 9:30, so we'll probably all crash (or at least I hope we will). I'll try to add a few more pictures in the morning.

Good night, and wish us luck on Kiyomi's first plane ride. Should be a doozy, as she, and a number of the other babies, don't seem to know how to suck from a bottle (it's supposed to help with the pressure changes). I already feel bad for the other passengers on that plane!

Day three

Two steps forward, one step back.

Kiyomi had a great sleep last night - about 9 hours and her fever was down this morning, and seemed back to normal this afternoon. She had a good breakfast, although we're still struggling with the liquid intake. Can a kid survive on watermelon alone? All in all, she had a good day, and was making some progress with grasping at things and babbling ("dada" and "aya" seem to be the biggest part of her babbling repretoire). We were thrilled to see her grow particularly attached to a piece of paper, although she also has a soft spot for "Sheepy" - a stuffed toy from her grandma. She even spent some time down in the playroom with a few of the other kids. She loves being around other kids, and seems espeically responsive to some of the older girls who are here with their families.

Now, however, she's having a minor meltdown. While we have no way of knowing, we think she's probably going through a period of missing her foster family. She wails when she looks at us. Kohji is currently walking back and forth with her, so that she can't look up and he's turning so she doesn't see me. It seems to be working, so keep your fingers crossed.

This morning, we headed to the country side to visit an 1000 year old village, Loutian, about an hour drive from Nanchang. It did seem to be a place forgotten in the past (although some of the homes seemed to have electricity), and we've been told the government aims to keep it that way for tourism. Even though many tour groups like ours have probably been run through the place, the girls attracted a fair bit of attention when we got off the bus. With a high of 36 today, there was a mass scramble to get hats and sunscreen in place. The locals (or peasants as our guide kept refering to them) were interested in the girls, and in these ridiculous tourists who brought a small army of strollers to an 1000 year old village! Needless to say, most of the babies were taken out of the strollers when we all realised that the walkways were what one would expect from an 1000 year old village - large uneven stones (note the empty stroller being dragged backwards).

The locals were much amused, and patient with us. While the town looks like a museum, for all intents and purposes, it is a functional town who's inhabitants are primarily farmers. It was hard to truely appreciate our surroundings, what with our proccupation with the heat and the babies. However, it was a pretty amazing place to see. The homes are sparsely furnished and the people seem to live fairly simply. They were all very friendly, and a little curious about us, and were happy to humour our feeble attempts at "ni hao" (hello in Chinese).
















The highlight of the tour was an enormous camphor tree that sits in the middle of the village, and is said to be 1000 years old. It is huge and magnificent, and offered a cooler repose after wandering through the rather stiffling alleys that make up the village.

In the afternoon, mommy headed to Walmart, while daddy and Kiyomi snoozed and headed to the play room. Walmart was... well, pretty much like any Walmart you'd find anywhere, only they sold a number of things I couldn't recognize. I wanted to pick up a few household items for Kiyomi to see as she gets older, and Walmart seemed the perfect place, so I joined a couple of other families making the trip.

Kiyomi had a dandy time hanging out with some of her buddies in the playroom here (although she was a little embarassed that she and Chloe had on the exact same outfit!)











She had mostly watermelon for dinner. We're a little anxious about it, but as we keep getting told - they'll eat if they're hungry. It's easy for us to forget that there girls are still going through a traumatic time, and we need to give them time to get comfortable, so we shouldn't be suprised if their appetites seem a little off.

Kiyomi finished the day with what was probably her first real bath. She seemed a little unsure at first, but once she realized she could splash, the bath seemed like an ok place. There are pictures, of course, but posting them here will make her hate me when she's 16, so I'll resist the temptation. Instead, I'll close with what we hope will become a bedtime ritual - the reading of a good book (thanks to Aunty Miyo, Uncle Martin and cousin Mika for the copy of "About Cats" - as you can see, it was a real page turner).


If would seem daddy's little trick worked, as the little nipper is snorfling behind me... oh, and Kiyomi is too. Good night all.

