Last full day

Our last full day in Beijing, finally.

We have 5 English speaking channels on TV here. They are CNN, Bloomberg, HBO, Cinemax and National Geographic. How do you know when you've been in one place too long? You know what channel HBO is without going through the entire channel line-up. Yes, it is definitely time to go.

In a way we are sad to leave Beijing; but that would be a very small way. We had big ambitions of seeing many things in the city and our time has now come to a close and we didn't get to see as many things as we would've liked. Some of that was due to exhaustion, some was due to not wanting to overwhelm Claire and a lot of it was due to needing a barf bag everywhere we went.

We walked to a nearby clothing market today and bought more than we did the other day. I know all of it is most likely knock-offs of real brand names but the kids in middle school don't know that. J took a $60 risk and bought an I-phone. Turns out it isn't an I-phone at all but rather a sciphone that looks exactly (and I mean exactly) like an I-phone. One key giveaway that he didn't notice before buying it; it was "Dasigned in the US." Yea, that would have been nice to see before buying it. He's laughing it off and has let Claire enjoy the games on it. I told him to clearly establish that she can play with Daddy's phone because Mommy's I-phone (if I ever join the ranks and get one) will be real and completely off limits to those under 13.

Claire has a couple of new nicknames:
Drama Queen Extreme and Miss Sassy Pants.

We had our first real confrontation today and it is has given us a glimpse into the battles we face ahead. She and Dad were laying on the bed watching TV and she wanted the remote; he told her no but she took it from him anyway. He took it away from her and said no. Oh my, she huffed, spewed some nasty sounding mandarin his way and stomped off to the living room. She pouted for about 5 minutes and then got the remote and watched her own TV in that room. She held a grudge for a good 1 ½ hours. I really don't think she's ever been told no or needed to behave within a set of rules. She was the oldest of her foster siblings and we can tell she is quite bossy; even trying to boss us around sometimes. This whole being the oldest to being the youngest thing isn't going to be too pretty; I don't think.

Tonight she entered her "I'm wired and deliriously-stupid-tired" phase and was bouncing around while walking home. She loves to be carried but we needed her to walk and burn off some energy and Dad is just plain worn out from packing around her heavy self. She kept running in front of him and stopping so finally I had to whip out the mom voice. I told her "Claire, NO, zow lu" (zow lu means walk). She stepped right beside me and held my hand.

She goes from being happy and giggly to mad or crying in the blink of an eye. She has no problem showing her emotions! But, she is also very caring and will always kiss your owies and say "Ima sorry" if she accidentally hurts you. She finished off the day with "Ba ba, I wove you." And how can you focus on the sassy attitude after that?

Tonight we walked and walked and finally decided to have dinner at the Korean BBQ a few blocks away. This was a challenge because they did not know any English. J told me to just pick something that looked like beef on the menu and actually, most of the pictures did look like sliced beef. I tried to say "English menu" any way I knew how and boy, I am SO glad I did! Did you know that many different, nasty things look just like sliced beef? We almost ordered things like stomach, ox tongue and many other things I'm still trying to block out. In the end, it was OK but nothing like the wonderful food we ate in Korea.

Tomorrow we have to get our bags ready by 12 noon and we leave the hotel at 12:30. Who are they kidding? We're so ready to leave we nearly have every thing packed tonight! We pick up Claire's passport first and then head to the airport and fly to Guangzhou. We'll be leaving the hotel around 10:30pm central time and arriving in Guangzhou around 4am Friday morning, central time. We'll be checking in to the White Swan hotel; the hotel famous for adoptive families. We'll also be meeting up with our travel group that we toured here in Beijing with and we are excited to meet all of their new children.