Pearl Market and Play Time

Today was another quiet day for us in GZ. As it turns out, the provincial markets are those that carry items from "the province"...duh! Anyway, there was a man there who was creating palm and hand painting (you know I had to have that). There was a beautiful one of the Great Wall and Cam had his name translated into Chinese (who knows what it really says, but we like it!) We also heard a lot of history about Guangzhou to include what the locals say about GZ: We eat anything out of the sky except for the plane. We eat anything out of the water except for the boat. And we eat anything with four legs except the table and chairs. We also heard that it was best to stay away from the "tiger soup" (and she made the sound "meow") and that Dragon soup" is snake which supposedly really does taste like chicken! Who knew?? By the way, the "Phoenix soup" is chicken...and also tastes like chicken.
So off we went to the pearl market and boy! did I make out! For my birthday in a couple of weeks, Jay bought me a string of black pearls with matching earrings from the South China Sea. It just so happens that we have a guy in our travel group who is a jewelry dealer in Houston...thanks, John, for hooking us up with the "best price"! We also bought a string of fresh water pearls for a killer deal and they are beautiful (note the pic)! When you choose your string, they re-string the pearls and double knot each pearl...and they were FAST! What Peggy and I noticed in this area is that the buildings inside are constructed so beautifully, but there is not a trashcan in site so the marble floors are disgusting with cigarette butts all over the floor and the white bricks are dripping with grime...so sad.
When we got back, we took the boys down to the pool for a dip. Again, if you can get past the smog in the air, the setting is beautiful! However, the pool water is VERY cold! After dinner, all the kids in our group had a blast running through the park near the hotel...
Tomorrow, we are supposed to visit some of the local temples and historic sites.
We miss you all and can't wait to share our newest member with all of you. He continues to come out of his shell more and more everyday. As I type this, he is singing himself to sleep and have found that many of the adopted children in our group do the same thing...something that must have been encouraged by the orphanage. "See" you all tomorrow!