December 3rd - Medical and Antiques Market

Yikes – what a night – I don’t think that we are winning any awards for the best parenting skills in the world – not even on our floor of the hotel. Haley (and therefore Barb and Andy) did not get a lot of sleep last night. Haley was up every hour or so and was up for good at 5:00am or so.

She was fussy all morning. This morning we went to the medical clinic to get Haley’s checkup for Canadian immigration purposes. A clean bill of health (except for the lingering cold which we, as bad parents, have not been able to get rid of). Her actual weight was 8.5kgs which is relatively normal for North American babies and quite large for Chinese babies at 9 months. The nurse called her “chubby” in her broken English which was fairly obvious to the rest of us.

Haley was not good at the medical clinic but by 11:20am had fallen asleep on the bus and did not wake up until 1:00pm when we went to the “antiques market”. The market was very cold. I’m sure that it was minus 10 or so and windy. Haley was bundled up very well and fell asleep again until almost 4:00pm when it was time to leave. Maybe this keeping her really warm thing is the secret to making her sleep.

The market was very interesting – we got 7 small oil paintings for 210 Yuan (about 32 CDN dollars). The paintings look very similar to a Peter Wyse painting that we paid over $600 for back home – hmmm. Lots of other great deals too but we didn’t buy too much. The haggling is very interesting. Most of the merchants start off at about 5 to 10 times the amount that they will settle for. Lots of fun and easy – calculators are used to negotiate to break the language barrier.

After the market was Haley’s picture for her Canadian Visa and then off to a local restaurant at 6:00pm for more great food. Beer, soft drinks, lots of regular Chinese food and the specialty – Peking Duck – all for 30 Yuan each (about 4 - 5 CDN dollars). Then we just went back to our hotel and hung out with the grandparents – Haley really likes Joyce and Gary – and they are really good with Haley – unlike their inexperienced, but always trying, parents – we will get the hang of it though. She is a great little girl and has a smile that will melt you when you see it – you’ll see. Haley went to bed after her bath and bottle at 10:00pm just as we scheduled for a change.

There are no pictures from today as we forgot the camera. Sorry to all of our faithful subscribers. We will put twice as many pictures on tomorrow as we are off to the Great Wall of China for the day. Take Care.