The Family Returns to Shanghai

Well, I know it has been a week since I posted more on the adventures of my family, but I have been preoccupied with midterm the entire week, so I didn't have any time to update on my family's time here in China.

Well, on October 11th, I returned to Shanghai for classes. My family ended up staying in Changzhou for the day which was best since I had class all day from 10 to 6 p.m. We ended up meeting near my school on Monday, and we all went to eat at my favorite Muslim restaurant near the back gate of my school. We had a feast at the restaurant which was a lot of fun since my roommate joined us. My family found a perfect hotel five minutes walking distance from my school which worked out perfectly. I loved being able to just be able to walk back and forth from my room to their hotel. After dinner, we went back to their hotel and met up with my " host family" , also our family friend Peter. He brought some very strong alcohol to the hotel which we all shared. We also had coffee, which is always special for me since it is rare for me now to have coffee. It was a lot of fun just sitting around and enjoying each other's company at this hotel. I definitely couldn't believe how much I missed my family, and how special it was for them to be here in China with me.

The next day, since it was a Tuesday, ( I had a Chinese test), so I met up with my family in the morning, had breakfast with them, and then they went off to explore the expo. I think they ended up having fun going to the different pavilions, though there were still a lot of people and long lines! I had already gone to the expo, so I didn't really have much of a desire to see it again. I just thought there were so many long lines and too many people.

Later in the evening, we all met in the Pudong area and went to the top of the Pudong financial center. It was definitely a beautiful view of all of Shanghai. Though, the only thing was that it was a little overcast and rainy that evening. After getting out of the Shanghai financial center, we were all over hungry. It was not a very good sight from there, because everyone didn't know what they wanted, and my family all just started to fall apart. I'm embarrassed to say in the end, half of us went ot Mc. Donald's, while my mom and Claire went to an Asian Chain restaurant. It was definitely one of those well learned lessons that when everyone is too hungry you can't wait too long. We were all ready to go back to the hotel by the time we finished our not so wonderful dinner. Overall it was really fun to get to see the Pudong Oriental pearl tv tower and the financial center.

Tea Ceremony and a Puppet Show in Xi'an

I was looking through my photos and forgot to mention that my family went to a wonderful tea tasting ceremony and a traditional puppet show while in Xia'n.

We had our own private puppet show, which was interesting. The music was very soothing,which almost made me fall asleep. After the puppet show, we were able to watch another show on some traditional dances in China by this dance troupe. It was definitely an afternoon of cultural entertainment.

It was a lot of fun for us to try all of the assortments of tea's ranging from Jasmine to Black Cherry Concubine tea. We were given an explanation on all of the different benefits to your health for drinking tea. I really enjoyed drinking the Black Cherry Concubine tea, because it was so naturally sweet. The tea master really wanted us to buy some of the teas, but they were definitely overpriced for the amount that you actually got. Overall though, it was fun to all sit around at a table and enjoy the different teas. Whenever I think of tea, I always think of China, since it really is the birthplace of all these amazing different types of teas. I thought it was definitely necessary that my family got to partake in a traditional tea ceremony.

A Day in Changzhou

On Sunday morning we were in Changzhou, which is the hometown of another student who goes to my old high school. Her father is the one who helped my family arrange a lot of thing on their trip. We traveled about two hours by car to his hometown, which I'm forgetting the name of at the moment. It is famous for this huge lake and Jony, the father of the student claims that its famous for its delicious foods, though I would beg to differ on that one. When we arrived we took a boat ride to get to other parts of the little island/ lake area. It was a beautiful day, so it was fun to get to ride on a boat. Little did I know, that I would also be getting a lot of exercise exploring the park. There was plenty of things to do and see there, but it ended up taking a long time for us to get back to the original site where we started from. By the time we got back, it was about 3 p.m. in the afternoon and everyone was starving. We were originally going to go to this hotel and have lunch but it had already closed, so Jony called a friend of his who apparently owned a restaurant in the town. Boy, did we have some very different cuisine. Our meal consisted of pigs feet, snake, pigs stomach, and a lot of other things that I can't recall. It was one of the most lets just phrase it "interesting" meals I've had since my time here. I definitely enjoyed it, but it wouldn't be a meal that I could get used to having on a daily basis.

We ended up arriving back in Changzhou on Sunday night. I was so unclear as to whether I'd be taking the train back to Shanghai at night or in the morning. I didn't really feel like getting on another train, but I also felt like I didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Luckily I was able to take an early train the next morning .

