We made it to Guangzhou

It's been a long time since we've been home, and we're really beginning to miss it. We checked in this afternoon at the infamous White Swan Hotel. It's a beautiful hotel, but our room smells like the last resident was a chain smoker. The smell seems to be fading. We first walked in and saw that our room featured twin beds, and smokers smell, but then we saw the view. Amazing, and that was during the day. At night the shoreline lights up like a Christmas tree. It's quite a sight after seeing Hefei, which is an industrial city, not a tourist place like this.

Hmm. 35 RMB for the Coke Light in the mini-bar. Ouch, that's over $4.00. We went down to a little store on the first floor and bought 2 Coke Lights, and a 1.5 liter of drinking water for 15 RMB (just under $2.00). That's more like it.

Almost everything here is catering to tourists, but we're amongst many, many other adoptive parents. Let's just say that we no longer stand out in a crowd here. We generated some stares in the last city we were in. Sometimes a sense of humor is such a necessity. While we were eating noodles in the hotel restaraunt last night, we actually had a family that stopped and came into the restaraunt to watch us for a minute.

Original Comments from Post

Re: We made it to Guangzhou. By Davin on 2/3/2007 Those lights are super frickin' cool! My motel room Des Moines wanted $4.50 for the bottle of Evian (water) in my room. Less than a week until you're home! Yay! Does the air seem cleaner here than it was in Hefei? Can you get noodles with cheese on them? This morning in St. Paul, it was -13 degrees! Really!

Re: We made it to Guangzhou. By Jim on 2/3/2007 We are watching Turk race his sled in McGregor today, -18 on the ice!!! Have fun in the warmth while you have it.

Re: We made it to Guangzhou. By Ashley Turcotte on 2/3/2007 hi Mary! she is so cute! the veiw is AMAZING! im here at the hotel im mcgregor with joanie, jim, lori, matt, and all the kids! i cant wait to meet her. i hope you have a great time! lots of love, Ashley

Re: We made it to Guangzhou. By Emily on 2/3/2007 The lights are very pretty,does mao like the view? for her b-day through her a noodle party!!!

Re: We made it to Guangzhou. By Ellen, Ariel, Charlie, & Kyra on 2/3/2007 Nice view but Kyra is requesting more pictures of Maggie (she calls her Mangy Mownow - Mangy pronounced like tangy). We're counting down the days until you come home!

Re: We made it to Guangzhou. By alison on 2/3/2007 It's so pretty!!!I'm stuned.

Re: We made it to Guangzhou. By Mom- Joan on 2/4/2007 The top photo is the best smile we've seen yet. New desktop wall-paper for me. Thanks!