Cooking the phone and eating puzzles...

These are among the funniest mistranslations that we have had. Kenley does a fabulous job of helping us and Karwen, but occasionally she makes a mistake that causes some funny looks. These are more honest than the cheap offline iphone app that I tried to use in China. That one took a Chinese persons 'Ni Hao' and translated it as 'From the roof'. When I tried speaking to it for Karwen and translating into Chinese she just looked baffled. The dictionary was not too bad though. Google translate is a life-saver - but it also has some odd flaws. It took several tries to get across the concept of digging a hole (to plant a flower) and I never got a good feel for temperature (as in fever). All in all communication is not terribly hard right now. Karwen is extraordinarily expressive with her eyes and is really patient with her slow parents.

One video

After the debacle of trying to use this to post while in country, I was unsure about posting when I got back. But, it is difficult to email pictures and impossible to email videos. So I will be posting some things here. First a video!

This one is sort of for Annie (although I think everyone might enjoy it). I wish I could post the one at the Thai restaurant where they came and sang strange American songs at us, with very clear accents. Afterwards it turned out they did not speak any English at all... very strange. That was the dinner where Kellin ordered the juice with red beans at the bottom (which was really pretty good). Well I might try a few more videos later.

So, I think I fixed the internet...

There were a few baubles today, what with the internet issues and things. I am hoping that I have that part resolved...

We had a fabulous breakfast with a ton of good fruit, fresh watermelon juice, interesting pastries, egg fried rice, noodles etc. There were even steamed dumplings and 1000 year old eggs and some things that we did not really recognize.


Our guide met us at 9 and we went to a hutong, which is a traditional neighborhood with the small streets. There was a house that we could go into and we saw the lucky crickets.  Then we wen tto a silk factory and were blown away. Luckily some of the rugs were too big - it was amazing.

Then we had a strange lunch and were off to Ti An Men Square and the Forbidden City which was the Emperor's palace. It was quite interesting.  We were with a group of people who are also adopting with the same agency. One family had a young boy, about Kolya's age. He and Kolya kept each other very happy and we will be with them all the way to Guangzhou.

Finally got some pictures uploaded. KG and I took a short walk and got some dumplings for a snack. Nobody wanted dinner after our huge meals earlier.  We are now off to bed since we have a long day tomorrow.

We Made it!!!

We have had an exciting time, for sure.  The trip was fine and uneventful. We got to the hotel about 12:30 AM (China time) and were met by the guide service. We slept a bit and just had a really really good and interesting breakfast. We had some trouble getting access to the blog since China has blocked lots of services (twitter, which we don't do and blogger, which we do).  I think we have it worked out now though. I will post pictures later on today.

We Made it!!!

We have had an exciting time, for sure.  The trip was fine and uneventful. We got to the hotel about 12:30 AM (China time) and were met by the guide service. We slept a bit and just had a really really good and interesting breakfast. We had some trouble getting access to the blog since China has blocked lots of services (twitter, which we don't do and blogger, which we do).  I think we have it worked out now though. I will post pictures later on today.

We Made It !!!

We have had an exciting time, for sure.  The trip was fine and uneventful. We got to the hotel about 12:30 AM (China time) and were met by the guide service. We slept a bit and just had a really really good and interesting breakfast. We had some trouble getting access to the blog since China has blocked lots of services (twitter, which we don't do and blogger, which we do).  I think we have it worked out now though. I will post pictures later on today.

On the way!!

Well, we made it past our first security check. Our martial arts instructor (who just bought a new 15 person van) took us to the airport this morning. He had some last minute words of advice (about how to ask for a bathroom etc.).  Now we head to Atlanta, then to Seattle.