Monday in Guiyang

We had an interesting day today. The girls were feisty. Rissa is strong and can have quite a temper. After breakfast I took them to the play room at the hotel. Its not much of a play room but it does allow the girls to run around. They were climbing all over me and when things got out of hand I had to shut the fun down. Well Rissa wasn't ready for that. I had to take her up to the room kicking and screaming. Dad has now turned into an strict dad. We feel we have to set the record straight as to who is in control or we could be in big trouble. We know Rissa's foster parents had to be strict with her. I think we have been a little to lax and she is starting to take advantage of it. Poor Mina is getting an ear full too. Its sometimes easier to correct her behavior. Plus she knows better when it come to things like jumping on the bed, etc. Oh the challenges of parenthood. I know, everyone says wait till they get older, it only gets harder.

We headed back to the big park again today with our guide. This time we went in the back way and let me tell you it was the back way. We went through a pretty rough part of town. A lot of run down building or little shops doing the most mundane tasks. I saw the greasiest old machine shop making who knows what. We did see a string of shops making wood carvings out of a wild burl type wood. I'm not sure of what kind of wood it was... A lot of fresh fruit stands and small cooking stands. All around was crumbling buildings and a lot of mud. Anyway we did make it to the park and got to see tons of wild monkey's. After Mina's run in with the last ones she was petrified. We walked up to the top of the mountain where there is the largest Buddhist Temple in Guizhou. It was incredible. There we several gardens with ponds and a variety of statures of different Buddhas. Our guide was well versed in all the dogma and customs. It was very informative and beautifully. Susan and I both got our life directions from one of the Buddhist monks. He said we were well on our way to a good life because of adoption the girls was a noble way to give back to the earth and we should keep up this path. He emphasized education for the girls as our future goal. Call it spiritual guidance or fortune telling, either way it is good advice.

After that we headed back down the mountain and back to the hotel. The girls were just wild. No one took naps and there was much frustration on our part.

We headed out to dinner where I had eaten a few days ago with Aunt Kati. I had a little trouble ordering dinner but I did get 2 out of the tree dishes we wanted. We had plenty of food and Rissa enjoyed it as well as Mina. All in all it cost us 65 yuan. That's about 10 bucks. Not bad for enough food to feed 4.

Back to the hotel for baths, movie and bed. This is our usual night time ritual. Then I get a little time to blog and relax.

Other than that all is well. We found out that we will get Rissa's passport on Friday and then head off to Guangzhou on Saturday. We are looking forward to getting to the White Swan hotel. It is a little nicer and we know the area around the hotel so we can go out and explore easier.

That's all for now. Will post more tomorrow. I will put some pictures up from today also...

Michael