Free Day in Nanchang

Yesterday was a slightly uneventful day.  It was our first day with the girls without anything required of us.  We are just waiting for paperwork to clear through the province.   So after breakfast we caught a taxi and headed to the people's park.

Taxi rides

Esther rides up front to help her not get sick.

Parks here aren't like our parks -they aren't full of swings and slides.  They are beautiful with gardens but the equipment isn't play equipment - it's for working out on.  Every park has a bunch of gym-like equipment and there are many people working out on it.  It's pretty cool.

Some  men doing Tai Chi.  So cool.

What some of the parks do have is amusement rides.  And since we're new parents once again we spent a small fortune on those rides to entertain the girls.

 Our favorite was actually the cheapest.  For $5 you can rent a little boat for 30 minutes and drive around a pond.  It was relaxing, the sun was finally out, and the only people that could stare at us were the other boaters.  And stare they did.   And take pictures - I guess that is so they could stare at us on their computer monitor too.  But we all took turns driving and it was a pretty good time.

  But it was also where Pearl staged her first tantrum.  When her turn was over we had to peel her from the wheel and she sat and "cried" which was more like a drawn out whine for the next 10 minutes until it was her turn again.  And once we made her get off the boat it started again.  And if we didn't think we were drawing enough attention to ourselves before - she made sure everyone got a good show.  She went limp like a noodle and continued to cry for at least 20 minutes - sliding out of the stroller and onto the ground so that Mike had to carry her.  It was fun.  But it was also a sign that we might be overdoing it a little.  So we headed home - running an errand or two on the walk back to the hotel.  At the grocery store she did it again and lay on the floor by the check-outs.  This was totally bizarre to everyone but we didn't want to give it to much attention.  I did snap one photo. ;)

 Once we got back we used google translate to explain to the girls that if they are not behaving we can not do fun things so swimming was going to have to wait until after some good behavior.   It is really difficult to parent without speaking the same language.  But they understood.  They really seem happiest when we just stick around here so we've decided to stay here at the hotel as much as possible for the next couple days to give them some more time to adjust before heading out again.   Their favorite activity is playing on our phones.  We limit it as much as we can but it gives everyone a nice break sometimes.

Also, our fear that they wouldn't speak the same language didn't prove to be an issue because while Esther speaks a different language at home - throughout China all children learn and speak Mandarin at school.  They are so cute together - I love to hear them call each other little sister(mei mei) and big sister(jie jie).

Pearl showing Esther the images she came with from her life at the orphanage.