No Rain Today~Site seeing in China

Yesterday I did not blog, not because I couldn't, but because I really did not have any thing nice to say. It was a rough day for me. Today was much better, not because Emma and I bonded, but because it did not rain. We were able to get out and see some of China besides the mall and Wal-Mart. So lets start with yesterday, it pored and it was so windy that when we walked to the Pavilion to see artifacts, we were soaked and cold to the bone. We pushed through and afterwards we walked back to change our socks because we were so cold. Our guide Helen took us to the mall because we asked her to take us some place we could walk around because being cooped up in the hotel room was starting to wear on us all. We ate lunch at the mall and when you say food court at the mall here you will not be getting a bunch of choices. We had two choices and to sum things up on how our meal was, Darrel ordered what he thought was fish and chips and he forced himself to eat the squid legs that were chewy. We walked around the mall and Emma ended up falling asleep in the stroller which forced us to walk around even longer so that she could sleep, she needed it since she is still sick. Last night we ended up eating in the hotel (that was pricey) Darrel stayed in the room since he was not feeling to good, I am guessing the Squid got to him and he said he had a cast iron stomach and did not need the natural bacteria pills that I have been taking. At bed time when we put Emma down she tried to tell me that I needed to get away and go to my bed since Darrel and I decided to sit in the same bed with her. She of course cried because she wanted her way but I decided that I was not going to let a 3 year old dictate to me what to do, like hold her hand, where to sit at our meals and where I needed to be when it came to bed time. I allowed her the space for the first 4 days and to be honest I had, had enough because as far as she was concerned it was first Marshall, then Darrel, then Dillon and if I was the only one around I would have to do. She would even pick Helen our guide over me. I know this little girl had a rough 3 years and then I come and disrupt it even more, but I am not going to let her be my boss, she needs to know that I am her mother and she needs to respect me. So that brings me to today, we met our guide at 9:30 this morning to go to the park and I was so excited. We entered and instantly there was a group of people with several cages filled with birds and they were releasing them. I stood around to watch and an older lady approached me and gave me two sheets of paper that had to do with Buddha. I asked our guide what religion she was and she said she did not have one and she asked me if I was a Christian, I told her yes and that I would pray for her, she laughed. We continued on through the park and watched the older women doing their Tia Chi and dancing. I stood and watched and one lady came over and asked me to join in so I did. It was sort of like line dancing. I did it with them and then showed them what I knew and they all followed along. It was really fun. We then went to the local market and that was great. We saw all the fresh fish, fresh fruit and vegetables but it was still a little chilly so we stopped to get something warm to drink. While we were standing there, their was a little girl who was jumping rope who was about 5 and I started to count while she was jumping and she loved it and asked me to continue to count, I had made a friend. I had some candy and asked Helen to ask her mom if I could give it to her and she said yes, not sure if Emma liked that so much. We then left and went to look at tea sets for Emma, Emma had a melt down. Once we left she ended up falling asleep and we realized that she needed a nap. We ate at McDonald's and I never thought I would say McDonald's tasted so good. We then decided to walk back to the hotel and on our way there was a TV station that does some sort of game and guess who went and did the Limbo. Yes you guessed it. Then Dillon did it. They interviewed us in front of the crowd then we got to pick 3 red envelopes and we won 30 dollars and a case of this stuff that taste like peanuts. YUCK! We are going to donate it to the orphanage. We are now on our way to a water show.