Another Amazing day........

Another GREAT day!  We started today with breakfast (as we do everyday, I don't think I've mentioned the amazing breakfast buffets here, and to all my nightshift girls, the coffee is actually a little strong for me), then we went shopping with Ann!  Ann has a business here, sending care packages to your child and/or orphanage.  We ordered 2 care packages through her, one was how we got the photos of Olivia with the ginormous "Birthday" cake.  You can also hire her for about $10/hr to take you shopping.  She knows where to go to get the authentic (real) silk, jade, and pearls for CHEAP!  We were with her for about 3 1/2 hours, actually running after her to keep up......There were four of us adults, all tall with long legs and Ann is probably about 5 ft, maybe less!  We got some really good deals!! I feel a little stupid however, we went to the Jade factory in Beijing and bought something for $28, that was less than $5 today, and these things are real and good quality, they just jack the prices up!  After our fun shopping excercise, we went back to Shamian Island to get a few things we didn't see with Ann, and boy did we feel the effects.  The shop keepers would barely budge on their prices.......:-(  

We were again having a hard time getting a taxi back to the hotel, until a man in a van pulled over and said he would take us for  100RMB (about $15).  This was a bit expensive, since last night was only 24-30 RMB ($4-5), so we tried again to bargain and agreed on 80RMB. Our friends that were with us really needed to get back to the hotel so we decided to pay the extra money.  Well once we were in the van we all felt a little uncomfortable.  The seat I and our friend S was sitting on was not bolted into the floor, so everytime he slammed on the brakes (which is often in China) we, plus the seat went forward......Mike was sitting in the back with Olivia and he was lower than the rest of us and you could see the daylight around the back door.  I was getting a little nervous that we'd hit a bump in the road and he would go flying out the back.....It was actually quite funny.  I was laughing so hard, I was crying!  I thought I might as well laugh, rather than freak out......Another adventure!!

Once we were back at the hotel, we hung out in the room for a little bit, then went to eat Italian with our friends in our group, that I have gotten to know well through our Facebook group.  Dinner was really yummy, I got pasta, and Mike got a fried pork chop that was the size of his plate!   

Before we went to eat Olivia really started to liven up and PLAY.  She was crawling around on the floor and playing with her toys and ME.  It is so neat to see her come out of her shell a little more each day. As we walked back to the hotel after dinner she was getting very tired, so we thought she would go to sleep pretty early.  Well after her bath (which is getting a little better, she only screamed through 3/4 of it tonight....) she started playing.  We were sitting on the bed and she was playing with a brush and with me.  It was adorable.  She was up til about 10pm tonight just laughing and playing, we had to make her calm down to go to sleep.  She loves to play games with us.  When we take something of hers, she laughs and says something like "Wu da", which we think means "mine".  Then tonight we asked her where her koala bear was (in English) and she got down out of my lap, crawled right over to the koala bear, got it, and brought it back to us!  

Told ya she is smart!!! ;-)

 Silly girl! Like what she did with her head band??? :-)

 I bought lots of authentic, silk, Chinese dresses for her as she grows up!  Can't wait to put one on her in the next few days!!

 Our taxi driver (with Ann, not the scary one) got a ticket.  That was a little scary too, he was arguing so much with the police man that the police man was yelling at him to be quiet (I think) and another policeman came over and got right in front of the van, so he couldn't move.....

 This is the pedestrian street, it was a bit crowded.......

 Pearls, pearls, and more pearls........and this was 1 of about 50 shops like this......

 Our "scary" taxi ride.......

Thanking God for another amazing day!!!