Sally and Her Entourage in China: Day Three

Today we had an early morning flight to Chongqing. About 2 1/2 hours. Enough time to finish the Diane Keaton book and start the Carrie Fisher book. One side note to talk about in therapy - why can't I read fiction anymore? I definitely see it as a failing of mine, something to be ashamed about. I take one look at Like Water For Elephants and I'm like, come on Amanda Knox, write your damn story already! Anyway, I digress.

We were herded like cats through the airport, one woman on the trip flipped out because the security people opened her suitcase and found her maple syrup and opened it up, she could be heard screaming to a Chinese guy who clearly spoke no English, "Don't you know that once it's opened it's got to be refrigerated right away?" Um. Anyway, I was curious. Why bring maple syrup to china? And why lose your mind when it is opened? I decided to investigate. i sidled up to her, "Hey, too bad about your maple syrup." tears in her eyes, "Yeah, it's New York State maple Syrup." Me - "Oh man, that's really good stuff. Are you on that maple syrup fast?" She looked at me like I was a two headed monster, like I just said, "I like to eat kittens" and replied, "no, it was a gift for the orphanage." Boy did I feel stupid. Regular people don't drink maple syrup and cayenne pepper for weeks on end to lose weight they will gain back immediately. Regular people bring gifts for their children's orphanage. thoughtful gifts. Gifts from their local region. I wondered if I could perhaps tell the orphanage director our thoughts for where season 8 is heading as a gracious gift from our group. sigh. Perhaps cash will represent the Phelan delegation.

We landed in Chongqing and met up with our new guide, American name Jeff and headed to see the pandas at the Chongqing zoo. It was a beautiful day, 65 degrees and the pandas were about 20 feet away, just chowing down on apples and rolling around like pandas will do. Next we were taken to an art gallery within the zoo where a weird Ichabod Crane dude explained Chinese painting to us and then gave us the opportunity to walk around and buy. Our trip is apparently subsidized by these places - art gallery, jade factory, silk market - so we're always given time to shop.

Sally has made a bff, Lizzie. Lizzie was adopted in may, Sally in march so they were definitely in the orphanage together. They are inseparable and hold hands constantly. The two of them strolling through the zoo hand in hand, whispering, brought tears to my eyes. There's something very powerful about the fact that there are all these Chinese girls. They sit in the back of the bus and certainly aren't marveling over their shared Chineseness, they're just hanging out, but we parents sit up front and marvel.

We went to the Adoption Affairs Bureau and were given the opportunity to look into Sally's file. I was hoping there would be a note from her birth mother, but there wasn't. We did discover that she was found by a policeman. And we got her finding ad (newspaper where abandoned girls are publicized before they able to be put up for adoption). Lizzie, Sally's new friend, is about 4 mug shots down from Sally on the same row.

After a quick trip to McDonald's (yum) we got on the bus for the 2 hour trip to Fuling, the town the orphanage is in. Long day, but a good one. My parents, as usual, troopers, i think they're having a good time. My poor mom had to use a squat potty and kept her dignity intact.