Nanchang Day 5 and 6

David and I skipped the local tours the last two days, mostly more shopping excursions to hit the pool to swim with our daughter instead. Our daughter, hah....still get goosebumps that I have a kid now. We did head out with some other couples to the Pizza Hut because there is only so much Chinese food this American gal can handle and I wasn't alone in that thought. Yesterday I decided to splurge and get a massage therapist to come to our room and give me an hour massage for 120 rmb (less than $20). Though the massage itself was wonderful, it wasn't exactly the world's most relaxing experience. The door was knocked on 3 times by our tour guides and housekeeping, the phone rang twice, and Amelie decided to have a blow out diaper for David which resulted in him dry heaving in the bathroom while changing her. The massause and I just started laughing because really...what else can you do. (replacement blogger insert: I would have paid very large amounts of money to see that!!!!!!)

Speaking of um, bodily functions, my daughter pee'd on the potty. Seriously, I am not going to be one of those mom's who updates her FB status everyday with their kid's accomplishments I promise but dude, she is only 8 months old and peed on the flippin potty. She was wearing split pants in her referral pics, so our guide told us the noise to make and how to hold her chunky theighs over the toilet. It actually worked. And speaking of massages, we were told by our guides to NOT use the 4th floor spa. Apparently an adoptive dad several groups ago, who is a very conservitive Christian, found out the hard way (pun intended) that the 4th floor spa offers a happy ending with their massages. The poor guy was traumatized for days. I wonder how many husbands would actually have just gone mum on the situation?
We have a new knickname for Amelie. We call her "Screechy Kitty" of SK for short. The girl sounds exactly like a kitten stuck in a drain when she cries. She has this scratchy and deep little screech that I find endearing but makes poor David want to run to the hills. Last night at dinner the other babies sat in their little highchairs and fed themselves. Nope, not Amelie. I got to eat standing up with her on my hip which the only one she would stop "the screech". Good times.
Off to Guangzhou tomorrow, I know the entire group is ready for a change of scenery. We have cabin fever and could use some boat drinks!

Guangzhou
All I can say is thank goodness we are finally here. We had to leave the hotel in Nanchang at 7:30 am to get to the airport and head to Guangzhou. The airport was fun experience, as in not. We all got to the gate and were feeding and changing our kids when a very kind old gentleman with pretty good English came over to inform us that had we known Mandarin we would have understood that the lady on the loudspeaker was informing us that our gates had changed and would be boarding there in just a few minutes. Fantastic. Of course our new gate was upstairs, and this small airport had an escalator down, but not up. With a little teamwork and alot of sweat we all helped each other drag strollers and luggage and babies up a long flight of stairs. Did I mention no a.c. in the airport? We all looked like we were going to pass out when we got to where we needed to be. An hour later we arrived in Guangzhou. Our little Empress did amazing on her first plane ride, didn't shed a tear. I was in awe. I think she feels bad for making dinner so much fun for us last night. Ok, maybe not. But I am glad that for once she wasn't one of the meltdown kids on the plane!
For those of you not in the China adoption world, everyone who adopts in China has to go through Guangzhou as the American Consolute is here. The hotel, the White Swan or Baby Hotel as the locals call it, sits on the gorgeous Shaiman Island. It is a cross between Naples (Florida) and Savannah. It is surrounded by the Pearl River and there are palm trees everywhere, cafes with tables outside, and parks everywhere. There is even a Starbucks, and very little traffic. It is an oasis in a sea of cars and noise and people and people and more people. A different world from Nanchang. The group went to a really yummy Thai dinner tonight. Options, I love having actual options besides Chinese food I can't identify and near-pizza!
Off to sleep. The wee one has us both looking like the mug shot of Nick Nolte. We have another big day tomorrow, but this time I will start the day right, jump started with a Starbucks Ice Caramel Macchiato!