If You Like Eating at McDonald's and Getting Caught in the Rain...

No, this is not Rupert Holmes blogging from China but still us. We had a quiet, uneventful relaxing day today. We ate breakfast at the hotel buffet and then decided to walk to a park just down the street from our hotel. A nice park, nice walking paths, an open air roller skating rink, river with paddle boats, kids peeing on the path, you get the picture. It kind of felt like a time warp and that we were back in the 1970's. We were quite the main attraction...lots of stares and weird looks, especially since Rob was carrying Kendall. A bit uncomfortable to say the least. It was humid as heck so we decided to head back to our hotel and grab some lunch, that famous Chinese food...pizza. Yep, we flew halfway around the world to eat pizza in Zhengzhou. Kendall enjoyed it, eating 3 pieces herself. Heck this kid enjoys anything you put in her mouth. I hope it stays that way. I ordered ice cream for dessert...I guess it was good. I honestly couldn't tell you because she ate the entire 2 scoops by herself. I guess I should mention that the size of the scoops together was about the size of a golf ball. I think I now understand why Chinese people are thin. We put her down for a nap and I stayed with her while Rob and another father decided to walk to Walmart for some drinks. When they got back they called us and asked if we wanted to walk to the McDonalds down the street, maybe 1/2 a mile away. Sure we said, meet you in 15 minutes. Quite the interesting walk I must say. First unusual thing we encountered was a beggar...a child maybe 7 to 8 years old. We couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl, but the kid grabbed Sonya the other adoptive mother with us and would not let go. We tried saying Bu Yao, which means go away but they kept hanging on so I finally reached in my purse and pulled out the smallest denomination of Chinese currency there is. I think it amounts to at the most $.10. They finally left go after I shoved it in their cup. We were told to expect beggars, but it was realy sad to see a kid doing that. When we got to McDonalds they had picture menus so we ordered and sat down to eat. The sky began to darken and we decided we had better get back to the hotel. I grabbed Kendall's food and carried it along with me, expecting to feed her in our hotel room. About halfway back Lance (the other adoptive father) said "Was that a raindrop?" Yep, it was more than a raindrop. It was a deluge. Picture this..2 American families running down the heavily traveled street one carrying a toddler who is screaming because she does not like being wet (us) and the other carrying a baby boy in a front pack and two mothers running right along side of them. The absurdity of it all hit us as we walked into the Crown Plaza Hotel soaked to the bone, laughing our heads off, leaving a dripping trail across the beautiful lobby. I'm not an expert on Chinese by any means, but I'm sure the comment "Stupid Americans...don't you know what an umbrella is?" was in there somewhere by the staff. Miss Kendall stopped crying once we got her dried off and changed and she has been quite the little ham ever since. She's currently modeling both her and my sunglasses. Her paperwork nailed it when they said she was very charming. Boy they were dead on. She's enjoying her Dora puzzle from Grandma, her toy phone and bath ducks that we bought her at Walmart and she loves her doll and My Little Pony and is quite adept at using a brush to comb the pony's hair. Quite interesting considering she has basically almost a buzz cut and has probably never had very long hair in her life. She would like to say something to all of you out in blog land. Kendall says "vmmmmbl;gg/ hhfp9 cv'p96rdcc,m. m vvvvv jk./kjjl;lhhbhh" I'm not quite sure what it says, but I'm sure it is Chinese for "I can't wait to meet everyone! Until tomorrow.