Even though we were all still very full when we got back to Changzhou, Jony and his family wanted to take us to one more restaurant. He told us "We're going to go have snake" and my family is like "Oh goodness, not more snake, I think we've had our fill for the day". Little did we know that he actually was saying that we were going to have a "snack at a restaurant" but his pronunciation sounded like "snake". We ended up going to a very chic restaurant that had some delicious food, even though we weren't actually very hungry.

After our long day, we ended up going back to Jony's home, I slept there for the night and got up early to face the morning of reality " back to school for me!"

Our Final Day in Xi'an: Terra Cotta Warriors

We woke up on Saturday morning at about 7:30 and had our final wonderful buffet breakfast at the hotel. I discovered that the reason I was so confused about the hotel, was that I stayed at a different Holiday Inn in a completely different city. This Holiday Inn ended up working out quite well though, I'm so glad I finally discovered the reason why I didn't remember this hotel. The breakfast was great though, and it was such a nice way to start off our days with a big breakfast. After checking out of the hotel we were met by our tour guide and had a driver bring us to the Terra Cotta warriors. I forgot how far out of the city the Terra Cotta warriors actually were. It was another hot day in Xia'n. We ended up first going to the tile factory where they make replications of the warriors. I remember the tile factory, because that was where I bought my beautiful tiles the last time I was in Xi'an. I still have yet to do something with them. I would eventually like to put them in a table or something, but I haven't decided. After the factory we went to the terra cotta museum. I think my family really enjoyed seeing it, though it got pretty exhausting for everyone by the time we had reached the third pit with the soldiers. Everything ended up looking the same after a while. I think my dad was very interested in the history though. It was so wonderful that we had a tour guide, because I don't know what we would have done without one being able to tell us the history behind everything. After the museum, we went to have lunch at this big touristy restaurant. It wasn't very good, but it did the trick. We were all still pretty full from our big breakfast. We then went to this place that is known for its hot springs. I can't remember what emperor, but an emperor had built a summer palace for all of his concubines to retreat to. I had been to this place the last time I came to Xi'an so I opted to not go inside, since there was an entrance fee, and it wasn't the most interesting place.

We ended up heading toward the airport after the hot spring summer palace for our flight to Nanjing, where my family has some friends they know through my old high school . Our flight ended up being a bit delayed so we didn't arrive into Nanjing until about 8:30 p.m. at night. From Nanjing we were picked up and drove all the way to Changzhou which took us another hour and a half. It was exhausting but we finally arrived in Changzhou by about 10 p.m.

The Muslim Quarter in Xi'an and the Tang Dynasty Show

After our visit to Starfish Home, we headed to the Muslim quarter of Xia'n, which I also had wonderful memories of on my last visit. There are so many great stalls selling all of these wonderful paintings and different trinkets. After walking around and shopping for a bit, we went to this little hole in the wall restaurant that served noodles and soup. At first J and I weren't sure what to think of it, but once he tried the noodles, he discovered that he really liked them. We could tell this place didn't get any foreigners because everyone was staring at us, and the waitress even seemed shy to be serving us. We spent pretty much the rest of the afternoon walking around the city area of Xia'n.

That evening we went to this show that was suggested by the tour company that we were traveling with. It was supposed to represent the music and dance of the Tang dynasty. I'm not really sure if it was a true representation, because it was pretty much a show put on for foreigners, but it was fun to watch nonetheless. I think my family was still getting over there jet lag though, because my mom and J fell asleep during parts of the show. It actually reminded me of when we went to visit my sister C in Turkey and one of the first nights we were there she took us to the swirling dirvishes performance and we all fell asleep due to being still jet lagged and not on the right time zone. Luckily this performance was short and sweet, and we got home by about 9:30 p.m.

Everyone was of course exhausted again and we all crashed at the hotel very early. The one thing I was not prepared for was that the mosquito's were so terrible and woke me up on one of our first nights in Xia'n. I was prepared though for the next night, my mom bought me bug spray which was well worth it, since those mosquito's seem to love me!

More Photos at Starfish

I know I've put a lot of pictures up of these cute babies, but I can't help it!! They really are just absolutely wonderful children.

