Mike and Leigh's UnBlog: December 2006

Contributing Photographer

Leigh's sister, Allyson, sent us a few photos from her visit last week.
This one is Mary, just being Mary, cracking herself up.

More Mary

It seems Mary has quite a following and the calls for continued blog coverage haven't slowed. I don't know that I can keep this up as long as some have requested. I'm not even sure this medium will still exist at her college graduation or the birth of her first child!
For the time being, though, I will keep going - at least as long as Leigh and I are still documenting her adjustment and growth.
Today's pictures:
A powerful, and potentially expensive, shoe fetish emerging
Mary using a fork to feed herself for the first time. We tried it to slow her down a bit and it seems to be working.
Mary not exactly playing fair as she tortures a still crate-bound Byron

Christmas Weekend

Well, I know some of you have been waiting anxiously for more Mary pictures, especially of her opening gifts and enjoying the holiday. Unfortunately, she wasn't too much for the gift giving or opening, but liked the wrapping paper and sitting in the boxes. Leigh and I are discovering, however, that we're really bad picture takers and will have to get better or risk angering friends and family alike.
The pictures:
Mary and Leigh in their traditional Chinese outfits getting ready for mass
Mary in her Jacksonville Jaguars cheer uniform watching 'brother' Alvin play against the Pats
Mary discovering the potential for a division of labor in the Fresina home

Home with Grandparents

Well, contrary to what we learned from every adoption expert, we decided to have family at the airport and around the house during Mary's first days in the states. For us, it was the best move. It was great having family to visit with and divide the labor at the airport, but most of all, seeing Mary with her grandparents was phenomenal.
We are so pleased with the visit we were able to have and will long remember the laughs and looks of joy.
On another note, Mary LOVES the animals. She thinks Byron (the dog) is the funniest thing she's ever seen and he has been great, letting her chase him around with his only defense a stern face-licking. The cats are not as patient, but she finds them equally enthralling. They do not like the new baby gates that keep them from a couple of areas in the house.
We fit Mary's bedroom with a screen door, so that her door can be open, but the animals can't invade. At first, I thought it looked a little weird, but it's grown on me.
The pictures:
Mary with Gandma and Grandpa Ayers
Mary with Grammy and Papa Fresina

The Flight Home

Mary was great on all three flights it took to get from Guangzhou to Hong Kong to Chicago to Charlotte. She slept some on each and didn't get wound up even when the other kids on board lost their minds. In fact, she probably did better than both Leigh and I, who couldn't wait to get off the 14-hour flight to Chicago.
The pictures:
(2) Leigh and Mary on the South China Air flight from Guangzhou to Hong Kong
Mary sleeping on the flight from Hong Kong to Chicago
Mary officially becoming a US citizen upon landing in Chicago. She looks thrilled, huh?

Last Night in Guangzhou

I know everyone is eagerly awaiting pictures from home, and they're coming, but I wanted to show you what Guangzhou looked like at night. It was awesome. These are views across the river from our hotel and the one vertical of our hotel. Everything was decorated for Christmas, but the buildings across the river and every boat on it was fully-lit all the time. The building with the green laser show couls also run full video on its exterior - wild!

Guangzhou Last Day

Our last day in Guangzhou was very busy with a great deal of last-minute shopping, our trip to the US Consulate to get Mary's passport and visa and several attempts at packing. The only constants were our love for Mary and the thought of being home soon. We have a 4:30 wake-up call for a 5:30 trip to the airport. We leave for Hong Kong at 8:30 and on to Chicago at 11:30. We get in to Chicago at 11:45 CT on the 14th and should arrive back in Charlotte at around 4:30 in the afternoon. Though the paperwork and swearing in has taken place, Mary will officially be a US Citizen when we touch down in Chicago.
Today's pictures:
Mary in her Red Sox jacket - the very first gift we got almost two years ago, from the Conroys
Mary on the famed Red Couch with the rest of the kids in our group. You can see she loved it. She doesn't like beds or couches at all.
Our entire travel group.
Us with our Guangzhou guide, Elvin.
Mike with the girls at the shop where we spent most of our money. They thought it was funny that we have no money left for baby food and offered to feed us.

