A bit of Nanchang

We can't post anything without a picture of the girl you want to see! I'm editing to add that I showed a picture of Sarah to Tiffanie (you'll find out later who this is in this post). She said Sarah has large ears which in Chinese culture "means" she will have good fortune and a happy life. I hope it is true although I don't think her ears are particularly large. She does have a bit of the "Steffens earlobes" though!

I figured I'd take some of the quiet going on around here to go back and fill in things around here. It is about 4:30 in the morning (1:30 p.m. your time) and I can't sleep anymore. Brent and Sarah are snoring peacefully in the background. Sarah has not moved since we put her to bed. So far she is a great little sleeper - we'll see about naps!

Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi province which is where Sarah was born. Brent and I have spent some time talking with two of the shop owners around the corner from the hotel. I'm going to take a picture of her store later today if I get a chance. I believe the man's name is Jack (I can't remember) but he is so nice and helpful. He is always smiling and friendly when we come in. He and Brent had a conversation yesterday about the cost of housing. Brent said he told him an apartment that is about 1000 sq feet is about $85 thousand dollars. (I'll reconfirm with Brent later!) Tiffanie is the owner of the shop and speaks English very well. She said she went to the university here and learns English from the teachers that come in from the States. She says it is hard to learn English because they are mostly practicing with each other and no one is correcting their mistakes. When she heard that I used to teach school she said I should come live in Nanchang for a few months and teach the people here how to speak English. I'm not sure we are ready to do that!

The shop is small and has a lot of little knick-knacks in it. They have some beautiful tea sets that I'm thinking of picking up for the girls to have a tea party in the future. Jiangxi is known for it's porcelain. They also have some jade pieces - I've noticed many of the young girls and women wear jade pendants - I picked a monkey one up for Hannah a few days ago. The shop also has someone make traditional clothing. You pick out the silk pattern you want, tell them the size and the next day you have an outfit that was made just for you. I picked out a gold material with flowers in shades of pink and red for Sarah. The outfit consists of a dress, hat and shoes that are all made from the same material. I saw the dress and hat yesterday, the shoes weren't ready yet. I was going to pick them up yesterday afternoon but got a little busy with a cute little girl! I also picked material for a dress for Hannah that is very complementary to Sarah's dress - gold material with pink flowers. I opted not to get the hat and shoes for Hannah because I just wasn't sure they would fit her. I can't wait to get their pictures taken!

They also find adoptive children's finding ads. These are ads in the newspaper that the orphanages must put out when a child is found. It shows a small picture of the baby when she was found and gives a little information about her. We could have picked Sarah's up yesterday, but again... a little busy! We will stop by this afternoon and pick up the dresses and the ad.

The traffic here is incredible. Not that there is a lot of it - especially in a city this size (4.5-5 million people and it is considered a small city!) The roadways are fairly new and are similar to our interstates and highway system but not many cars on it. The street outside our hotel is very wide (I'll post a picture) and has one light on the corner. There are large city buses, taxis, cars, motorcycles, little carts being pulled by motorcycles, bikes and pedestrians all vying for the same bit of space. They just go. It is hard to explain the traffic patterns here - if there is a pattern! The people seem to obey the "rules of the road" but with their own rules along with it. If they want to go they go, no hesitation, no flinching, no looking both ways and proceeding with care - just go. Pedestrians (us) have to be careful and quick. No issues so far!

The weather is hot and humid. It felt about 105 yesterday afternoon but it wasn't like at home where it is hot and you can deal with it. The sweat never evaporated because of the humidity. I think the temperature reached in the upper 80's to mid 90's with very high humidity. We have been trying to drink lots of water! My hair is frizzy and curly, Brent's is curlier than normal and he forgot his hair gel.

The smell here is different. I'm not sure how to describe it at all. There is a lot of exhaust - I don't think they have emissions testing here. I was so little when we were in NYC the last time but when I first stepped outside that was the memory I had - the dirty "street" smell. Trash? People? Cars? I'm not sure but not a smell I'm used to. The streets themselves look clean but the sidewalks are grimy, the alley's are filled with debris and "stuff". We are staying in a very poor city.

We had to find a bank today to get some money exchanged. The rate right now is $1USD = $6.75RMB. Our hotel will only do $300USD per day and for today we needed some of the government fees changed that were a bit more. Thank goodness for Tiffanie because we never would have found the bank without her help. Brent and I wandered for about a mile before we back tracked to Tiffanie's and asked her where it was. She wrote it down in Chinese and said to show it to someone on the street and they would help us. She told us the general area of where it was - between the market (an experience I'll tell about another time) and the walking street (a wide street with shops along the sides like an outside mall where no vehicles are allowed - very nice! We are going to go back there later this week maybe with Betsy and her sister Katie and little Gracie) We happened to walk right by it several times. Finally I went into a little bakery type store and asked one of the girls there where it was. It was right next store but we would have NEVER known! The girl indicated we should go up some narrow, dark, smelly stairs. It was a little scary - I didn't want to go first but I didn't want to go after Brent either! We didn't have any reason to be nervous because up at the top (it was very run down and dark up there too) to the left was a wide room with an officer, people sitting in chairs and windows like a bank. I went to the officer, showed him Tiffanie's handwriting and he found someone to speak to us. We were in and out of there in about 15 minutes. One of the other ladies from our group showed up as we were finishing at the window so we waited for her and walked out together.
Some pictures of the area around us: these are some of the buildings we can see from the windows in the hotel. They are run down and dirty.

We are going to walk down to this pavillion some time this week when we get a break. It costs about 50RMB ($7.50) to go in and walk around. I will post more when we do. It looks like a beautiful place.
This is the wide intersection on the corner outside our hotel. There is a series of tunnels that go underneath it that you can cross to the other side through. Brent and I ventured through the other morning - very smelly (think urine) but empty except for one lone man sitting in a living room chair with a room fan plugged in infront of him. I didn't feel comfortable taking a picture of him but it was a sight! I like to stand by our window and watch this corner - it is frightening what the drivers and pedestrians do! Yes, people cross this street instead of going into the tunnels and they stand in the middle if there is traffic and wait. The cars and busses and motorcycles come so close to them (within inches!) and they never seem to flinch or jump out of the way. It is incredible and very scary! I tried to take a video of it using my camera but I didn't get anything indicative of what I watch.

Just a sign I found amusing: Yes, please wear a suit - no skinny dipping in public! (The pool isn't very "clean" looking. It is hazy and cloudy - not something I would go in anyway! We haven't seen anyone up there but the view of the city is incredible!)

Overall, we feel very safe here. Even with the "scary" alley's and such. We just steer clear of them. We have wandered the streets in areas I'm not sure see many foreigners. The little girls are intriged by me and want to talk to us but are so far shy. Tiffanie said they just don't see a lot of American's here (just the families that come through adopting and in the grand scheme of things here we aren't a lot of us.) People stare and are curious but I don't feel in any danger of being hurt in any way. I'll post more tonight (for us)or in the morning again.