A Visit to Starfish Foster Home

On our second full day in Xi'an, we all woke up feeling well rested. We had a wonderful buffet breakfast that consisted of American cuisine and Chinese cuisine. I loved having omlettes with cheese and fresh veggies, croissants, and yogurt with walnuts and cereal. It was such a wonderful way to start off our morning. After breakfast our driver/ tour guide picked us up and our first destination was to a place called the Starfish Foster home. This place holds a very special place in my heart, because the first time I came to China, I went through a lot of effort and had to jump through many different hoops and obstacles in order to get there. However, my first visit to this special home turned out to be the most rewarding and life changing visit. I have always had an interest in helping children in the world who are orphaned, however before my first visit to Starfish I never had the opportunity to see what it was actually like for children living in a foster home/orphanage versus living with a family. My first visit to the home truly reaffirmed my passion to help orphaned children left behind. I even ended up writing my college essay on this particular visit, and it got me into the college of my choice! So, yes to make a long story short, I really wanted to show my family this special place, and how much it meant to me. What I was amazed to see is how much it has grown in the number of children since I was last there. I think when I first visited there were about 20 children maximum. Now there are over 40 something to possibly even 50 something children all between the ages of 0 and 4. I was also amazed to see how many little little babies there are now. When I last came the babies were all a little bigger in size, but now the home has some very small babies who were actually moved from a large institution to the Starfish home. The thing that is amazing about this home, is that all of the babies are so well cared for and really are beginning to thrive. However, if they were place in a state institution, they most likely wouldn't be alive. I'm always blown away at all of the beautiful children that are just waiting in these orphanages, while there are so many parents in the US and other countries also waiting for them. However, there seems to be no solution to make this process go any faster. I just think that its sad that even though they are given excellent care at this home, that during the prime time of their life they can't be attaching with a mom and dad.

My family all loved playing with the babies and getting to hold and snuggle with them. They really are just amazing children who will impact so many people's lives in the future. It definitely is somewhat of an overwhelming place with all of the babies and caretakers in small quarters, so that can make it difficult. I think the hardest thing for me is whenever I leave this special place, I don't want to leave without bringing a baby with me. I know I'm definitely too young right now to start a family, but it is definitely one of those difficult things for me because I love the children so much, and I wish I could help at least one of them. I think the other thing that is sad for me, is that I know and have seen how long it takes for families to internationally adopt a child from China; I don't know if I would have the patience to wait so long and go through all of the hardships.. hopefully one day I will! I was so glad that my family got to see this amazing place we went to visit. I think everyone enjoyed it, even my brother had fun holding all of the babies!

First Night in Xia'n

After exploring the city wall, my family went to the bell tower. We had dinner at a great place near the city wall, with lots of different types of dumplings and vegetable dishes. We had a really kind waitress who wanted to practice her English with my family, and wanted to make sure that we liked all of the dishes that we at. There were a lot of people walking around the bell tower square, probably due to the national holiday. It definitely felt like being in a big city. The one thing I noticed about Xi'an was how the city keeps growing and growing. It's no longer this old city, but there are so many new buildings. I think this is a sad aspect of China's rapid growth. I'm not sure what will happen to the old beautiful parts of the city. It was so wonderful though getting to walk around the old drum tower and the older parts of the city. The one thing I realized also that with traveling with my entire family, it was so nice to have a car to drive us places in Xia'n. I'm not sure what we would have done piling five people in two different taxis. We all returned back to the hotel and were exhausted from our long day that had begun at 5:00 a.m. We all slept so well, and the beds at the hotel were actually really soft, small, but soft nonetheless.

The Beginnings of the Cote Family in China

Well the month of October is flying by already. I can't believe we are already halfway through! I have been so lucky to be able to spend the first part of October with my family here in China. My mom, dad, sister, and brother arrived in Shanghai on the afternoon of October 6th. They were all very tiered after their flight. I was very lucky to have some friends here in Shanghai greet them with me at the airport. They also brought their car, which made the going to and from the airport so much easier. We went to the Ramada Hotel in Shanghai, which ended up being a nice comfortable hotel, though the beds were super small. That is the one thing that my family was not prepared for. I think they were thinking they would get the nice soft big beds like the ones in the American hotels, however China is very different in that regards. When we arrived at the hotel Claire and Jesse immediately fell asleep. While they were sleeping, my mom, dad, and I went back to my school so that they could drop some things off in my room and I was able to show them the back gate area of my school. I was also so happy to discover that the hotel we were staying at had this cafe called Cafe 85 which actually originated from Taipei; their coffee is good and reasonably priced and they have so many wonderful pastries. My mom and I stopped in their and grabbed ourselves some coffee. That night we all went to dinner at a very nice Chinese restaurant near our hotel. It was nice that the restaurant had pictures on their menu, so that my family could decide based upon that. After dinner, everyone was very tired, including myself so we all crashed at our hotel.