Guangzhou Day One

Guangzhou, or at least the neighborhood where we are, is wild. It is the area of the city that still has the architecture left over from British colonization, so it looks familiar. Our hotel, the White Swan, caters almost exclusively to adoptive parents (including leaving a Mattel-sponsored "Adoption Barbie" in our room). Everywhere you look, there are people from around the world, all here to finalize their adoptions. It's amazing. And because the Chinese have mastered the art of retail, the four block area around the hotel sports every imaginable shop also catering to adoptive parents. One of the coolest things is that pretty much each shop is also a laundry and if you drop off your laundry, or just promise to buy something in their shop, they let you borrow baby strollers for the term of your stay. The workers speak English, and are usually on the street trying to entice you to come in with promises of "beautiful items for beautiful baby." There really are some amazing "bargains" and everything is more or less negotiable. After a giant Western breakfast and a quick run around the stores (and, of course, a laundry drop off), we took our borrowed stroller back to the hotel for a nap and to wait for the call from our guide who had gone to the consulate to submit our paperwork. Once he called, we went out for some more serious shopping, now pushing instead of carrying Mary. We had a blast. Later in the afternoon, we went to a bonsai garden and tea room - another great experience.
Today's pictures:
Mike working Mary around town in the borrowed stroller
Leigh and Mary in the bonsai garden
Mike, Leigh and Mary in the bansai garden
Mike likely causing an international incident in the bonsai garden

Guangzhou Arrival

We left our temporary home in the Huatian Hotel in Chengsha today.
Mary took her first plane ride - it was just an hour, but she did OK. She's definitely still got a cold and is teething, but dropped a bomb on her own this afternoon - finally.
When we arrived in Guangzhou, we met our new guide, Elvin. We should have a good time with him. We also met back up with some other CWA families and will be able to hang out with them for a few days. The babies all got new passport/visa photos and were given the most basic of physical examinations.
Anyway, we're beat, so I'm keeping this short.
Today's pictures:
The exterior of our hotel in Chengsha. I was waiting for a nice day to take one, but it never happened.
The exterior of the restaurant where we ate several excellent meals. It the former office of Civil Affairs.
The interior of the restaurant in our hotel where we ate many meals.
At the airport, saying goodbye to our guide, Ashley.
Mary in the playroom at the White Swan Hotel (x2)

Travel Notes

As promised, though I know few of you are interested, here are some travel notes as we prepare for the end of our time in China:

Beijing:
A big city with a great deal of smog, traffic and noise. Though its history can ce traced back more than 2000 years, they generally talk about Beijing after the Reformation in the 1950s. So, to them, it's actually a new city. We saw very little of it, but there is a lot of construction going on in preparation for the Summer Games in '08.

The People:
I have been very impressed with the people here. They are very interested in Americans and practicing their English. They are pushy and don't hold the same rules about personal space that I would like. They do everything as if boarding a flight on Southwest, only there are NO seat assignments and under one seat there is the promise of a winning lottery ticket. They cut in line at stores. Leigh was even pushed out of her place waiting to use a stall in the bathroom at the airport. But that is no big deal, really. They have been warm and welcoming.

The Heat:
Speaking of warm, any building that has heat (and not all do), is kept at a scorching temperature. They think we must be "very warm people" because we find it stifling. In fact, they will come up and say something if the baby is not wrapped up in several layers of clothes with no skin showing. We have been fixated on trying to keep Mary's pant legs from riding up while we carry her to avoid confrontations.

Perceptions of Americans:
Though we have only been in urban centers where people are generally more worldly, we are still an oddity to be stared at. Many people have derived their perception of Americans from TV and movies. In both of our hotels, we have 'enjoyed' just three English-speaking channels: CNN, ESPN Euro (which shows nothing but soccer), and a movie channel that features at least one Bond movie a day and in Biejing, we were treated to a Steven Seagal retrospective. It's easy to see why they look at us as they do.
In fact, a nice group of businessmen approached me in the lobby one day and asked, "American?" I nodded and one looked particulalry thoughtful and then asked, "Boxer?" I said, "No." He thought a little longer and the second thing that came to his mind was, "Cowboy?" Thankfully, his room was ready, so he didn't have time to ask "Good cop or bad cop?"

