Day Two

We are starting to get into a routine. It helps that we are getting
over jet lag, we are learning our way around Nanchang, and Pan Pan is
getting over her cold. It turns out she is alot of fun, and loves to
laugh and smile. She claps when she's happy, and sits around banging
chopsticks on the table during the adult meals. We swear she's
actually pretty fond of both of us.

She also has a great appetite. She still gets bottles four times a
day, but today she also ate steamed eggs, rice noodles, fish, ou sun
(if someone can tell me what this is called in English I'd be grateful
- lotus shoots?), nian gao (a sticky rice cake). Unlike the other
girls, she's not crazy about watermelon, and much to my disappointment
she didn't like millet porridge, one of my favorites from my old China
days.

We're making games out of learning to pull herself up and lie on her
stomach, both of which are unfamiliar. But she is getting
interested. She also had her first phone call today - to her new
sister Olive. She will be so lucky to have a sister who loves little
kids. We also got nice notes from her cousins Max and Chelsea and so
many others who are looking forward to welcoming her home -- just
sorry we may not be able to answer them all personally.

She's sleeping pretty well - last night woke up only once, though I
was expecting a few more times since she was still rather congested.
She does fuss some times, but true to what the orphanage workers told
me, she doesn't make a lot of trouble, she just fusses when she needs
something and we're starting to be able to figure out what that is.
Usually a clean diaper, something to eat, or to be carried. My arms
almost fell off after yesterday, so Davis did more of the heavy
lifting today.

Today we visited People's Park. A far cry from the one in Berkeley,
it's also actually a gorgeous urban park full of elders exercising and
playing chess and young kids being pushed on swings and strollers.
The parks are nothing like what I remember - the landscaping is lovely
and even exquisite in places, and quite keeping with Chinese
tradition. (I was also happy to see many of the plants in my Berkeley
garden -- daphne odora, fatsia japonica, and lorapetalum japonica --
so my landscape architect did a great job, and my daughter can have
more reminders of home when she is in Berkeley.) And the playgrounds
are very well-equipped with play structures, though we couldn't help
but notice that so many of the children playing in the park were boys.

We also went to a local supermarket that was very well-stocked and
MUCH quieter than Wal-Mart. To those who have inquired, NO I am not a
Wal-Mart shopper, this was where we were taken by our guide (who it
turns out doesn't like Wal-Mart either) because often the families ask
to be taken there.

So it's Tuesday night, and we have four nights and three days left in
Nanchang, and then our 12 days in Guangzhou.

Signing out,

Pam

Sent 8:45pm from Nanchang