Forgot to mention

Oh ya, I also wanted to mention that we are getting the comments that everyone has been leaving on the blog site. This Anonymouse.org thing works great (a huge thank you to Jerry and Julie for that one), so we can view our blog and get your comments. Thanks to everyone who's been writing with good wishes. We make sure to pass them on to the nipper!

Also, we both seem to have email access, and are starting to crave news from home, so feel free to write to let us know what's going on in your lives. With the blog and a journal I'm keeping for Kiyomi, we may not be able to write you all back, but it's great to hear from the outside world!

Day two

I had thought that we got off pretty easy yesterday, and sure enough it was a bit of a tougher day today (and not just because both of us have biceps of jello right now, as it turns out Kiyomi likes to be held all the time).

Kiyomi slept well enough last night - from about 9 p.m. to after 6 a.m. She snorfled and whined at about 5:30, but was coaxed back to sleep with a little bum pat. In fact, she slept longer than I did!
However, once she did wake up, she seemed to have developed a wee bit of a cough. She didn't eat much at breakfast and its been hard to get liquids into her. We haven't yet figured out the right substance or receptical (sippy cup vs. bottle), and she seems resistant to whatever we try. Luckily, she loves watermelon, so we've been loading her up with that as much as possible. By the afternoon, the runny nose had appeared, and we knew she wasn't quite right as she seemed to be sleeping an awful lot, and has been a wee bit fussy. Sure enough, poor little nipper is running a low fever. So, she's spent much of her day sleeping, as evidenced by most of today's pictures.

We were shuttled to a local department store, where we experienced a little more shopping (I think we've already had our fill of shopping). We had to get a stroller and a few other baby essentials, so we negotiated our way around the place, primarily through hand gestures. Unlike the markets, there is no bargaining in department stores, so that made it easier in some ways. Of course, very little English is spoken by the attendents (and there are dozens of them), so it makes trying to figure things out a bit of a challenge and made me wish I had worked harder at learning just a few more Mandarin words. With 15 Canadian families (all of whom are caucasian except for Kohji) wandering the store with Chinese babies, it's safe to say, we drew attention.

It's a little embarassing to admit it, but we haven't ventured out of the hotel much. We would be more inclined to at least take a walk, but for the 36 celsius temperature and blistering uv. So we've pretty much cowered in the hotel, and tried to get to know the little nipper a little more. Of course, today, she slept most of the time, so daddy decided to join her.


Dinner tonight was in the hotel restaurant again. It had a special significance, but not necessarily a happy one for the nearby patrons. Only through this strange process is the topic of your kid's bowel movements something you would think to bring up to the strangers at the table next to you. I actually caught Kohji talking to a lady from the States with her two kids (also adopting) at the next table about how we had just fed Kiyomi some prunes as she hadn't yet 'gone', and that it didn't seem to take that long for the prunes to work their magic - ahh parenthood!

I'll leave you with two final shots - one of the river here in Nanchang and the other of Kiyomi's 'dinner' (yup, that's watermelon stuck to her cheek because she's snoozing).

















Tomorrow, we're going to see the country side and visit an 1000 year old city (assuming Kiyomi is up for the long bus ride). Right now, she and daddy are wandering the halls. Since she's been sleeping all day, she's a little resistant to it right now, so Kohji's taken her for a walk. Here's hoping it works.

Day one

Our first full day as parents, and it doesn't quite seem real. Even though the little nipper is snorfling behind me. Snorfling, by the way, is how I've described her part snore, part whimper. She does it when she's falling asleep, and while sleeping.

To our surprise, Kiyomi slept most of the night. She was asleep by 8:30ish last night, and didn't wake until around 5 am. In fact, most of the girls managed to sleep through the night, so I'm guessing that they were all pretty tired. She woke up still a little unhappy to see us, but less unhappy than she was the night before by the sounds of her crying, and was fairly easy to comfort (as long as we were prepared to walk around holding her). We've found the 'miracle hold' - the way she likes to be held best, so she relaxes. Basically she likes sitting in the crux of our arms, so she can see everything that's going on.

