November 2

Today, we had a really busy day. It was fun, but really busy.

First, we walked over to the White Swan to take the obligatory "Red Couch" picture. This was really funny. Because we all thought there was this special, coveted, red couch all roped off. Nope, we were fooled. There were a half a dozen well-worn, faded red couches. But, much to our chagrin, no "Official Red Couch." Christine even went and asked the manager. Finally, we selected a red couch and we all still worked like crazy to get all our girls to sit still and took the pictures. Now, I guess we can say we did it just like everybody else that came before us.

Then, we went shopping for what seemed like hours and hours (but was actually only 45 minutes, tops). At nearly every shop, there are ramps for the strollers or trolleys as they are called here in China. Karen had also better get back to Indiana while she can still speak English. While we were entering one of the stores, she turned to me and said, "low ramp for trolley, easy to get up, good shopping," with a Chinese accent. The truly sad thing was that she really and truly was NOT making fun of anyone at all. It's just that everytime we stay away from Indiana for any length of time, she picks up everyone else's accent. You, should hear her after we've spent time with my family in Texas. I swear I'm driving home with my mother talking to me all the way back to Indiana and for a couple of weeks after.

Then, we ate lunch, threw our shopping treasures on the couch, changed Natalie, met up with Karen K., Brig and Christine, caught a van to the local Buddhist Temple to have our babies blessed by a monk. Although, Karen and I are Christian, we still thought it was a beautiful part of Natalie's culture and wanted her to have that experience.

Afterwards, we returned for yes, even more shopping and had dinner with a cousin of Karen's that is working in this area. This was really cool because she hadn't seen him since he was a child. Then we tried to get Natalie to sleep in her crib. This was a HUGE success, NOT. Because she ended up screaming like you would not believe (even though she was sleeping soundly up to that point). So, she ended up in our bed (fell asleep immediately) for about an hour and a half until Karen snuck her back into the crib.