Fashion:
Believe it or not, the way the people here dress is one of the things I noticed first. Again, bear in mind, we're in an urban setting. These are the impressions of someone who has not been into the countryside.
The men, young and old, dress neatly and conservatively. A lot of black and gray dress pants teamed with nicely fitting dress shirts or sweaters.
Anyone in uniform, from Customs agents and flight attendents to bellboys and waitresses, sports very formal gear. It's really awesome.
I have been most impressed with the young women and girls. Their dress is trendy and attractive, but also modest and neat. No Ughs or flip-flops with mini skirts and belly shirts. The look of the moment is tight fitting jeans or pants tucked into high-heeled leather boots with sweaters or neat blouses. It's just different and everyone traveling seems to have noticed it.

Food:
If the Over/Under in the How Much Weight Will Mike Lose pool was 10 pounds, take the under - way under. The food has been awesome. Too much of it, generally. Hunan, where we've been the longest, is known for its spicy dishes. Our guide, Ashley, has ordered us something traditional at every meal. We've really enjoyed the food. We haven't been particularly adventurous in our selections, but what we've had has been great.

The Traffic:
Makes NYC look like Mayberry RFD. It's truly unbelievable. Cars, vans, buses, mopeds, bicycles, pedestrials and motorcycles all share the same real estate and disregard for traffic laws. Want to park on the sidewalk? Go ahead. Want to make a left turn from the far-right lane? Go ahead. Road markings and crosswalks seem painted only as decoration. We have seen blind women crossing intersections alone by whacking the cars rushing by with their canes. Unless you have seen it, it can't be described. I saw a guy on a single-cylinder mopod delivering what had to be 500 pounds of 12-foot angle iron. Totally bizarre. I like a challenge, but I wouldn't ever attempt to drive here.

Chengsha:
Though I'm ready to move on, I have loved Chengsha. It's the largest city in Hunan, an agricultural province, and doesn't see a lot of foreign travelers. We have seen much of the city and become more comfortable each time we venture out.

Mary Day 7

Sorry, no pictures today. In the morning, Mary was feeling particularly bad - still fighting a cold, teething and constipation. We're taking them on one at a time. She has great periods of laughing and play broken by minutes of discomfort and screeching. She'll be fine, but since we didn't "do anything" today, we didn't break out the camera.
In the morning, we check out of the hotel and fly to Guangzhou for the final leg of our time in China. Our flight is just before lunch and should take about an hour. Hopefully, Mary will be up for it. It will likely give us a sense for how she will handle the 14-hour flight from Hong Kong to Chicago.
More to come from Guangzhou, the US Consulate and the White Swan Hotel...

Day 6 Part II

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of Mary working the catwalk (see the club...be the club...).
It's amazing, they created two books, a calendar, a bunch of bookmarks, a photo screen with 8 pictures in it, plus delivered it to the hotel with the CD in about 24 hours. This is a service-centric country.

