Day 7

(This is Lisa's note on Day 7, Wednesday January 14th.)

When we are out with Tommy its just amazing. I can't believe we are really here in China, and adopting a toddler. He's adorable. The restaurant in the hotel gives you one little paper napkin for lunch and you can imagine how well that works for Tommy. Yesterday he decided he needed a new one after every bite of rice (some would stick to his fingers). The staff just thought it was soooo cute and kept getting him a new one. Of course now he thinks that he needs a new napkin throughout every meal! Everyone is super nice and takes really good care of him. When we don't know what he's saying they always do -- but they can't translate so they just do what he wants, and we'll have a harder time when we don't have anyone who understands him completely. He's very smart and picking things up really fast, and we're learning key words in Mandarin, but I don't think we'll be going out to eat with Tommy and Aidan for a LONG time.

It's incredibly cold here. I thought we were used to the cold in Chicago but when it gets this cold at home no one goes out. It was 15 below zero yesterday and today. Even colder at night. We decided to take Tommy to the Disney Ice Sculpture park (Tom put the photos up in the post below) and it was FREEZING!! Probably too cold, but we really wanted some pictures of Tommy in Harbin for his scrap book, and he was getting a little bored. It was worth it - the ice sculptures are unbelievable. They are as big as a real house and all made out of ice and all of them have lights inside.

At one point we were so cold we decided to go inside a large tent and warm up. They had hot drinks and a little store to buy souvenirs. Bill (our guide) went over to the store and left us for a bit. It was of course then that a young woman came up to us and started talking very quickly in Mandarin. We had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but I finally realized she was asking if she could take a picture. We, of course, obliged. But once she had taken a couple about 10 other people ran up to take pictures of us too! It was pretty funny, both men and women running up with cameras to take pictures of complete strangers. Not WITH us, just OF us. I asked Bill if it was because we had Tommy with us and he explained that they don't see many foreigners here. Tom said some of them just took a picture of him alone. I guess we do look strange. We're getting used to being the only non-Asians everywhere we go.

Love and miss you all! Lis