Dad here reporting from the field…
Wednesday was a sightseeing day. We visited a local Park along the River. The kids enjoyed some time in the “Sand Beach” area. It was more a hard packed “Dirt Beach” than a sand beach. That didn’t seem to matter to them. They brought a few pounds of the beach back to the room with them on their shoes! There was a long Pagoda and a few sculptures as well – all photo ops for us. The kids found a large sculpture along the river walk (a sort of Cat/Urn/Bowl combination) and all peered in together, hoping to see something culturally significant. Instead they were treated to two empty wine bottles, a handful of discarded cigarette boxes and a bunch of other trash – a bit of a letdown.
Dinner was another Papa John’s Pizza Party. Dylan again finished off most of the hot green peppers that came in the pizza boxes. He also won the water drinking contest that night – to put out the fire!
On the next morning, we assembled in the lobby at 10AM for our visit to the Shanxi Museum. A few moments before we left, we had some trouble (the first trouble in FIVE adoption trips to China and countless hotels) with our safe. The combination we used didn’t seem to work – and the safe timed out for 5 minutes after 3 wrong guesses. We left the hotel, hoping that we could fix this later. Just our luck, the museum insisted on having everyone present their passports for their tickets. As everyone else piled into the van, I ran upstairs to see if I could get the safe to cooperate. No luck. I came back down to the lobby to ask Maggie’s assistance with our little problem. The front desk staff asked us to go back to the room to wait for help. We were expecting a Manager or Assistant Manager to help, however we were surprised to see our Maid arrive. I thought she was going to apologize and explain that the Manager would be along shortly. Instead, she quietly knelt down in front of the safe, held her hand over the keyboard to shield it from our curious eyes, and keyed in a code. The safe beeped twice then swung open. She stepped away and asked “OK?” Hmmmm…
I was a bit conflicted. Sure, I was happy that we were able to access our safe, and we could visit the museum with everyone else. But on the other hand…”THE MAID?!?!” I sure do hope that the Hotel did a good job of pre screening their employees? Yin…Yang.
The Museum was really interesting, despite our disturbing nearly everyone in the place with our boisterous son, handing him from Mom to Dad and back again dozens of times. The building was a huge stone structure enclosing four floors of artifacts and exhibits. We saw most everything in the building in spite of our situation. I’m still not sure why they needed to see passports, since everything seemed secured behind glass in temperature and humidity controlled cases. The Party says Passports…Passports it is. We even snagged a few souvenirs in the gift shop. They were very reasonably priced, to boot.
We had the afternoon free so we walked the neighborhood around the Shanxi Grand Hotel again – different direction this time. We decided to head North, past the Park where “The Incident” happened, so as not to around further suspicion. We found another Park a bit farther than we’d ventured before. It surrounded a small body of water that could have either been a canal or long man-made lake. Either way, we pretty much sprinted through the park, because Tyler wasn’t as happy as the rest of the team to be walking so much. He is used to being carried at his convenience. As a compromise, I put him on my shoulders for 5-10 minutes at a time then shuffled him to walk with Mom and his brothers/sister for 10 minutes or so. That seemed to work for a while.
We were a bit more adventurous that we’d planned that afternoon, so Dinner time snuck up on us a bit. Making a bit of a big circle we ended up at our friendly local Pizza Hut. We settled it at our “regular” booth! We demolished 2 Large “Garden Veggie” Pizzas, and 3 “Big Texan” Steaks. About halfway through the meal, Tyler told us in his special way that he need to go potty. I took him upstairs to the restroom – squat potties only in this one. We set up for #1, but nothing. He repositioned for #2…or tried to. Things were a bit cramped, and he didn’t want his shorts to get in the way of his doing business. In a moment he was ready – in just shirt & crocs; not easy to do, BTW! He positioned himself over the potty, took a deep breath and…NOTHING. I pleaded as best I could in both languages, but still nothing. I called BS, and we struggled to get put back together. He happily walked out, washed both hands and seemed very pleased with himself as we headed back to the table to finish up. Western toilets…truly a momentous invention – I can’t wait to get home.
We made our way back to the hotel enjoying a really nice walk into the sunset, with full tummies, a pleasant breeze, calm kiddos and comfortable temperatures. Our last night in Taiyuan passed uneventfully, for a change.
Friday, on the other hand…
Where can I start…
We spent the morning touring the local neighborhood to the South this time. We made another great circle with us walking the last few hundred yards down an alley that we’d been down many times before (we bought fresh apples and peaches from one of the local shops a day or two earlier). Near the end, we stopped to have another phone-app conversation with an older man who was obviously curious about our family. After a few moments, we were surrounded by a crowd of about 30 locals, nearly everyone happy snapping our pictures. We complied for a few moments, until the crowd didn’t disperse. They were friendly but persistent. Lisa and Tyler peeled off first. Then the rest of the team politely excused ourselves. In a few morn moments, we were back in the lobby ready for a short rest before we’d need to depart for the airport.
Our final official piece of business was at 1:30 when we hopped in a taxi to go to the hospital to have Tyler’s bandage changed. Maggie wasn’t available so Grace (who met us at the airport when we arrived) went with us. Maggie sent Grace and us to the 5 th Floor, where the doctor’s office was located. Grace checked the door, but it was guarded by a large padlock. She then began a frantic search for someone…anyone who could help. She connected with a nurse, who sent us to the 4th floor. Grace didn’t’ say anything, but I saw the English translation above the doorway where we were directed: “Diabetic Foot Clinic”. I was a bit confused, but didn’t interrupt Grace, as she was working so hard to get someone to help us. After waiting with us for a few minutes, she walked down the hallway in the other direction, gently tapping on each door to see if anyone was home. After a few more minutes, she apparently got lucky, about 30 feet down the hallway.
She had a brief conversation, and motioned for us to join them. She explained to us that it was apparently the doctors’ lunch hour and that they were napping. (Note to self: We have to ask Uncle Mark or Aunt Meg to see what time their nap time is!) We’d need to wait until 3PM (it was about 2PM) until the Doctor was apparently awake enough to remove stitches. BUT, if we would pay the “EMERGENCY FEE” of 85 Yuan (a shade under US $15), the nurse would be happy to take care of things. So, if we paid $15 MORE we could have a LESS qualified person take care of Tyler immediately – makes perfect sense. It was a no brainier…so “we took one for the team” – we’d pay.
But, no receipt, no Treatment! Next stop was the Cashier, back on the Ground Floor. Cash in, receipt out and we were ready to roll. The nurse calmed Tyler enough to remove the bandage and replace it with a fresh piece of gauze. And we were done. After a 10 minute Taxi ride, we were back at the Hotel. Mom had everything packed up and ready to go to the airport, and at 4:30 we departed.
More soon…