Thursday April 11th.

This was a free day for us, which was nice after the past few days of being so busy.   We slept a little later than normal and after breakfast ventured out to a local shopping center.   6 story building with little shops and a couple of big high end stores.  We did not find anything but it was nice to be out walking around.  One of the goals is to stay out of this hotel room.  Seems that the hotel does not turn on air conditioning until May. It was in the 70s today and our windows only open about 2 inches on one side.   At times you have to leave the door propped open to get air flow. 

stroller ride

the mall we shopped at.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the nice things is that several families from our group tend to hang out in the hall and let the kids play together.

When we finished at the mall we introduced Shaun to KFC Chicken Nuggets and French fries.  He was no sure about hem at first but loved them after a few minutes. 

Pizza Hut on left and KFC on right.



 

 

first chicken nugget and fries.

 

 

 

 

 

After the mall we noticed a local street market near the mall so we walked through there thinking we could catch a cab on the other end.  They obviously don’t get many westerners in that area, we got a lot of looks and some kind greetings.  After the alley we ended up in a local area with shops etc.  we walked through there but never found a cab.  I reached an intersection that looked familiar so we turned and kept walking. Soon we were at the building that has the McDonalds in it. We knew that we were only about 1 mile from the hotel so stopped in a park to rest and then headed on back.  Total walk was about 2.5 miles but very nice.  Glad we had the stroller.

street market in alley.  They don't see many Americans here.

men playing cards on street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the afternoon we went to a little park up the street, it was beautiful with ponds, paddle boats and a lot of beautiful flowers.  We missed this last trip since it was so cold outside.




statue of the Chairman in a park

 

 

At 4:30 one parent from each family had to attend a meeting to get all the paperwork back.  I have done all the other meetings so asked Robin to handle this one.  One of the moms was alone with her little girl (the dad was at Wal Mart) so Robin volunteered me to keep her for a bit.  She is 17 months old but so tiny. It was fun to have her and Shaun playing together.   We ended up out in the hall with the group and I looked away for a second and hear a door slam and guess who had locked himself in someone else room.   Thankfully they had a key handy and helped us rescue him.  This boy will be the death of me, he is so full of energy and so busy getting into everything.  He has broken the light controls in our room and maintenance had to come fix it today, he keeps trying to get into the safe, keeps closing doors, you name it and he is into it.  He is still not talking much but loves to sing.  The temper is not as bad today but still a problem that we will have to deal with.

View in the park near our hotel.

Tonight Daddy had to go out for a bit and he cried wanting me back.  He seems to prefer daddy over mommy right now but that will likely change.  He loves to be held and loves to play rough, though he prefers to play alone unless it is with mommy or daddy, he does not like playing with other kids.  The orphanage told us this was a trait of his.

One footnote, crossing the street here is like frogger on steroids.  You literally take your life in your hands each time you cross the street, between cars, scooters etc.  Today when we were coming back a scooter cut it a bit close on me as I was pushing the stroller and while I was double checking that side out of no where came a huge bus.  Robin started saying bus, bus, BUS.  When I looked around it was coming right at us, we darted back and it kept going.   It can be crazy here with all this traffic.

Tomorrow is Shaun’s birthday so we have a cake coming so we can celebrate with others from our group.