Shopping

All is well here in Nanchang. We went to a wonderful porcelain shop yesterday. I couldn't believe how beautiful everything was in the shop. We bought some pieces and had it shipped to our hotel in Guangzhou (the next stop in our journey). The shop ships it for free for us. From Guangzhou, we will have it shipped to the US. Our guide, Jenny, told us it's far cheaper to have it shipped from Guangzhou since it's a port city. I'm crossing my fingers it will all arrive in one piece. We found out this province, Jiangxi, is very famous for it's porcelain. They have the certain type of clay soil that's needed to make porcelain. Jenny also told us one of the past emperors loved the porcelain from Jiangxi so much that it become the place to go in the world for it. A sweet, older lady who worked at the porcelain shop asked me if she could hold Maya while I shopped. A lot of them do that over here. Maya wanted nothing to do with her so she clung to my neck. After the porcelain shop, we went to a Costco/Sam's Club type store which actually looked like an IKEA from the outside. We found out that it's actually owned by a German company. It was pretty funny going through the store. Their idea of bulk is nothing like the US. All the packages and cases were much smaller. The last stop yesterday was the restaurant next door to our hotel. The infamous site of our lunch in the window with people crowding outside to look at us! Thankfully we went upstairs to a private room and had a great lunch. The other family we are traveling with, The Roberts, are so nice. We've enjoyed their company. Maya took a good, long power nap after our shopping & lunch adventure. We were so whipped last night that we just ordered room service (thankfully we have a dining room table in our room). We found "western type" food on the room service menu so we ordered spaghetti Bolognese and spaghetti carbonara. We also got a bowl of congee for Maya. She ended up eating all her congee and the rest of my spaghetti. We took a video of her because she was so funny slurping up the long noodles. After dinner our little wild child played on our bed. She thinks it's funny to dive bomb all over the place. I'm having a heart attack the entire time trying to protect her head. She's so silly and literally cracks herself up. Everyday we're seeing her little personality emerge more and more. I can say she's definitely not a wimpy kid and she likes to make us laugh. We're counting the days to bring her home so she can meet Madeline & Will. Not sure how she'll be with our dog Lola. The director and nanny told me she's never been around animals before. And if anyone knows Lola, she greets everyone very enthusiastically. Not to mention Maya is right at the same face level as Lola so she'll have to endure some dog kisses!