This is the lobby...
These koi are bigger than our cat...
I also wonder what's going on back at the Bao Ding S.W.I. All I can guess is that it must be much quieter, and a bit lonelier.
Hui-Hui's day actually started by being woken up by his noisy Aunt Kris. We got the video camera gear to work with my Sister and my Mother. At one point today Hui-Hui met his cousin Devon through the computer and they played with cars together.
As he continues to come out of his shell Hui-Hui just gets louder and louder. He sang all day and continued to become bolder and bolder with us. He no longer will tolerate having us feed him, and if we make any moves that look like we might be interrupting his mealtime he becomes quiet agitated and doesn't hesitate to reprimand us.
The breakfast buffet here is fantastic and the bowls are finally big enough for Hui-Hui.
It's funny though, because when we are around other people he is shy and quiet. We try to tell people about all the funny things he does, but he will show no signs of what we call "Crazy Monkey Boy" in front of strangers. Here's a picture of him meeting the Oppliger's new daughter Amy. They live very near my sister's family outside of Marysville, and are the family we toured Beijing with. Their daughter is a little younger than Hui-Hui, and is very pretty.
The White Swan Hotel is very, very nice. And it's crawling (literally) with baby Chinese girls. We thought we would stand out less here, but having a little boy is pretty unique, especially when accompanied by two large teenage boys as well.
We ventured out of the hotel to do a little trinket shopping, and got pinned by a passing rainstorm into the first little shop we came to. They all have pretty much the same stuff, so we decided to just complete our shopping all at once. I don't really know if we got a good deal or not, the stuff seemed pretty cheap, but we're not very good at the bargaining thing. We're happy with what we got though so we're not going to worry about. The shopkeeper, "Susan", loaned us a stroller and arranged to have our laundry done as well. Cam and Ben went back to pick up the laundry later this evening and were gone for quite awhile. When they returned they told us they had gotten into a pretty interesting discussion with Susan and some other guy from Austria. The topics ranged from politics and religion to what types of food are acceptable in different cultures.
We went for a walk in the afternoon past a pretty little park that cuts through the center of Shamian Island, then crossed over a bridge into the edge of Guangzhou proper. There are way more cars here where we are, than when we were in Shijiazhuang, and the cars drive much faster. But it's an amazing city.
For dinner we returned to the Thai Restaurant. All of us love Thai food. Hui-Hui is really branching out in the diet. He demanded to have some of everything. And he was picking up on the fact that we were all serving ourselves from the different dishes in the middle of the table. So now, not only can we not feed him, we can't dish up for him anymore either. We are to pass him the dishes, and let him serve himself. Once we had all finished he spent quite a while moving food from one bowl to another. It was much like his ongoing studies of the stacking cups.
Another interesting thing that happened today was that the main lobby entrance here was overtaken by media and security as "Hong Kong’s chief executive led all but one member of the city’s legislature across the border to mainland China today, starting a two-day trip that marks the first time Beijing authorities have let in prominent Hong Kong advocates of democracy since the Tiananmen Square killings on July 4, 1989" (excerpt from THIS NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE) Here are some pictures we took of this...
We decided to finish our day by taking Hui-Hui to the pools and seeing if he liked the water. We've had no trouble getting him in the bath, but we weren't sure what he would make of a cold swimming pool, outside at night.
Tina made sure that we went slowly and didn't overwhelm him...
Turns out the "Monkey-Boy" is actually a "SEA-Monkey!!
He loved the water, and refused to be left behind with Tina in the "baby" pool while Baba and the brothers swam in the big pool! He wanted over where we were swimming under the waterfall!
After swimming we dried off.
And went back to the room to try on the traditional Chinese costume we bought him earlier...
Cam and Ben each got a similar jacket to match.
Here's a few more pictures of the hotel and the surrounding area...
The Pearl River outside our window at night...
A couple of the many bronze statues depicting traditional and modern Chinese culture...
The park in the center of the island...
Many couples have wedding pictures taken in the park...
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