Monday, March 24th

This morning was pretty uneventful. After a good breakfast, we were told to wait in our rooms from 10am-12pm as this was our consulate appointment time. If they had any questions regarding our paperwork, they would call between those times. We never received a call, so apparently all was satisfactory. We went to lunch at Pizza Hut as it was right next door to the hotel but Leila was so tired, we had to head home for a nap. Maybe if her crazy parents hadn't kept her out so late she wouldn't have been so grouchy! Oh well---we know that any schedule we put her own now will only be ruined after the 20-24 hours of travel we have ahead of us!

In the afternoon, the group went to the Guandong Folk Art Museum, a famous museum here in Guangzhou owned by the Chen Family. I knew we would be going out for our final dinner at night, so in the interest of everyone's sanity, I stayed with Leila so she could take a nap. Jason went though and said that there were all kinds of beautiful folk art--ivory, jade, glass etchings, fans, paintings--the group enjoyed it a lot. After the museum, the group had one final hour of shopping at which time Jason indulged in one more North Face jacket and a Starbucks coffee. He also picked up the stamp we had made for Leila---it says "Leila Grace" and "Er Ting" with Chinese characters. It's beautiful and I'm glad we had it done. J took a lot of pictures of Shamian Island so hopefully I can get those posted at some point.

Tonight, we had our final group dinner at an amazing Thai restaurant. Our guides ordered all the food and it was delicious! Ting Ting was especially fond of the meat kabobs, she ate two by herself. She amazed everyone with her chopstick skills, and was a happy girl all through dinner, so the nap paid off! There was also some entertainment with singing and dancing---hard to describe but let's just say there was a whole lot of Diana Ross and the YMCA---felt just like home. Several of the kids (siblings, not babies) joined the singers/dancers which was hilarious---all the Chinese people in the restaurant were taking pictures of the crazy foreigners. At one point, the dancers grabbed all the husbands (Jason included), which was definitely the highlight of the evening. I mean Jason has moves, but he just didn't have a lot of time to practice.

After dinner we came back to talk with family and friends on Skype, and then headed to bed. One more day in Guangzhou---hard to believe we're almost at the end of our journey. It's been awesome, but we're ready to come home. We miss the kids and all of our family and friends. We can't wait to see you!

Love,
Alissa and Jason