She took a full bottle and she drank from a cup of water (after signalling an interest in my juice), although she wasn't interested in any of the solid food when we went downstairs for breakfast. The best part of the morning though was seeing her first smile. She was in a great mood at breakfast, active, smiling, playing peek-a-boo, and other games with some toy rings. Her smile is beautiful. And it only got better over the course of the day, even though it was a chaotic one.

Our first task was a round of paperwork - the first of three today. That took about an hour, Kiyomi pretty much napped in the room while daddy took care of that. While I was there, two representatives from the orphanage stopped by, so we were able to ask them some questions. It turns out that Kiyomi, and in fact, all the girls from Wanzai, have been in foster care for the last 5 months or so. Her foster parents are a retired older couple who live with their eldest son. This may explain why she seemed to be looking around for someone last night, and wailing when she saw Kohji or I instead - she may have been looking for her foster family. Here she is with the representatives from the orphanage (note the use of the 'miracle hold':




After that round of paperwork, we had lunch (where Kiyomi ate a wee bit of rice cereal and some rice), and it was off to the Civic Affairs Office for round II. This was a tad more chaotic, as every family had to go through a short interview, get a family picture, and a passport picture for the babies. It was on the 26th floor of a government office, and given that the outside temperature was 35 celsius, it was pretty warm despite the air conditioning. It took us about 2 hours there, and Kiyomi was a real trouper through all of it. While she isn't extremely interactive yet, she likes being around people and is at her happiest in a crowd.

While we were waiting, a couple of Chinese women walking by stopped to touch Kiyomi and spoke to each other. While I had no idea what they were saying, it was obviously about her. Our guide later told us that they were commenting on how beautiful she is, and even asked "why is she so beautiful?" Marui explained that Kiyomi has facial features that are considered very beautiful by the Chinese. Well, we were proud parents after that I tell ya. I mean, we always thought she was beautiful, but we're a tad biased.

















We walked out of that Civil Affairs office as the legal parents of Kiyomi Jin-Dian Miller.

After that, it was a quick trip the the notary to get the final round over with, where we had another short interview, strangely answering the same questions that have been on about a dozen or so forms. Kiyomi adopted a pretty standard approach to the whole rigamarole, pretty much conkin out on the bus, and not even stirring when we had to go into the notary building. It would seem the information about her being a deep sleeper was bang on.















Once we finally got back to the hotel, Kiyomi had her first real decent meal. She hadn't really been willing to take anything other than a bottle until tonight, when she chowed down on congee, noodles, cherios and baby mum-mums. We were much relieved to see her eating, and saw a lot of smile during the meal. Hmm, seems food makes her happy, just like mommy and daddy.

Well, Kohji and Kiyomi are now both snorfling behind me, so I think I'll join them. Tomorrow, a department store trip to get some baby essentials.

We are now three

Kiyomi has officially entered our lives, and we are now a family of three. Although, I don't think Kiyomi is at all certain about this new arrangement yet (and rightly so!)

When you're preparing for this little adventure, you read and listen to peoples' accounts of the day that they got their daughters. You think you know what to expect, but nothing can prepare you for the actual experience. The range of emotions is indescribable. You are elated to see this precious little face that you've thought about for months, but you're also sad for the trauma the girls are going through, and at a loss of how to comfort her.

We headed down a little before 6. They had set aside a room on the 2nd floor restaurant for us, and we were ushered in by one of the waitresses. As we got closer, we could hear the babies crying, and were a little shocked to walk into a room already full of nannies and little girls. Some families, in fact, already had their babies in hand. There was much chaos and crying, and it wasn't at all clear how the process was supposed to go. When our turn came, Kohji was video taping for another family, and it wasn't until our guide said to me, "oh she's so beautiful" that I even realized that I was looking right at our daughter.

