October 29

Today was another good day. Natalie wasn't quite as fussy today (as long as she was with Karen). She did have trouble sleeping.

In the morning, we went shopping. We went out looking for extra luggage for the flight home and some more clothes, bottles and such for Natalie. It seems she won't eat out of an American baby bottle. Because once we switched her over to a Chinese baby bottle she drank like crazy.

I think it's because the Chinese add rice cereal to their formula and gets to thick or doesn't totally dissolve. Then it doesn't flow through the nipples of the American bottle nipples. One of the bottles we bought, which she loves, has a small filter between the lid and the bottle. The filter is plastic and looks quite a bit like the old metal filters in the older coffee pots or percalators in the states. OK, having bored everyone with the intricicies of Chinese baby bottles, on to the fun stuff.

In the evening, we went and watched the Chongqing Opera. It was very fascinating. It was outoors, with a second-story stage, tables set up to drink tea and watch. The audience area was set up around the stage like an old Shakespearean stage.

They had a couple of skits, some amazing dancing, beautiful costumes, a contortionest that did this really amazing things with a burning candle-type lamp on his head and they did this dance were the main dancers did this amazing mask-changing act that was hard to fathom how quickly they changed their masks.