Last night we went to Shamien Island (not really an island as we would think). This area caters to adoptive families (as many of our appointments are located there. We enjoyed walking around, and we ate at a Thai restaurant (other adoptive families recommended it). Maren enjoyed walking around and people watching.
This morning our adoption agency had a tour planned at a Pearl Market and Jade Market. China is known for these two stones. Basically, you go in and there are hundreds of tiny shops within a multiple-story building. You bargain/negotiate a price: for instance, we purchased Maren a jade bracelet for her high school graduation (I know this is thinking ahead, but who knows when we will be back and we had read about this from other adoptive parents how their children enjoy gifts from their native home as they grow up) and we ended up getting it over half off the original price they gave. Honestly, it would be stressful to have to do this for every purchase we made in America (it makes me appreciate being able to go into a store and buy the item without a lot of ordeal surrounding the purchase). After the markets, we had McDonalds (not the same menu as in US) for lunch and Maren is resting now.
Interesting tidbit: we asked our agency if there was a church we might attend this morning. He said there was a Christian church and Catholic church (we assumed there were none); however, he said they could not take us there. Furthermore the services would be in Chinese.
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