I went to the Shaolin Temple and all I got was peed on....

Today was our last full day in Zhengzhou. I think we're all ready for that plane ride tomorrow afternoon. Guangzhou for three days, then overnight in Hong Kong, then home! Of course, there's that God-awful long trans-Pacific flight somewhere in all of that, but we just won't think about that right now...

Yisha had a Gotcha Day for another group of families--I'm guessing those who started travel on the 20th of April--so she couldn't go with us to the Shoalin Temple. So she hired an English-speaking tour guide, "Cindy," to show us around in her stead. We were all a bit nervous about how the kids would handle the two-hour bus ride from Zhengzhou to the Shaolin Temple, but surprisingly enough, it went quite well. I think that Caden is fascinated with the sense of movement he gets when he can look out a bus window. I'm afraid he won't get that sense of movement at 39,000 feet over the north Pacific...and that may very well suck. For many people. But back to the Shaolin Temple...

The first thing we saw was a food vendor. Based on the name alone, I don't think they're getting many English-speaking customers.



As you can see, Caden was ecstatic to be at the world-famous Shaolin Temple with his excessively handsome father:-)

First on the docket was a Kung Fu show. Just as a reminder, the Shaolin Temple is the home of Zen Buddhism and the birthplace of Kung Fu. With it being a holy site and all, I almost expected it to be not blighted by the hand of commercialism. But Zen Buddhist monks are not dummies...they know a cash cow when they see one, I suppose. Between the tourists and the Kung Fu academy(ies) on site, they've managed to do quite well here. But back to the Kung Fu show. It was put on mostly by younger acolytes, I believe. Quite impressive. I missed getting photos of the more famous acts (needle through the pane of glass, leaning on the spear point, breaking the metal bar with the head) because someone (I won't mention any names, but it rhymes with Caden) kept throwing water bottles and other things on the ground during that part of the show. Sorry.





After the Kung Fu show, we walked through the Pagoda Forest, which is where all the past Grand Masters/abbots are buried. Very beautiful and awe-inspiring, when you think about how old the pagodas are.



Later, we toured the temple itself. That was quite impressive. If anyone is a fan of "An Idiot Abroad," here is a picture of the tree the star of the show was beating on for a couple of hours:

That is such a great show.

Lots of pictures to show from the temple grounds, but I'll pick a few that I thought were really interesting.

In the original practice grounds, there are 48 footsteps embedded in the stones, where the monks practiced their Kung Fu. You should just be able to make out the indentations. The mural on the wall is over 500 years old, from the Ming dynasty.

We followed the tour with a nice traditional Chinese meal, which I did not get to enjoy much of, due to the 16-month-old Hoover I had on my lap. Most meals have been that way. The silver lining is, I think I've lost weight while I've been here.

On the way back from the restaurant, we saw this beautiful little park with these interesting statues of men in various Kung Fu poses.


It was shortly after this that my loving, cute, adorable son peed all over me. I repaid him by having him chase bubbles all over the hotel room.


Here are some more random Shaolin Temple photos. Enjoy.





I understand some of you have had questions about what happened to the dogs in the article from the Beijing paper in one of my previous posts. The article talked about a truckload of dogs that had been rescued while on their way either to or from Zhengzhou/Beijing. It was stopped in Beijing, either coming from or going to Zhengzhou...can't remember which. But the important thing is that the dogs were rescued, rather than kebobed.

Happy Easter! At least, I think it's Easter. Hard to tell what day it is. There were balloons in the lobby this morning, so we guessed it was a special occasion. And it's Sunday. My brain is frazzled.

Highlight of the "tours" so far has been visiting the Henan Provincial Museum. Wait a minute...that's been the only tour so far. Of course, the focus is the kiddos, but we're all getting stir crazy. These hotel rooms are tiny, and Caden is bouncing around like a pinball half the time. There isn't much to do, so nearly all of us jumped at the chance to get out and do something. And this something was pretty frickin' cool. But I'm a total nerd who loves museums...just ask A. She'll tell you. Absolutely HATED going to the Smithsonian with me when we were in DC...


