May 1

It’s Friday morning as I write this, so I need to catch up on what happened on Thursday.

Michael and I ended up waking early and that’s when I took advantage of the quiet to write about our flight here. My head was killing me at that point and I took a nice hot shower to help clear it. We woke the girls up around 6:45, they had slept well and were ready to start the day. After getting ourselves ready we headed downstairs to the breakfast buffet.
Breakfast was really good and filling, it included everything from pancakes, French toast and scrambled eggs to steamed pork buns, fried rice, egg rolls, noodles and pork dumpings (that’s what the sign said, let’s hope they just lost the “l” in translation since they were quite tasty).
We met Helen in the lobby at 9 am and she had our car and driver waiting. Cackie was in a much better mood and Helen could see what we meant about her being full of energy. We all climbed in our bus and headed for the Temple of Heaven. The Temple grounds were huge with lots of park settings and TONS of people everywhere. When we first walked in Cackie froze in her tracks, mesermized by some ribbon dancers. It was amazing to watch through her eyes the beauty of the dance. Then as we walked a little further we saw different groups of people practicing Tai Chi Bo. They were holding some sort of racquet and balancing a ball on the racquet while moving in a synchronized rhythm. It looked really easy, but I’m sure that it was MUCH harder than it looked. One man approached us with his ball and racquet, giving us the opportunity to try it ourselves. We all declined the opportunity to make fools of ourselves!
We saw a number of other groups gathered on the grounds, some were signing opera and playing musical instruments (Cackie really enjoyed this, too) and some were playing shuttle cock or hackeysack. The grounds were beautiful with lots of green grass and many beautiful large trees.
Helen led us into the temple and described the significance of many of the aspects of the temple. The tiles and much of the decoration is in a blue color to signify respect to the gods, this is in contrast to the Forbidden City which has lots of golden color to signify the emperor or royalty. In the areas where the emperor would walk or have ascess the steps and tile formations are all in multiples of 9 because 9 is a very lucky number in China and signifies greatness. But, in areas where the common people would walk the steps and tile formations were all in multiples of 10 because it is seen as less dominant than the number 9.
The Temple of Heaven grounds are actually made up of multiple different temples, each has a significance to give thanks for a good harvest. We didn’t visit each little temple, you can’t go inside just wander around and fight your way to catch a glimpse of what is inside. There were lots of steps and Cackie was in heaven when she was given the opportunity to run and be free. After exploring part of the ground, Helen took us to a small studio where local art students are given the opportunity to sell their work and earn some money. The artwork was all soo beautiful and we splurged and bought a gorgeous oil painting of a child in a traditional tiger hat. We bought a couple of other small items, each soo beautiful.
Cackie was really well behaved through all that, so Helen treated her to an ice cream treat. Let’s just say that Helen has definitely found the way to Cackie’s heart! We wandered the grounds some more and Helen took us to the area where the emperor would stand and speak to the masses of people. It is in a large circular area and there is a raised stone platform, just big enough for one person to stand on. There were lots of people gathered around it, each taking their turn to stand on the stone and have their picture taken. We tried to get Cackie to stand on it, but she started to get ornery and there was one man taking more than his fair share of time, so we left that area.
When we exited the park we were bombarded with people selling cheap souvenirs and books. There were even men with these oven type cookers attached to their bicycles and tons of baked sweet potatoes piled on them. They smelled soo good, but if you risked stopping to purchase one you would have been bombarded by the other vendors.
After a few minutes we found our car and driver and he took us back to the hotel. We had thought about going to lunch, but none of us was really hungry. By the time we got back to the hotel I was starting to feel really bad, almost like this stuff had gotten into my chest. So, at that point all I wanted to do was lay down and rest. It was time for Cackie to take a nap anyway, good timing all around. We went back up to our room, Cackie watched a movie on her DVD player and we turned on HBO to some Julia Roberts movie. We all just chilled out and relaxed, still trying to adjust to the time change. After a while Caryn & Michael went down to the little market for a few things and Caryn went off on her own to explore the Prada and Gucci stores. I think she quickly caught on that there wasn’t much she could afford and just enjoyed the window shopping.
Pretty much the rest of the afternoon we rested, Cackie took a good nap and didn’t want to wake up for anything. We tried to bribe her that we would go swimming in the hotel pool, but even that couldn’t wake her up. Finally, around 7 pm we got up and went out for a walk. We sort of followed the crowds and came to the huge shopping district here. It was really cool to be walking along enjoying ourselves, actually we were doing the same thing as all the local people.
About this time Cackie started acting up some, not wanting to hold our hands, whining a lot, etc. I think there are a lot of things going through her head, I can only guess what is going on but I suspect that she’s having some emotional trouble with things. Anyone who knows Cackie knows that she loves to be the center of attention and will do just about anything to be seen as such, but here that’s not the case. It’s Aunt Caryn, Mom & Dad who are the center of attention and I think some of that is hard on her. I also wonder if she’s starting to realize that although we are all people, she does look different that Mom & Dad. Here she shares features and can associate physically with the Chinese people, but she does not speak like them and cannot interact with them. I wonder if at some level this is bothering her and she just doesn’t know how to express it. She does get some attention, but I think it’s mostly because people quickly realize that she is adopted and they want to stare at the Chinese girl who has caucasion parents.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped in a tea shop to get some tea to take back to the room. Drinking lots of tea and staying on top of my medication seem to be helping me feel better, so I wanted to keep that up. After that we headed back to the room and ordered room service again. We ate western food this time, hamburgers, club sandwich and grilled cheese. The hotel actually has a very limited Asian menu and we wanted something different than the night before.
After dinner, I was feeling really bad and I think I basically passed out on the bed. I remember hearing Michael and Caryn take Cackie across the hall to their room and then the next thing I remember was the room being dark. Thankfully I got some good rest and am feeling quite a bit better this morning. We ordered room service for breakfast and as soon as it gets here I’ll take my meds. Hopefully that should carry me through the day. We have a very exciting day planned… Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, a traditional lunch, Hutong tour and an acrobat show and Peking Duck for dinner.

Enjoy the pictures!