Wednesday

More free time today, so after a morning homework session working on the letter A as well as tracing through mazes.  I tried to introduce the concept of basic addition but that wasn't working so I gave it up for now.  :) 

I found a park on the map labeled "Children's Park".  That sounded promising, but wasn't on the subway line.  So we braved the city bus system.  Xi'An's bus system is amazing - 5800 buses running daily - and super cheap.  60 cents to ride anywhere in the city.   Zirong was super excited to go on a real "gong gong qi che bus" - before this, we'd been riding in a private large 15 passenger van for the adoption paperwork trips. 


The park was surprisingly good.  There was a large rock structure for kids to climb on (YAY).



Then we found the ubiquitous amusement park and threw down for a couple of rides.  Quinn's muscles are not developed - due to lack of opportunity, I think, as she's game for running and jumping, but just hasn't had much chance.  Her core and arms are extra weak, so we need to choose rides where she'll be safe.  So she chose this ride and loved it!

Then the three older girls wanted to go on a ride that appeared to spin.  They insisted an adult go on the ride too.  Eric is not good with spinning rides, so I went on with the kids.  This thing was TERRIBLE.  It slowly turned in a circle on an angle, and would then periodically / randomly jolt.  Picture the worst potholed road you can imagine in a car without suspension jerking back and forth between forward and reverse.  Plus, the children were encouraged to stand up and be jolted around.  I seriously thought somebody was going to lose some teeth face planting when it would jerk.  And joy!  They gave us two rides for the price of one!  ZiRong and Eric were watching from the side, and poor ZiRong started crying, silent tears sliding down her cheeks.  She did not want to go on the ride herself - as best we can tell, she thought we were in danger / being hurt.  Poor kiddo.  We cheered her up with another ride on the planes.

On the way out, Eric spotted this exceptional electrical wiring project - man made kudzu:


We also found the Chinese equivalent of a dollar store - everything is 2 yuan (~ 33 cents).  It is near the hotel and we've walked by it many times.  It appears to be open nearly 24x7 - and has a speaker blasting intelligible Mandarin at TOP volume ALL THE TIME.  I would go out of my mind if I worked there.  Finally, we stopped and I could read the sign enough to figure out that it was a dollar-store type deal.  The kids had a blast shopping there.  :)  It had everything from coloring books, to perfume/hair accessories, to household goods like q-tips and kleenex.  ZiRong chose a small dog figurine, Lian chose perfume, Harmony chose a fan and Medora chose bobby pins for her hair.

Then back to the hotel where we met up with the other CCAI family - they are here with a 15 and 13 year old and are adopting a 12 year old.  The kids all get along great.  We went out for dinner, then played games in the lobby - bingo, skip bo, etc.  ZiRong was yawning so Eric took her upstairs to go to bed while I stayed downstairs with the other 3.  We waited a while, thinking ZiRong would be asleep.  Instead, she was upstairs crying, saying she was missing Mama.  More silent tears leaking out of her eyes.  I felt so terrible!  We had no idea she would react that way.  Poor kiddo.  I gave her some hugs and we got her off to sleep.