Can we go home, yet??

Today was a day of touring. I woke up feeling kind of crappy, just a sore throat and out of sorts. I took some Tylenol and that helped. We went on a group tour, but at breakfast, I was kind of weepy, and was missing Austin something terrible! We went on the tour and first went to the Six Banyan’s temple. It was beautiful there, and we enjoyed getting the babies blessed. It really is no big deal. Just some drumming and chanting, and three bows for the “Past, Present and Future”. Inside the building where the blessing took place were three GIANT golden budda’s. They represented the same thing “Past, present and future”. Basically those three principals were the tone for the whole temple. The smell of insence was strong in the courtyard, and most of the ladies opted to pass on climbing the giant pagoda. Mark and the guys all did it while we waited, breathing in the strong smell of insence (yuck). You’d think being a California girl, I wouldn’t mind it, but oh gosh, after about 30 minutes of it, it was too much! At one point a couple of young ladies approached us and Beth Rosenbalm showed her card that tells why we all have these beautiful Chinese girls, and the girls read it and told us “those babies are VERY lucky” and we feel the same way about ourselves. After the guys got down from the pagoda, we each lit three sticks of insense, also in the theme of “Past Present and Future”.

After we left the temple, we went to a store selling jade and porcelain. Some of the porcelain was so thin that you could shine lights through it. Amazing. We were also interested in the Rolls Royce and Lambourgini (sp?) dealership next door. Suprisingly, they wouldn’t open the door for us to come in….I wonder why they didn’t think we would buy one???

After that we went to a museum. Now I Have to tell you, Ryleigh fell asleep so I skipped the 30 minutes allotted at the museum and stayed on the bus with Ryleigh and a sleeping Emma (big sister to Zoe). It was nice to just have time by myself, as I was seriously sad today. Turns out almost everyone was feeling the same way. Everyone is missing home, and their families, and their friends, and nice soft beds and pillows! The kids in our group were all teary today, and everyone was wanting to go home, but we still have SIX nights here! After we got back, we went to Lucy’s for lunch, and even Chris was crying…then I was crying…..crazy emotional day for all of us.

We went and got ice cream, and went to a small DVD store. This was the best shopping yet. I know it’s pirated, but I couldn’t help myself, neither could Mark. We bought 8 DVD’s for under $20US. We got Narnia, King Kong, Bambi 2, Memoires of a Geisha, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wallace and Gromit Curse of the Ware Rabbit and Zathura….all great quality. We checked them out on the laptop. We are supposed to go to a pearl/dvd market this week, and I will probably buy some more. Anyone have any requests from back home? (Serra????)

Tonight we are just relaxing. Ryleigh is already asleep, because of her short nap. We are so enjoying this little snippet of a girl. She is personality PLUS and we feel so crazily perfectly matched with her. She is a lot like Austin in she is very easy going, and when she falls, she doesn’t even peep. One thing that is NOT like Austin is that she LOVES broccoli!!