Mary Day 6

Day 6 was awesome - as you'll see from the pictures.
One picture you will not see, however, is that we had a monumental morning with Mary dropping her first deuce since we got her. Yes, she had gone more than five days without relief. She needed a little chemical and mechanical coaxing, but the package was delivered before breakfast and she perked up almost immediately. She's still got a cold and is teething like a banshee, but is no longer (at least for now) complicated.
The day began with a trip up a mountain that overlooks Chengsha. It's a popular destination for locals looking for a day away, or to get some exercise. There, we were more of an attraction than the scenic overlook to most people, but there was a group of university students that seemed particularly fascinated by us and were surreptitiously trying to take our pictures with their camera phones. When we started taking our own pictures, they asked if they could take one themselves and we invited them in to join us. It was so cool. They wanted to practice their English and mimicked anything we said. Chengsha is a big city, but doesn't get many tourists, so we were quite an oddity.
From there, we went to WalMart, yes, WalMart. It was PACKED, like XMas Eve packed. We did a little shopping and were, again, the focus of a lot of attention.
Feeling very much at home, we decided to close the morning with lunch at Pizza Hut and were sat by the window so passersby could stop and stare.
The whole day was awesome.
Tonight, the packages we ordered at the photo studio will be delivered to our hotels and I'll post something if I can.
Today's Images:
View from the mountaintop
Us with the Homans. They are from Ohio and are traveling with us. They picked up Paul and brought their oldest daughter Natalie along for the ride. We've certainly had a great time hanging out with them.
Us with the students
WalMart sign
WalMart's product-lined escalator - no wasted space
NOT the pet department at WalMart - the Seafood Aisle (A giant fish jumped from the tank and just as Leigh was grabbing for it with a run to the river and fish freedom on her mind, our guide tossed it back in...WOW)
NASCAR fan at Chengsha WalMart
Pizza Hut
Leigh and Mary in our Chengsha hotel room

Mary Day 5

Today was fairly uneventful.
In the morning, Mary figured out how to drain her bottle without one of us holding it.
She's still feeling bad. Between teething, constipation and having a cold, she's a mess. But she's a trooper and up for anything, no matter how crappy she feels.
We took her to a photo studio in the morning for some portraits to be taken. It was really fun (they had a playplace with balls that she liked) and I'll post some of the pictures as soon as I get the CD - tomorrow.
She had a good nap when we got back. The picture is of her waking up.
However, when we took the ribbon from her hair, Mary was left with a "Something About Mary" hairdo...
Too Funny.

Mary Day 4 Part III

I totally forgot to tell everyone about the 'incident.'
It was awesome - a definite highlight.
First, a little background...
The van in the picture is our van for the week in Chengsha, complete with driver. Most of the time, there are nine of us fearing for our lives in its astroturfed interior. Our first driver, Mr. Foo, smoked the same Benson & Hedges Gold that an old woman used to buy from me at the gas station back in the day - a woman who spoke with one of those voicebox-trachia speech-deals and bragged that the surgery had helped her, "beat the cancer, so she could smoke all she wanted." I digress.
At some point, Mr. Foo gave up driving duties to his brother-in-law, Mr. Pung. I asked if that made his wife Pung Foo, but he didn't get it. My humor seems to go right over their heads.
Mr. Pung drove us to the embroidery factory. That's Leigh with Mary wrapped like a burrito, and our guide, Ashley, climbing aboard. Anyway, on the way back to the hotel from the factory, Ashley needed to make a quick stop at another sign-covered, arbitrarily-marked building. Pung parked outside in the street - which is better than on the sidewalk where most people seem to park. In fact, we also learned that, "driving illegally on the pedestrian will cost you 200 Yuan." If it only costs 200 Yuan to run down pedestrians, it's no wonder the driver-pedestrian relationship seems like a bloodsport. Again, I digress.
So, we're sitting outside in traffic with Mr. Pung and Ashley's nowhere in sight. Between Pung's chewing tobacco stench and the searing heat inside, we were all a little uncomfortable in the van when the police knocked on the window. Mr. Pung was asked to exit the van and was questioned when a cadre of other cops arrived on the scene and pitched in, interogating Mr. Pung while we sat baking in the van. When Ashley finally came out, he tried to intervene on Mr. Pung's behalf to no avail. He then started apologizing to us, but we were howling. All I asked was that he get a picture of Mr. Pung being questioned...
Mr. Pung got a ticket and a scare and we were on our way with a great memory and a photo to prove it.

Mike and Leigh's UnBlog

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Contributing Photographer

Friday, December 29, 2006

More Mary

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Christmas Weekend

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Home with Grandparents

The Flight Home

Last Night in Guangzhou

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Guangzhou Last Day

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Guangzhou Day One

Monday, December 11, 2006

Guangzhou Arrival

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Travel Notes

Mary Day 7

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Day 6 Part II

Friday, December 08, 2006

Mary Day 6

Mary Day 5

Mary Day 4 Part III

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