Jetlag

I was having some trouble viewing our blog from the laptop in our room yesterday, so I decided to come down to the business centre to do it tonight. But, its the same on this computer, so I guess for some reason I can't view it from China? Not sure why, I'll ask Tom to figure it out tomorrow, if he can. Right now, he's asleep with the kids - we're not quite over the jetlag yet.

We all woke up several times during the night last night, and we were up for the day by 4:30 am. I'm hoping tonight will be better and by tomorrow we'll all be adjusted to the time zone. It will be a long day if we're not! Tomorrow evening, we meet with the Vice Director of Civil Affairs (very high ranking official in charge of adoptions for China). He wants to meet all the girls and give them each a gift.

Today, we went to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was overcast and humid so it was very nice. If it had been sunny, it would have been unbearable to walk the length of the Forbidden City.

After lunch, we all took taxis to the Silk Market and shopped for a couple of hours. The girls cannot stop talking about this experience. We were hounded like crazy by the salespeople. You could not walk by a stall (and there are thousands of them), without the salesperson calling out to you to buy something. If you show any interest, you will not get out of there without buying something. I ended up paying too much for a T-shirt for Quin, but got a great deal on a pair of shoes. We bought some Olympic souvenirs too. That was great because the sale of Olympic stuff is all regulated in China, so there is NO bartering. You pay the price and that's it - just like at home. Quin was so anxious to come to China and barter for things, but once she got a taste of it, she was very happy to go back to our way of shopping. She's figured out that bartering can be very stressful!