{"id":2654,"date":"2013-07-31T07:41:52","date_gmt":"2013-07-31T14:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/?p=2654"},"modified":"2013-07-31T07:41:52","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T14:41:52","slug":"a-little-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/?p=2654","title":{"rendered":"A little shopping"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday (yes – I’m still playing catch up!), we started late. \u00a0We had been intending to visit New Day Foster Home, but a friend there let us know that most of the staff and children were going to be on a rescheduled field trip. So, we switched dates with them to today.<\/p>\n

After breakfast, we hung out in our room for some quiet playtime with the boys. \u00a0That quickly turned into a long Skype call with our three kids who are at Stephen’s folks house. \u00a0Three weeks is a long time to be away from home, let alone away from our young kids. \u00a0We are ready to see them and they us. Emotions are high on all fronts in that regard and so it was good to talk with them. \u00a0Stephen’s folks are truly heroic for having the kids for this long. \u00a0Love aside, it’s just simply a very long time for anyone to have house guests!<\/p>\n

As it was closer to lunch by the time we finished up with the kids, we went across down the block to McDonald’s for lunch. \u00a0It may seem crazy to go to a fast food chain while in China, but even there can be a cultural excursion. \u00a0Food aside (yes, the menu is different there), we had a father insist on having Isaiah and I sit next to he and his two children. \u00a0His daughter gave Isaiah her Happy Meal toy and the brother was urged to give his sister his. \u00a0I got to practice my meagre Mandarin and we had a little conversation. \u00a0The little girl blushed all the while. \u00a0The table of tween boys next to my folks were fully engrossed in games on their iphones, save one boy who had an older phone and a separate mp3 player. \u00a0They treated him well, but it made me wonder about him. \u00a0His hair wasn’t as neatly trimmed as the other boys and his clothes weren’t as polished. \u00a0Just interesting. \u00a0Stephen and I shared a two person table area with the boys and were smooshed up against a young couple that kept watching us carefully. \u00a0The girls eyes bugged out when I asked Stephen to get me a spoon so that I could break up a fish burger for Isaiah. \u00a0I think she thought I was going to eat it with the spoon! \u00a0Her jaw dropped. \u00a0LOL \u00a0Another table of early twenties girls was filming and videoing us. \u00a0My face is a tad red from the heat every time I leave the hotel, I’m certain I smell terrible and my hair is a wee bit wild from all the humidity, but from all the footage people have taken of me, I’m certain I am the next Chinese Weibo sensation!<\/p>\n

After lunch and our stop at the little water store in the shopping plaza, we went and bought a couple things upstairs. \u00a0It’s a lot like shopping at an indoor market. \u00a0Separate booths and shops, freedom to barter, and lots of, “Lady, Lady! \u00a0Cheapa’ for you!” \u00a0Well, a lot less of that than at the tourist markets, but it seems to have caught on with at least a few of the sellers!<\/p>\n

We walked back to the hotel and the males took naps while Mom and I went in pursuit of a certain shop for some gifts. \u00a0Talk about a shopping street! \u00a0Nanluogu is a lot like Granville Island. \u00a0Not a lot of bargaining here, but a bunch of tourist hovels mixed with a few big Chinese name brands. \u00a0It has a fun feel to it. \u00a0As with every public area, there are always a few sad cases and lots of colour and life. We walked the length of the street and then down towards the drum tower, finally finding another cab to take us back to the hotel.<\/p>\n

The day was finished at the hotel buffet for dinner, courtesy of my folks. I think we all hit a wall yesterday. \u00a0It was fun to get out, but Stephen and I turned a corner and were ready to head home to the kids. \u00a0I enjoyed getting out to see how the lake district had changed since the first time we walked it in 2007.<\/p>\n

And a little eye candy to spice up the blog. \u00a0Isaiah and Samuel, posing as Baba!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1195\"<\/a> \"IMG_1196\"<\/a> \"IMG_1197\"<\/a> \"IMG_1198\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday (yes – I’m still playing catch up!), we started late. \u00a0We had been intending to visit New Day Foster Home, but a friend there let us know that most of the staff and children were going to be on a rescheduled field trip. So, we switched dates with them to today. After breakfast, we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,12,48,29,13,14,23,1],"tags":[63,62,8,72,66,59,61],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2654"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2663,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2654\/revisions\/2663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}