General ramblings from the Far East...

It is currently Thursday morning here. Yesterday we went to visit the Hunan Provincial Museum, specifically to see the display of Marquis Yi (so named by the French archeologist who discovered the mausoleum in 1978) of the Prince of the State of Zeng, ~433 BC. This is of particular interest because the State of Zeng was primarily the area now known as the Hubei province, which is where Wuhan is (where we are now) and where Qichun (pronounced Chee-Choon, where Megan was born and nurtured). Most of the items were fairly "expected", cooking pots, weapons, etc., but for the size. The very large items recovered were obviously used to cook for a banquet or the entire royal entourage rather than a small family.

http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_artqa/2003-09/24/content_39314.htm

There was a display of human and horse armor that was very interesting, but the musical instruments were the most fascinating. There was a complete set of gigantic bells, hung in an arrangement that spanned about 30 feet. There was also a variety of stringed instruments, which I gathered from the tour guide that they were the earliest known, and a few different types of drums and chimes. We purchased a DVD containing photos from the museum and a concert performed by the musicians employed by the museum.

After that we went to a local Chinese restaurant for our second "group meal" since we arrived in Wuhan. It was very good, but not quite as tasty as the first one we went to Sunday night before Gotcha Day. We have tried just about everything put in front of us in the restaurants, and have yet to be disappointed.

Our guide, Christina, was able to arrange a trip to Qichun today to visit with the orphanage director and staff, and to attempt to locate the places where each of the children were found, and get a feel for the general area where they were born. Because it is a three hour drive each way, the director would only agree to meet with one parent of each group, as he would not allow us to bring the children back. I suspect that there are additional reasons as well, and good ones, as it could be potentially traumatic to revisit the orphanage and the social workers there. We found out that the foster parents were actually employees of the orphanage as well, meaning that they actually work in the orphanage in addition to fostering the children, so it is possible that the children spent the workday in the orphanage as well. So it is very likely that today they will actually be meeting the children's primary caregivers, though they are not likely to divulge who took care of who. Apparently, there was an incident in the past where the foster parent or parents actually tried to visit the adoptive family and child at the hotel after Gotcha Day, and it caused quite a stir for everyone involved, so they no longer allow the actual caretakers to make the trip on Gotcha Day. This also explains why Megan did not have the baby photo album that we mailed to her. She did have Mr. Krinkles though, which as it turns out was what first made us cry when the girls were brought in the room on Gotcha Day! Go figure! We had spent a great deal of time with Mr. Krinkles, however, since he was purchased back in 2005 with the expressed intent of making the journey to China ahead of us. He spent well over 2 years sleeping with us to get our scent, and perhaps it paid off as she certainly took to us immediately! We were very happy to see him again!
So to get back to today... Michele decided to make the trip to Qichun, so its Daddy's day with Megan! We are going to be heading out in a few minutes to explore a local department store and find the McDonalds and Pizza Hut that are within walking distance of the hotel. We all love the food here, but it will be nice to experience a bit of home as well (supposedly it tastes pretty close). We had some KFC, and while it tasted OK, we are pretty sure that something in it caused me to break out in huge hives from my elbows to my knees. Benadryl seems to knock most of it out, so I should survive. More later! Love to all. As fantastic as this experience is, we can't wait to get back home.