The End and The Beginning

This is the end of my China blog, but I started a new one at justaylor.blogspot.com !! Enjoy :D

Goodbye, China!

The Winders (6) are leaving China in about 6 hours and I can't wait to get home!! See you guys soon!!

Ahhh, Starbucks - Sweet Escape

Why we haven't gone to this Starbucks more often I'm not sure, but tonight it was wonderful. It's only a block away, behind our hotel, and away from the crowded streets and busy shops. Other than the order being lost in translation, it was relaxing and provided some peace away from the hotel.

The rest of today was filled with more shopping, lunch from 7-11 and more Pizza from Papa John's. It's been a lazy past couple days and I can't wait to get home. Tomorrow we have our Consulate Appointment and then we swear Teddi in as a citizen of the US. Then we wake up Friday morning at 4am and get on our way to Home Sweet Home.

Thank you God for our time here and our sweet little Teddi; please bless our last day, and help us get home safely! :D

Taylor

OH, YES!!!!!! THRILLS OF EXCITEMENT!!!!!! 16 Blocks is coming on next on Star Movies!!!
I'm Out!

Update: movie was fantastic!! And we just went to 7-11 (great trip-ask me about it later) and I got some Mochi Ice , Ube flavor!! It was ube-delicious!! ha, ha!!

(It's sweet potato ice cream wrapped in some kind of gummi-dough.)

These are a few of my favorite things...

"Olympic Mascots"
I am so intrigued by these little guys and the significance behind them.

"Playing Cards"

The ease of life here- playing hackeysack, shuttlecock, and cards- its so relaxed.

"Rain in GuangZhou"

Even though it poured while we were walking and we had no umbrella, it was beautiful. :)

"Kids on A Rope"

They make sure all of the school children get their daily exercise.

"Me by Brogan"

Not just me, but Brogan's photography. : )

"Christian Fellowship"

We went to Jordan's place today, and as my mom, shopped Brady and I talked to Jordan about Chinese language and grammer, different cities around the area, and different cultural customs. Just simple conversation between a nice Chinese man and two American kids. He told my mom that he liked talking to her kids, "they are very cool"! My mom asked if he was a Christian (which she knew he was from what other people had told her), and after he said yes, my mom said the that she was also, and you should have seen his face light up! He quickly shook her hand and then hugged her. He turned to me and asked if I was also, and as I said yes, he quickly shook my hand, too! He asked Brady, also and gave the same response. This man was more excited about Christ than I have seen anyone in a long time. He told us his testimony in as best English as he could- he was ten, went to his math tutors house, and liked the music that was playing. His math teacher invited him to church where the sister there would play a lot of music for him on piano. It was great fellowship!

These are a few of my favorite things in China!

~

A quick update of our third to last day in China-

Teddi had her medical exam today, got her passport, and we finished up some more paperwork. She is doing great!

We shopped a lot more today finishing off our Yuan before we head home, and trying to hit every shop around. I love all the little shops here and all the shopkeepers are so excited to talk to the adoptive families (and so excited to sell us their stuff which is not my favorite.) We also, had more tea at Dong's but this time my dad made it - he is a "master" now!

We ate at a really nice Italian restaurant tonight. They had napkins and ice- rare items in China! The food was delicious, the setting calm, and best of all Teddi was calm (-er than she has been).

I can't wait to get home. I miss you people over there! Only two more days left in China!

See you soon!

Taylor

LONG DAY!

Long day.

Very tired.

Quick post:

Rode Subway.

Shopped Carrefour:

Ikea-type mall.

Heavy Shopping.

Pouring Rain.

Ate KFC.

Long walk.

Delicious dinner-

Cow & Bridge:

"Rice with Seafood in Pineapple"

-yucky tentacles. :P

More shopping. :)

Olympic Mascots!

Facebook chat,

Blog post,

Goodnight!!

Three pics:

Dinner with Dong

Dinner was amazing tonight! Probably the best food we’ve had the whole time we’ve been here! Dong and his gang cooked for us and the Johnson family and we all ate in his shop. They told us it was ordinary Chinese food, nothing special, just foods that they eat often. We had noodles, spicy noodles with beef, rice, sweet potato leaves, and potatoes with chicken. It was good to have some simple Chinese food that tasted good, and to be in a calm, friendly setting. The only down part about dinner was the chicken in the potatoes- not only were their pieces of chicken, but also a whole chicken foot, toenails and all! Aaaah!

It was quite daring of me to even eat from the same dish (I only ate the potatoes), but I wouldn’t even think of eating the chicken foot, all though they are quite popular here. Dong said that pig feet are even better.

After dinner we had more tea- so delightful! -flower tea-

The rest of the day was good too. As Dong said, we had a “lazy day”. We actually went to church this morning at Shamian Christ Church. They have a Chinese-English service
at 11.It was a different kind of church experience… a very small building with too many people, some very loud Chinese then English singing, constant Chinese chatter in the few pews behind us, a very hyper little boy eating seaweed in front of us, and Teddi beside me who couldn’t sit still for even a second. It was actually kind of fun to watch the little boy open his seaweed snacks and shove the whole thing into his mouth, over and over again. Teddi had a sticker book and within a couple minutes, my entire left hand was covered in Disney princess stickers. We did sing Here I Am to Worship which was good, and I picked up part of the very long sermon about the Holy Spirit. Oh, and it stormed like crazy through the service, too. We were reading John 16:8 and there was a huge boom of thunder as they read it out loud.

Mmmm, only 5 days left! I’m going to be happy to go home, but I am certainly going to miss some things here, like hangin out at Dong’s drinking great Chinese tea!

Looking forward to another lazy day tomorrow!

Love, peace, and chicken grease,

Taylor

Picture Day

Saturday= mmmmm, lovely : )

We had a late breakfast- today's music was JT and Britney Spears.

We went to the park today and there was a massive group of people taking pictures. Some were taking casual pictures of people and kids at the park and some were dressed up and modeling in front of very large cameras. It seemed like what might be a photography club's park photo day or something. It was very interesting. A lot of girls were also taking pictures of Brogan. They thought he was quite adorable! Brogan was incredibly shy and did his best to ignore them.

-all these people were taking pictures of Brogan, and that was just one occassion-

- some girls dressed up -

Not much else happened- which is a good thing, just took a lot of pictures.

We had Lucy's again for dinner. I had sweet and sour chicken again, but mixed it up with a Shirly Temple instead of the usual Sprite.

I'm super excited about tomorrow- we get to go to church! Yay God! I miss church a lot. I'll let you know how it is tomorrow.

Until then, goodnight!

Taylor

Oh yeah- and I watched the Spurs lose in Chinese after breakfast.

and Brady and I are playing a game that lasts the entire trip, the score is 8-7, my lead.

An assortment of pictures from today:

-another wedding car decorated in a bazillion fresh roses-

-the school, it's my favorite-

-Brady chillaxin at dinner-