The museum itself is set up like a pyramid, with the earliest stuff on the first floor, things getting "newer" as you go up. Everything's in Mandarin and English, except on the fourth floor, the top of the pyramid. There, everything's exclusively in Mandarin and focused on Chinese astronomy...and I'd swear I saw some artifacts that alluded to extraterrestrials.

Lots of pictures. Not a lot of commentary. Shaolin Temple tomorrow. I'm dreading the 2-hour bus ride each way (and inevitable poopy diaper(s) away from homebase that will entail), but I'm thinking it will be pretty cool.

We had to get out of the hotel today. And get out we did!

We made a morning trip to the "Manhattan City Shopping Mall" to get a stroller. On the way, we were treated to what appeared to be a baby beauty pageant. You know, like those they have that reality show about? If Lance and Stacey Farley are reading this, they know exactly what I'm talking about... Anyway, I realized rather rapidly that a stroller was something I should've bought early on. While we both enjoy the ergo carrier and the closeness it brings, this chunk of a boy is killing my back when I put that thing on for more than a few minutes. Good thing I've got those chiropractor appointments lined up when I get back to the States!



He loves the stroller...so long as we keep moving.

We also found another...interesting...store in the mall on the way to Wal-Mart (more water and another suitcase). Not sure what they sold in there, but it was just another example of things that are just a little "off" here.



Another example would be the number you call for emergencies. You can see it posted on the fire box from the Henan Provincial Museum, below (more on the museum in the next posting).



After we got back, got lunch and chilled for a bit, we decided to head out to the park and get some dinner. I broke one of my cardinal foreign travel rules: I agreed to go to an American chain restaurant while in a foreign country. But Mom needed a break from the local cuisine, I think.:) So we headed out to the park (beautiful public spaces here), where they were having some sort of music festival. I'm not an afficianado of Chinese music by any stretch, but it appeared that they were having small, localized contests to see who could best imitate trash cans bashing together while skinning cats. I guess if you're into that kind of stuff, it was cool. Mom and I preferred the scenery:



From the park, we waded through a sea of humanity and tricked-out electric scooters to get to what we thought was going to be Pizza Hut, which we thought was just past McDonald's, a little way past the park. Along the way, we were treated to another impromptu talent show. This time, a "human angel statue." I have no idea what that meant, but from the size of the crowd...who am I kidding? Every crowd--for everything, regardless of the event--is ridiculously large here. The great part about this one was it was right outside of the McDonald's...which, it turns out, was in the opposite direction of the Pizza Hut from the hotel. So guess what we had for dinner? You got it! The boy had his first taste of Americana...sort of. Chicken McNuggets and fries. Loved 'em!

And he was asleep before we got back to the hotel. 5:45pm until a little after 6:00am.

Can't take him anywhere...break a bowl, poop on the furniture...

Today was a "down" day for the group. No excursions, tourist- or adoption-related. Just plenty of quality time with the kiddos. And boy, did Caden decide to make that quality time memorable for us!

He started by breaking a bowl at breakfast. Should've seen that one coming. He likes to throw things...I just thought that maybe the Apple Jacks would keep him occupied enough. Guess I was wrong. As soon as I got up to get my breakfast and turned my back, I heard a crash. All I could do was close my eyes and start aplogizing profusely to the service staff in the restaurant at the hotel. I was trying to avoid having him eat directly off of the high-chair tray, even after it had been wiped down with sanitizing wipes...but I think we're just going to have to bite the bullet.

He took a nice nap shortly after breakfast. Three solid hours. So dad got a good nap in, as well. I wasn't particularly tired, but sleep when you can get it, right?

After the nap, I took Caden up to the child "play room" in the hotel. It was somewhat underwhelming, but kept Caden occupied for a good hour or so. He was kind enough to poop right after we got there. The boy has impeccable timing when it comes to these things (more on that later). Luckily, no one else was in the room, so I was able to change him and he was able to keep playing. No changing facilities in China. That's one of the biggest inconveniences we've run into. That and the non-potable water.

