day 11

Seems like day 111. Not sure if that is a lucky number or not. 8 is lucky, and 9 means long life. 4 is unlucky, because when you say it, it sounds close to the word “death.” I don’t know why they don’t rename it to something that sounds like “butter” or something.

Two tasks today – doctor visit and paperwork for the consulate appointment. The doctor visit was pretty short, with four stations to visit that took about two minutes each. We went to the ENT guy first since she had had an ear infection. He looked in her ears, mumbled a something that sounded an awful lot like he was concerned about something, then said everything was fine. Good enough for us. She does seem fine, except with teeth starting to poke out about everywhere, she is drooling and trying to chew on anything she gets her little hands on.

Andrea did the paperwork in the afternoon while Clara napped. No big deal, just sign some papers and fork over more cash. Most of the cash forking is done, however. There is a river boat tour tonight, but doesn’t get back until 8:30 and has so-so food, so nobody is going. I think Jason is a little put-out that nobody is going, but that’s an hour or so after Clara usually goes to sleep and kind of pricey. We went to dinner at Lucy’s again, and once again the food was not that good. Andrea doesn’t feel too hot after her fried chicken. She ran on the treadmill that morning, and it was incredibly hard. Another runner from our group was there too, and she had trouble as well. It was the same in Kazakhstan. Will have to take it easy until we get home.  Tomorrow we are going to a pearl market so we’ll see if we can get Clara and Liah some earrings. Liah says she wants a necklace too. I’d like a fake Rolex, but only if I can find one real cheap. The only price I’ve heard to far is 200 RMB, which would be about $30 US. I’m not being cheap, that’s just what stuff costs over here. Little girl dresses go for about $5, but when you start negotiating they’re about $10. But they always find a reason to give us a “special price.”

I’m remembering something Evelyn told us in Nanchang which I didn’t write down at the time but seems noteworthy. China has changed its one child policy somewhat and many can now have two. The reason, according to Evelyn, is that in the next 5 or 10 years China is facing a crisis with its seniors. When girls marry, they become part of the extended family of the husband, and take care of his parents when they are older. Since families can only have one child, that leaves nobody to take care of the parents of a girl, which is part of the reason they want boys so much. So by having two children, I guess they think this will give them a better chance of having a boy to take care of them later.