4:45 am and wide awake

This is sort of a common theme. Go to be exhausted by 9:00 pm, then wake up around 3:00 or 4:00 am wide awake. It is a combination of jet lag and nervousness about meeting Allison for the first time.

Our hotel in Nanning is very new and caters to Westerners (a term used often around here). In fact, they have a restaurant in the hotel that is called the “Western Restaurant” where you can order a Chinese version of a cheeseburger or club sandwich. We went there for lunch and had an interesting experience: 2 burgers a club sandwich and three cokes came to about $45 (compared to the $15 we spent that evening for dinner for three in the Chinese restaurant). So, the food is “Western” and so are the prices.

Speaking of dinner, we have a great experience in the Chinese restaurant near our hotel. We were the only Americans in there at the time, and I don’t think they get that many as a rule. We were greeted with two reactions that I have seen a few times already in China:

1. Surprise (one waitress suppressed a scream), followed by
2. Amusement (as the group of six waitresses pushed forward the one who spoke the best English)

After that, we were bustled to the table and then quickly escorted around the restaurant to look at the pictures on the wall of all the dishes to order our meal. Any question about a dish was interpreted as an order, so soon we had a table full of different dumplings to eat.

We loved the food but the “herbal tea” the waitress recommended tasted like it was brewed from Nyquil and tar – it really made our toes curl. We had several steamed and fried dumplings and thoroghly enjoyed them. We were started Part 7 of Becky’s chopsticks lessons, which a table of locals found amusing.

Our waitress wanted to know what we were doing in China, and we said we were here to adopt a baby. Her face lit up and she struggled to find the right words in English to express her thoughts. She said that she was very thankful for what are doing and that we have a lucky baby. We told her we were the lucky ones.