Adoption Day

The day started off with me getting Johnathan breakfast.  Unfortunately, he spilled his milk.  Then our guide, Lilly, picked us up at 8:30 to go to the Civil Affairs Office.  We did all of the paperwork to finish the adoption.  I watched Johnathan while Mommy and Daddy finished the process.  Johnathan ran away once and pinned me to the wall.  Then we got back in the car and headed up to the observatory on Purple Mountain.

The drive up took a while as the road was crowded with people.  When we got to the top we purchased tickets and walked in.  We saw one of the old telescopes and a bunch of pictures about the buildings.  One of the pictures had Albert Einstein.  We also got to see some of the ancient astronomy instruments.  Towards the end of our visit we went up on a big building and saw the whole city beneath us.  One of the interesting things was the cable car ride going to the top of the mountain.  Lilly, told us that the cable card ride took 50 minutes.

After driving down from the observatory, we had lunch at a restaurant that served duck.  Mommy was very happy with the food, but I was not.  We had duck "tacos" with celery dipped in plum sauce.  Following lunch we went back to the hotel and took naps.

We ended the day with a walk outside.  We tried to take a boat ride but were not able to work it out.  However, we enjoyed the walk through the canal area.

Getting Johnathan

So of course in the morning we woke up and got breakfast.  Then we went upstairs again for like 8 minutes to get ready to go to the stores.  We went to a pharmacy and a bank.  We had to go to the pharmacy because I hurt my ankle.  We went to the Aqua City and saw a water show.  There was lights in the thing that projected the water and it made the water look colored.  It was cool.  When we got back we had like another 8 minutes before we had to go on the 20 minute drive to go to the place where we got Johnathan.
When we got there Johnathan was already there.  He looked so cute with his little tiny walker.  Mommy did not know they were there so she had to whip the camera out at top speed to take some video.  Then we took out his monkey backpack and he and I started playing with it.  At first I didn't think that he liked me and then he gave me one of his toy cars and we crashed cars for a little while.  Then I started to play on the ipod for a little while and I showed Johnathan a video that he really liked.

When we left the building we went to the store and we found out that Johnathan wanted everything in every store we went to.  So we got him a little snack and we got me some Pocky Sticks.  We called the driver to come and get us and we left.

When we got back to the hotel we played out the wazoo together and now I think he really likes me.  He calls me GeGe (which sounds like Guh-Guh) and I call him Jia Yu (which sounds like jeye-ewe-eh).

A Long Day

Yesterday we went to the Forbidden City. We had to ride on the subway to Tiananmen East.  Daddy took (alot) of pictures. Then we went inside the city.  We were not able to go all the way inside the city because we were running out of time.  However, we walked along the outside moat.  Somebody asked to take a picture with me.  Then we walked back outside and took even more pictures on our way to Tiananmen West subway station. 

We got back on the subway and headed back to our hotel.  The subway was fast and bumpy.  I really liked the adds that were made on the subway's walls with lasers or special lights.  The subway was really crowded and we could not find a place to sit.  When we got back to the hotel, packed up, called the bellman (who never came), and went to get our taxi.  We needed two taxis to fit all of our luggage.

It took about 40 minutes to get to Terminal 3 at the airport.  Once we checked in we tried watching the Notre Dame v. USC game at the airport.  We were able to watch the start of the 1st quarter, but then it went out and we had to leave for our flight.  There was congestion at the airport and we had to sit waiting for our turn to takeoff.  I fell asleep to touchdown and felt much better!  We met our tourguide who took us to our new hotel.

Today we get Johnathan.  I hope he likes me.

The Great Wall and Summer Palace

We went on a tour of the Great Wall and the Summer Palace. We had to wake up at 5:00. We had a nice breakfast, until our tout guide, Helen, came to our hotel.  We got in the van and then headed to pick up eight other people.  Once we finally had everyone, we headed to the Summer Palace.  I slept a little on the way.

We saw the Marble Boat and several "guard" animals.  We took a lot of pictures and my camera battery went out twice.  When we left we headed to a jade factory to learn about jade and have lunch.  When we were going in and leaving there was this hairy thing in a bowl of water.  I thought that it was alive, but it was really a toy called a "Beaver Ball".

We left and headed to the Great Wall.  It took about 20 minutes.  We had to stand in a really long to get to the cable cars.  After we got into the place we saw how fast the cable cars go.  Mommy and I were a little bit scared.  We made it and had a great time climbing on the Great Wall.  We got to climb in one of the guard towers.  It was really steep in some places.  We ended climbing at about 3:30 and headed back to meet Helen.  We went back down the cable cars and rode down facing backwards.  Going up forwards ended up being scarier than riding down facing backwards.  I wanted to buy a souvenir and asked Helen to help.  She ended up buying me a medal made out of jade and gold with my name and the date on it.

We got back in the van and started driving to a Tea House.  I slept most of the ride there.  On the way there we passed the Birds Nest Stadium and Aqua Cube.  I didn't drink much tea because I was not feeling well.  Once we were done at the tea house we got back in the van and started dropping everyone off.  When we got back we headed up to the lounge and got chocolate and fruit.  Then we went downstairs for dinner.  Mommy had a steak sandwich (no bread) and I had a burger.  After all of that we went upstairs and passed out in our beds!

The Beginning of the Trip

We are finally in the hotel. I thought that I was going to DIE on the 12 hour flight! But we still made it.

We had to stop in my birth country (Japan) for our connecting flight to Beijing . In that time I bought 2 souvenir key chains and a bowl of ramen noodles. I had a lot fun before our 3 hour flight. We got to Beijing at about 9:30 pm.

We get Johnathan on Monday. And we 're going to the Great Wall TOMORROW.

Takeoff!

We are in the lounge right now and our airplane is right outside of the window. It is blue and white. It is fun watching the people work on the plane.

We have about an hour until we leave and I am excited. Or, hyper! I hope the plane is comfy!

Introduction

Here is where I will be posting about my trip to China.  While we are in China we are going to visit Beijing, Nanjing, Xuzhou, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong.  We will be in China for 2 and a half weeks.  I am really excited to see the Great Wall of China.  I am also looking forward to picking up my little brother Johnathan.  I hope he likes me!

I'd like you to read my blog and follow me when I am in China.