November 30, 2011
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Singing in the Rain
Yes, we are alive and well in Jinan where we traded our rain for snow last night. I have stories to tell and photos to post but I suspect most will have to wait until we are home. It's tough to post during the day time as YiLin doesn't really care for Mom to sit at the laptop for more than a few minutes and since we are all sharing one room here in the hotel, it's hard to stay up and type without keeping him up. No matter. We will be home soon.
The good new is, YiLin is doing well. He is a character. It's going to take some time to get him settled into a new normal but it's easy to tell he is a bright kid with a big heart and a good sense of humor. He's more like 2 than almost 7 but that's typical.
YiLin speaks in a Jinan dialect so while I'm able to understand some of what he says, most of the time, I have no idea what he's talking about. He does understand me however, and I will say, it's been a big help to be able to ask if he needs to go to the bathroom, if he's hungry, ask him to hold my hand, etc. There are few English speakers in Jinan as well. I've been able to ask a lot of questions and be understood. Sadly, I really don't understand any of the answers. Hahaha. Well, not completely true but for some reason when I ask people to "speak slowly" they don't slow down much.
YiLin is going to be sadly disappointed in American food I think. He eats everything in sight. All kinds of onions and mushrooms and meats and vegetables. He does not seem to like rice (of course, too simple to cook....).
I'm going to post a few photos while I have the chance (YiLin is watching some dance show). Tomorrow we are going to the orphanage and then Friday we will fly to Guangzhou where the weather is warm.
It had stopped raining but YiLin want to play with the umbrella.
And so he carried it along as we toured Jinan.
We went to Daming Lake which was really beautiful but it was too chilly for YiLin after awhile so we headed back.
Nothing like an umbrella because all in all, site seeing is boring for a 6 year old.
Daming Lake
Later in the afternoon, Mom and I walked across the street again to the square. YiLin wanted some corn from one of the food stands. He doesn't have any front teeth but that didn't stop him. We went over to the area where the kids were feeding pidgeons on Saturday but I guess that's just a weekend event as it was very quiet. He gave a piece of cornt to one of the birds and it started walk towards him. YiLin started shouting at the bird. I don't know if he was mad or scared but he was giving that bird the what-for.
There is a whole row of statues like this at the park. YiLin is getting more comfortable and he went statue to statue getting his photo taken. So now I have 100 pictures of YiLin with an umbrella and another 100 of him with giant statues.
So there you go. More to come.
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