Saturday??

I have photos to upload but it takes forever so I'm leaving it at words tonight; I'll add them later.

What a different day today in Nanchang! What day is it anyway? Tonight the moon is close to being full and we see it from our room. We can see all the way across the city and there isn’t any smog hanging in the air! We can breath freely (most of the time). Out in front of the hotel, there are different light colors that race across the railing of the river bridge and buildings are lit up all over the city. This morning we toured a pavilion that was built in 639 by a Prince who was coming down river for an important dinner – I have not idea what for because I wasn’t good at history and obviously I’m still not. Anyway, he got stuck on the river in this area – it sounded like he hit a sand bar. He met a couple of men who were like self proclaimed gods who helped him make the meeting in an impossible time frame. He built the temple here as a commemoration. It was a beautiful place and something that I counted on seeing in China because of the history I do remember. J

The boys are almost over being celebrities here. They are trying to be sweet when people want a photo with them.

We had another amazing lunch ordered by our hosts. Not only are the meals amazing food but each day we pay about 150 yuan for lunch which is around $23 for the three of us – babies eat free everywhere. We tried passion fruit today, It wasn’t that tasty considering its name. (Not my best photo moment - the little grape like pieces on the plate are the part you eat if you've never had one like me).

After a terrific naptime, the five of us ventured out of the hotel to see what’s around us. John and Parker had scoped it out earlier this week and discovered a market. They took me back there to see. It is a local community market where people were passing thru to pick up the evening meal or just hanging out with their neighbors. It was also very much what expected to see in China and was not disappointed! We saw live chickens and ducks, fresh fruits and vegetables as well as watched a gentleman working on a feather bed. The farmers bring their goods into the markets daily. We have seen a several shops where people have fabric hanging all around the store and they sew custom orders for clothing or bedding. Their sewing machine is right there in the store and they are working on projects. I love seeing these ways of commerce! I want one of these bike they use to transport goods:

Every day we see Gracie Lin come out of her shell a little more. She loves to giggle. She is ticklish on her tummy. She is starting to explore a little bit around the room and check out our mess (with five people in a small space, it’s a mess). She's getting much better with John as well. Tonight, when we were putting little ones down to bed, Carter would say ‘Gwacie’ from across the room and she would say something I didn’t understand. He would then say “Mama’ and she would respond ‘Na-na.’ They went back and fort like this for a couple of minutes. Very sweet!