Sunday-Funday

Now that we are all settled into Guangzhou, we are ready to see the city.  Our guide, Sarah, has six adoptive families this week that she is responsible for coordinating and showing around the city.  She is doing a magnificent job of it, I must say.  On Monday morning, all six families met in the lobby to depart for the day's sightseeing.  The families are all beautiful people and have adopted wonderful little children ranging from 2 (Magnus is the youngest) up to about 12-13.  We piled onto the bus and drove for about 15 minutes to get to a park called Liuhuahu Park.  We didn't quite know what to expect whether it would be a park with little rides for the kids or if it would be a scenic park to just enjoy nature.  Well, it turns out that it was both and much more.  Once we got off the bus we saw this view:
    

The next thing we saw was kind of crazy.  It was a adult/senior outdoor workout area and it was quite busy.  No wonder the Chinese stay so trim. 



Next we came to a playground for the kids.  The equipment was so cool and different than you find in America.  This one was probably the most ingenious. They pedal themselves!!! I need to learn how to weld and make one of these at home!

All the families played for about 20 minutes before moving on.  Here are a few other pics of the fun.



The next stop along the walk was quite an amazing scene. We came across a group of about 150 middle-age to senior citizens sitting/standing and singing together.  There was a man at the front with a big hand-written flipchart of the words (in Chinese characters of course) and he was pointing to the words as they all sang along.  It was incredibly jovial and quite moving.  They sounded really good.  I actually pictured my Great Uncle Fred mixed in with the group singing along because it sounded not that dissimilar to the German Folk songs he used to sing to Anya when she was little.  There were also people learning to ballroom dance.  It was quite the experience.

  

As we were exiting the park we came across some little boys that were learning what appeared to be Kung Fu.  That caught Juliette's attention.

We left the park and headed back to the bus to move onto the next stop. We drove about 20 minutes and arrived at Chen Clan Academy.  This was a form of school to help men pass the three tests that were required to gain employment from the Emperor back in the day.  Like everything else we have seen in China, the details and the intricacy's were breathtaking.  The roof of the building was lined with porcelain figurines that each told a story.  Here are a couple of pics:

We bought a few souvenirs at the shops including a scroll with Magnus's name in calligraphy for his wall and a few other cool items.  We then went back to the hotel for a bit.  After resting up, we went over to the walmart to pick up a few more supplies and then went to dinner at "The Italian Restaurant". 

All in all, it was a very good day.  Our big boy continues to make us smile and assimilate into our family.  We almost have to catch ourselves and remember that up until just one week ago he was still in the orphanage and never really experienced the outside world.  With biological children you usually get years to experience the number of "firsts" that we have experienced with him in the last week.  His first smile, first laugh, first step, first bath, first word (first distinguishable English word was Mama), first dance, etc.  Its been an unforgettable 7 days, can't wait to see what comes next!!

One Week In Duff Family of Six!