Cruisin'

Today we took the oath at the American Consulate in Guangzhou and Emily's visa application was accepted. In a couple of days, she should have an American visa and be able to enter America. At that point in time, she will become an American citizen and will no longer need her Chinese passport ever. At this point, we are simply waiting on paperwork to come home. Barring any incident, it should all be a given now.

Yesterday, we went to the Pearl Market which is adjacent to a mall - a 5 or 6 story mall. Mercy! In the mall resided not one but two McDonald's so Emily had her first meal at McDonald's. She is all over french fries. She didn't even want the chicken nuggets, just french fries. We also saw some other Western favorites. Chinese McDonald's is not like American McDonald's (well, except the french fries) so it was just a little wierd. She also tried ice cream for the first time. She wouldn't eat from the cone but if I used her spoon and gave her some, she liked it pretty well.

Later that evening, we went on the Pearl River cruise. For the Olympics, the government spent a lot of money on beautifying the city and one of the things they did was install lights along the Pearl River which flows around the 'island' of Guangzhou. All the bridges are lit beautifully, some in changing rainbow colors, and all along the river the sides and buildings are lit as well. Some of the buildings have some pretty neat designs. One near where we started had vines and leaves running up and down and some kind of animal.

They also lit up the Guangzhou Tower which is the second tallest building in the world. Emily's favorite things are music and shiny things or bright lights so she loved it! It was pretty late (for the children) though by the time we got back so there were a lot of fussy babies on the bus. The cruise included a buffet and Hubby decided to try a local favorite. If you can't tell what it is, check out this pic of some we saw in the convenience store.