And yes, the anti-bacterial wipes were put to great use following the play room time.


We spoke with Yisha, our CCAI rep here in Zhengzhou, and she has arranged for a trip to the Wal-Mart shopping center for us to find umbrella strollers, baby items, etc. Just a couple more things required and we'll be set. We're burning through water like crazy. One of the by-products of not being able to ingest the water from the taps here. We've been through nearly a case of bottled water in just one day.

For dinner, we decided to go to the noodle shop next door again. The first thing we saw was an old American man barking Chinese at the staff, we presume paying his bill. He stopped in the middle of his Mandarin and said "Hello, how are you today." Talk about surreal.

Mom went with something a little lighter and we used those for Caden's dinner, as well. I had noodles with mutton. That's right. Mutton. It was pretty good. Like mild beef. Very tender. Would've been a totally uneventful dinner (except for the old man) had Caden not leaned to the side, looked the other direction, squinted really hard, and grunted. We knew that meant trouble...but we had no idea just how much. Suffice it to say, I had to carry him out in front of me to our hotel next door, strip him down, and throw him in the shower. Sometimes, that's all you can do when confronted with a mess of that magnitude. Add in the fact that changing Caden's diaper is a two-man job under the best circumstances, and it was just the best course of action.



Not a lot of pictures from today. I did find some pictures on Mom's camera that I thought I'd include:

It's Official!!!

Today was the day we went back to the registration office where we had "Gotcha Day" and received our official adoption certificates. It's official! The adoption is final! At least in the eyes of the Chinese government anyway. Not sure about the US government, but I think for them, as well...the paperwork just has to catch up to them.




It was a very happy time for all the other families. Luckily, it appeared that all the other kids had a good night last night--their first night in their new families. Caden slept like a log from roughly 5:00pm until 6:15am. He decides to take naps at the most inopportune times.




This was him sleeping at the notary's office. He fell asleep on the bus, about 5 minutes before we got there. Slept through us walking up 6 flights of stairs (no elevator). Slept through me handing him to Mom. Slept through her handing him back to me. Slept through getting our picture taken with the notary (sorry...don't have that picture for some reason). Slept through 4 flights of stairs on the way down...until some nice man decided we all needed to hear his side of the cell phone conversation a few flights up. I guess some things (cell phone rudeness) are universal...

At the notary's office, there was a flurry of paperwork signage, just as you would expect. We had to put our complete trust in Yisha, our CCAI rep, as she was telling us where to sign and what to write and where to date the forms...they were all in Chinese. Whatever it takes to bring those precious little guys/girls home...


Next was back to the room for some "rest." I put that in quotes, because Caden has no idea what that means when he's not sleeping. The boy goes full-speed, all the time. Gets into EVERYTHING. I really hope A's got the house child-proofed before I get back, or else we're going to find him in a pile of dishwasher soap, with a lighter in one hand and balancing dishes on the end of a butcher knife with the other.

We decided to hit the noodle shop in the hotel next door for lunch. Caden loved it, eating like a horse as always. I thought it was really good, as well, but it didn't sit too well with Mom. She was down for the count and unable to go on the afternoon's excursion.




After our "rest," we went on a shopping excursion to the Lotus shopping center. It's like an upscale Wal-Mart. No photos from inside...I was too focused on getting the stuff we needed: diapers (the boy's going through 5-6 a day, easily), water (we're all going through much more than the hotel provides), rice cereal, spoons, bottles, laundry detergent (hotel laundry is outrageously expensive), plus some little bread treats that Caden is fond of (thank you Yisha for checking with LOCC on that). I think we're set for the next several days. But the ride there and back was a little scary...



Tomorrow, if the weather breaks (it was raining this afternoon), a trip to the park. I'm sure there will be great pics from that.