She seemed pretty unsure of what was going on and looked uncertainly around, although she wasn't crying. Almost as soon as they put her in my arms though, she looked up at my face and started to ball. She was pretty much unconsolable for the next 2 hours.





After significant chaos, we managed to head back to the room, but were a little shaken when we got on the elevator with 3 other families and Kiyomi started to wail at the top of her lungs. During very brief respites of wailing, we managed to get her to take about a 3rd of a bottle, but she wasn't in the mood to be forced, and she was making sure we fully understood that.

After much floor walking, she finally tired herself out (poor little monkey) and fell asleep in my arms.




A few things we've learned from the orphanage director: She weighs about 17 lbs, has 2 naps a day, and 4 meals a day, is fairly outgoing and likes to sleep on her back or side. Things we've found out for ourselves:.. She seems pretty stong - she can push herself over from her stomach to her back, and when really aggravated, she does a yoga bridge pose. She likes new scenes, and can be distracted by taking her to a room she hasn't seen before (unfortunately, not too easy when you're in a hotel room). She makes little snorfling sounds when she's trying to decide whether to wail. She makes little sucking sounds as she's falling asleep and has tiny little snore while sleeping. Oh ya, and that she's this cute when she's sleeping:



A dinner of instant noodles awaits me, so gotta go. More tomorrow.

Waiting in our Nanchang hotel room. One long hour to go...

A little bit more information

We got a little more information this evening from our guide Marui. It seems we finally get to meet our daughters at 6 p.m. Nanchang time. That should be 6 a.m. Ottawa time on Sunday, July 2. So when you wake up on Sunday morning, Kiyomi will officially be part of the Miller-Suzuki clan! Poor kid...

Last slow day

Not too much to report today. It's been a quiet, relaxing day.

Headed down to the Silk Market, where I successfully negotiated for a few souvenirs, including a couple of traditional Chinese dresses for Kiyomi. I've decided that bartering here is part business, part performance art. I found myself saying things, like "Come on, 5 yuan difference, I'm on a budget." My favourite was the woman who I had come to a price with yesterday, but walked away from the deal. I went back today, and said I'd take it for the original 200 yuan we'd agreed on the day before. She said: "Can't do it for that price today. Be nice. I hungry!" So, I offered her 200 yuan and a granola bar. I got my price in the end, although she didn't want the granola bar. Go figure!

Kohji considered a knock-off Ipod for awhile, but eventually decided against it when the vendor refused to put songs on it from her computer to see if it actually worked. It was an interesting conversation with her trying to argue that the one in teh box (which was identitical to the one in Kohji's hand) was in fact, a real Ipod, but the one he was holding was a fake. Man, foreigners must have a reputation for being stupid! In the end, it wasn't worth it, even if he could have walked away having paid $30 Cdn for it.

For those of you who may be heading here in the next little while, I've discovered a few tricks. Know whether you want it before you start bartering and make sure you know how much you're willing to pay for it in yuan before you start the back-and-forth. Trying to do the exchange in your head on the fly is a challenge, and the vendors know that. Once you know what you'd be prepared to pay, offer something well below that. Don't worry about insulting the vendors - they won't sell unless they can make a profit and they are very good at the game. And be ready to walk away if they don't come down low enough - it's almost guranteed that they will grab you, and offer a better price. Oh, of course, they'll be tell you "you killing me", "this is a very special price, just for you", and there will be hand wringing and theatrics, but it's part of the show!

After a couple hours in there, we had had enough. With the bartering, each transaction can take 20 minutes, so you're exhausted afterwards. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in at a restaurant for our first real Chinese meal. It was excellent - and cheap. Enough food to feed 4 people easily, and with drinks it cost us less than $10 Cdn.

The rest of the families come in today, so our whole group is scheduled to meet the guide at 5 this afternoon to get our instructions for the trip to Nanchang tomorrow and make sure we have all the needed paperwork. This time tomorrow, we should be with Kiyomi! Send your thoughts to her, she's in for a rough day tomorrow. She has a 3 and a half hour bus ride, and then gets thrust into our hands. Poor little monkey.