Tuesday FunDay

Tuesday we had nothing scheduled for the adoption, so we could do whatever we wanted.  We did homework after breakfast.  Even Zirong worked on a preschool workbook, tracing the letter A, writing numbers up to 30, and doing some easy connect the dots.

With homework done by 10:30 AM, we walked over to the Muslim Street and browsed the shops to kill time before eating lunch there.  Eric and I tried something new - having our feet nibbled on by fish.  I'm not sure if it is supposed to feel good or clean your feet or what, but how could we say no for $1.50 for 10 minutes?  It was insanely ticklish for the first 5 minutes, but then it felt okay.


Next up was lunch - we ate in the Muslim food street again - so tasty and cheap!  We had a couple cups of this amazing tasty tofu - see photo below on the left.  We also had a couple cups of delicious potatoes - small potatoes that boil in water (oil?) and then are fried on the spot with crazy tasty spices - Szechuan peppercorn, cumin, garlic, etc.  Lian is eating these in the photo.  Finished this feast off with a "Zhongguo Hanbaobao" - Chinese Hamburger.  The bun is a special kind of unleavened bread we've only seen in the muslim market, filled with chopped beef that simmers in an enormous crockpot.  All this was consumed while standing (or squatting) in the market.



After filling our bellies, we decided to try out the subway system.  China really doesn't have playgrounds like we have in the US, so small amusement parks have to fill the bill.  Most of the larger parks (not parks like we think - the green areas are fenced off and inaccessible - but still a break from the congestion and traffic) have amusement areas with dumpy carnival rides.  Today we went to Revolution Park.  We no longer fit into 1 taxicab, and the subway system is cheap and appeared easy to navigate, so we gave that a go.  $1.50 got our entire family on the subway!  It was pretty easy, and that even included changing between lines.  My point of pride was that I bought our subway tickets using the automated machine by reading the Mandarin on the screen.  Afterwards, Medora noticed the "English" button at the bottom, but I was quite proud that I could get by enough in Mandarin to work the machine.

The park was fun.  We had ice cream - Eric and I tried "Sweet Corn".  The kids went into a large bouncy house and tore around like crazy for 30 minutes.  Good news that we didn't witness any issues with Zirong's exercise tolerance - no blue lips, wheezing, light headedness, etc.  Hope that bodes well for her heart condition!  We also got a bubble wand and bubble juice, which was fun.  Zirong was enjoying clapping her hands to pop the bubbles, but had a couple squirt soap in her eyes.  Poor kiddo!

As we walked the park, we saw all sorts of activities.  There were groups dancing, doing taichi, others doing karaoke in the park, and my favorite - people writing using water on the pavement.

Then we came up on a small pond with rental boats ... and rental inflatable tubes.  Think of the classic hamster ball, but shaped more like a can of soda laying on its side.  Medora, Lian, and Harmony piled in and went to town.  They would all run together and get it spinning, then be unable to keep up and get tossed around.  They had so much fun!  They gathered quite a crowd watching them out on the pond, and soon 2 tweenage boys had rented one of these inflatables too.  A battle ensued between our girls and the boys, each trying to push the other's inflatable.  The Peltier girls crushed 'em.  :)  Eric has some good video - we'll have to get that off the GoPro and put it online.

The inflatable rental turned out to be for 20 minutes.  Amazingly, Zirong sat quietly the entire time watching the jiejies (big sisters).  Once they got out of the inflatable and had their socks and shoes back on, Zirong took Eric's hand and said "Baba, zou ba" - "Dad, let's go".  Pretty amazing patience!!!!

Our return on the subway coincided with rush hour.  CRAZY NUMBERS OF PEOPLE!!!  Insanity.  Bonus points - we didn't lose anybody. 

Our travels today gave us lots of opportunity to observe Zirong's beloved buses and motorcycles, and several times today she spontaneously added the English words "bus" and "motorcycle" after their Mandarin words, as in, she would point to a bus and say "gong gong qi che bus" or "mo tuo che motorcycle".   So that's a good start!!!

And a shout out to Medora, Lian, and Harmony - all 3 are being *amazing* jiejies (big sisters).  Patient, tolerant, helpful - such great kids.