The morning of the 7th we had a very early flight to catch to Xi'an. I wanted to take public transit, but unfortunately since our flight was so early we weren't able to. Our flight to Xia'n was delayed about an hour, so we ended up waiting on the ground in the airplane, waiting for it to take off. We arrived in Xia'n about 11:30 , where we were then picked up by a driver who first took us to the hotel.

This was my second time going to Xi'an so I had a hotel in mind that my group had stayed at the last time I was there. Well, when we arrive at the hotel, I'm very confused because I remembered that it was in the center of the city. I tried asking the desk if they had another branch in the center of the city, but they told me this was the first branch that had opened in Xi'an. I was definitely a bit disappointed, but there wasn't much I could do since we were already there. The hotel ended up being very comfortable and quiet overall, and I was happy we stayed there. After settling in at the hotel, our driver took us to the center of the city. We first went to the city wall, which is a very historic old wall that wraps around for about 6 miles in the city center. When we first entered the wall, we were given a little tour inside their museum about Fenghsui and Pixu, who is a very important animal like god in the Chinese culture. He is meant to bring people money, if they keep him in their office, house, or bedroom. I found the tour to be very interesting. We all got a big hit out of this Pixu animal and then we came up with a new name for my dad and started calling him Pixu. After our tour, we all wanted to bike around the city wall, so we rented some bikes. They only gave us an hour to bike around the city wall, but that ended up being just the right amount of time. We all loved going around the city wall as it was a gorgeous sunny day, and it was so amazing to see the views of the city of Xia'n.

10 Day National Holiday Break!!!

Hello All! I have currently begun my national holiday study break along with the other 1.2 billion people in China. I am currently in Changzhou visiting family friends, but will be returning tomorrow night to Shanghai in preparation for my family's arrival to Shanghai China.

I arrived in Changzhou early yesterday morning. I was so fortunate because, I was taken to Chanzhou by some friends of mine in Shanghai. It was so lovely getting to sleep in a car instead of on a train. Upon my arrival in Changzhou, it was raining and quite chilly. I met up with our family friend, who took me to his newly opened Italian Gelatto Shop called Fantasio El Gelatto. It is a enterprise that originated in Italy, and now our family friend has started the business in China. I got to taste test all of the different flavors that were made right in the shop. They also had delicious Italian Hot chocolate and Italian sandwiches. The sandwiches weren't quite their speciality, but with time I think they will get better and better. The ice cream, however, was absolutely amazing and rich. I have to say, I liked it better than Ben and Jerry's ice cream! Last night, I had a relaxing night, which included just hanging out with my family friend's. We had a delicious dinner and then just hung out. I watched Grey's Anatomy Last night, which always makes life just so wonderful. It's one of those shows, that just makes me happy!

This morning I slept in and felt really rested when I woke up. We traveled to Nanjing, which is where the Dr. Sun Yat Sun Memorial is. Oh boy, was I not prepared for how many people there were going to be. Today, was a reality check for me. I never realized how big this country actually was, until I entered this memorial hall area. I don't know why, but our family friends insisted that I had to go in and see the actual tombstone of Sun Yat Sun. I definitely could have passed on that, but since they insisted I waited in line. Well what I didn't realize, is how once I got in the line there was no getting out of it. I have never felt more suffocated, claustrophobic, and fearful in my life. It truly was scary, because people were pushing and shoving the entire time we were waiting to get in. I thought someone might just push me down to the ground in order to get ahead of me. Today, I truly learned the concept that there really is no concept of lines in China, only pushing and shoving. It has definitely been one of those days with a little bit of culture shock. I also felt like everyone seemed to be staring at me today. There are some days when I get more stares than other days, and today happened to be the day, when more people just decided to stare! Today was definitely one of those days that tested my patience and all the other virtues.

I'm looking forward to heading back to Shanghai tomorrow night to prepare for the arrival of my family!!!I can't believe that they will be in Shanghai in three days! I really do feel like a child of Christmas Eve! It feels like it has been a long time since I have seen them in person!!

Sending my best to all my friends and family all around the world!