monday afternoon, we all piled into a cab and headed to a train depot in kowloon to catch the westbound train into guangzhou. the plan was for us to spend two days in the area near josh's work, and then the afternoon of the second day, we'd head into the countryside to a resort where we'd spend a couple more nights/few more days.
the first place we stayed was in a hotel josh typically stays at when he works in GZ. the room was spacious (almost the same size as the happy valley apartment), but it did not have a sleeper sofa, so we asked for a cot figuring we'd put one kid on the couch and the other on the cot. little did we know that the cot was going to be a crib that q would have fit comfortably when he was about 9 months old. surprisingly, he loved it and slept well in it despite the fact he could not extend his legs fully.
the weather did not cooperate with us, and in fact was so bad at times that we contemplated canceling the remainder of our trip. both mornings in the first hotel, the weather was so terrible that we basically could not see out our window. both days it cleared around 11. the first day, tuesday, that worked out fantastically. the kids and headed to a nearby zoo and had an absolute ball. thanks to a woman in josh's office, we had a booklet of cheat sheets we could use to show the taxi driver where we wanted to go (the sheets gave our requests in english and in mandarin)...genius. the zoo was very large and there was a lot to look at and do, so we spent a few hours there. after a little bit of rest at the hotel, we headed out once again to meet up with josh at his office and to join some of his officemates for dinner at a restaurant that also looks like a pet store. going through the "pet store" part to pick our dinner was sad and not really fun. the meal was very tasty, though, and josh's officemates were gracious and friendly.
on wednesday, the weather again started out bad and again cleared around 11, but since we had only a couple hours until it would be time to check out and head to the resort, we just hung around the hotel room. this was slightly painful, but we all survived.
upon arriving at the resort, we were surprised to find that our family suite was much smaller than the room near josh's work, and offered NO privacy. we basically had a gigantic sleepover with the kids. considering we are not a co-sleeping family, this was not a rousing success. there were late nights, no naps, and some tired cranky people by friday. in the mean time, though, we had a ball. the first night, we went to a circus at the resort. it was much more cirque du soleil than barnum and bailey...and it was really cool. the next day, we headed out to a safari park...this park was HUGE. it took us more than four hours to get through it, and i am pretty sure we still did not see everything. in the evening both wednesday and thursday, we headed to the hotel pool to give the water babies some fun exercise. on friday, we were all completely knackered and didn't have much adventure left in us...this, combined with a noon checkout time meant that we kept the entertainment limited to the hotel pool.
my first impression of china/GZ is that i like it... a lot...and i finally understand why other expat friends who have lived in china (and not in HK) have told me how easy we have it in HK. getting around was a bit of a challenge. being an "exhibit" was tiring. overall, though, i really liked the feel of GZ and look forward to going back and exploring more. the zoo that we spent hours in...we didn't even scratch the surface, so i look forward to going again. i also would like to check out the interesting shops around where we were staying. unfortunately, there were no playgrounds or other kid areas near that hotel (besides the zoo), but i am sure we could find something interesting to do.
the week's outtakes were mostly about being different. we got stared at a lot. we had people sneaking up on us to take pictures...we had people pretending to take pictures of one thing while they were actually taking pictures of us, and we had people just flat out request to take pictures of or with the kids. everyone we encountered in this way was friendly, but the kids did tire of it pretty quickly. the scariest outtake, by far, was quinn nearly falling off the balcony on our room at the resort. after he threw a toy off the balcony, he was on close supervision (after a timeout from it). we turned our heads for just a couple seconds only to hear livie SHRIEKING and turning to see quinn with 3/4 of his body dangling five stories up. i don't ever want to feel that feeling again. the balcony was not climeable, but he found a way to wedge himself under the railing...and fit most of himself through it before livie alerted us. again, it was incredibly scary.
the most unexpected result of this trip was my finding myself feeling at home in hong kong. i have not felt at home here, but returning to our apartment and our "normal" life after a few days away has made this transition for me. coming home to our attentive (meaning DEMANDING) cat, la fu/waffle has cemented this, too. if you are not a pet person, this won't make any sense, but if you are it will...having a fur baby to come home to really makes a house feel like a home...not just a place you stay, but a place you are invested in. i missed our crazy cat terribly while we were gone, and i was thrilled to get back to him and listen to him yowl at us for HOURS (i think he was scolding us for being gone). he yowled at us for so long that he lost his voice for a few hours. he's back to his normal self this afternoon...i think he feels more secure and that we're not going to leave him again. i don't know what we're going to do with him when we return to texas for several weeks!
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