Friday, June 12

First of all, Happy B-day Caleb! It is his 4th birthday today and little does he know what his belated gift is. A family. We can't wait to meet him! Only two more days. Yikes. Seems a bit unreal.

Here is what we spent our day doing...

Temple of Heaven

Tian'anmen Square

Forbidden City

Traditional lunch in our own private room w/in the restaurant. We couldn't stop laughing b/c it seemed so fancy and formal and silly for us to be in our own room. Loved the food.

Silk Factory

Summer Palace

Needless to say, we're exhausted. I did have to break out my umbrella today to try and get some relief from the sun. Hot. Nothing else to add other than that. And umbrellas are really quite the thing here anyway. Everyone carries them around. Old and young women alike.

And now, for Kara, Anna, and Nathan's viewing pleasure...

The "squatty potty"

I did NOT use one today. I just couldn't do it. All of the places we went to today had at least one "western style" toilet to use. I hate public bathrooms in general...squatting over a hole in the ground was a bit too much for me to try. Kara and Anna and Nathan, you'll love this: in most public restrooms, there is either no toilet paper at all or there is one toilet paper dispenser just outside the bathroom area. You have to grab some toilet paper (which is really more like crete paper) before you go in to the bathroom. I'll just say that it is very important that you "guesstimate" fairly well how much you'll need b/c once you're in the bathroom and, you know, going, there isn't anything to use except the stuff you grabbed before you walked in. Interesting to say the least. Oh, and as I stood in line for the "western style" toilet today I got an uncomfortably close-up demonstration on how exactly to use the squatty potty. There was this one older Chinese woman who felt no need to close the bathroom door as she went. Seriously. I really didn't need that visual. I'll probably never forget it. Sorry to any of you who may not have children and thus don't understand why I'm sharing bathroom details here. My kids love that stuff. And I am not ashamed to say that I stood in front of a line of curious looing Chinese women (probably thinking, "what in the WORLD is that lady doing?!") and took potty pictures!