Sleep is good!

So it's 5:30am here which is the latest I've slept yet. Keeghan's still out cold. She did wake once last night but I just changed her and settled her back down and we both went right back to sleep. From what her Nannies said she is going to be up in the next half hour or so. I figured I'd get up and check e-mail and have a few minutes to myself before we start our day.

I also thought I'd share some interesting China observations I've had since being here...

1. Christmas is pretty popular here. There were Christmas carols playing all over and decorations galore. Tons of people are wearing Santa hats and there were two men dressed as Santa in the mall we went to in Beijing.

2. The buffet at dinner last night included snake, turtle, octopus...and plenty of other things that we would never think to include in a buffet. We all know I'm a picky eater so I didn't try any of it, but I did venture out of the box the other day at lunch and try a dish that none of us could identify...it seemed to be some kind of egg/custard thing with gravy on it.

3. People really do spit everywhere.

4. Blond/tall westerners are quite an attraction...especially when they've got a little Chinese girl in their arms.

5. Personal space is defined very differently (kind of like a my space is your space attitude).

6. The beds here are HARD. The one at the hotel in Beijing (one of the "Choice Hotels"...ie Quality Inn etc) wasn't as bad as the one here in Changsha, but neither was as bad as I expected.

7. They have Walmart and it looks just like ours expect the signs are in symbols as well as English...and well the grocery store has some different stuff : ) BUT they had snickers and diet pepsi which made me really happy. I also saw pringles, lays, and oreos so I guess Kennedy would have had something to eat.

8. I encountered the clothing police yesterday. After all the crying and with all the layers...Keeghan was soaked in sweat. Once I calmed her down I wanted to see what her arm and leg looked like (and she needed to be changed) so I took her pants off and quickly threw some other pants on her. I waited a bit before switching shirts and ended up putting short sleeves on her as that was the shirt that went with the pants I'd grabbed. Well I put a jacket on her before we left to go do paperwork, but took it off in the office and one of the woman there told me she needed more layers!

9. And along those same notes...buildings aren't so much heated. We discovered this upon check in at the Beijing hotel where the lobby was freezing and all the girls at the desk were in winter jackets! Thankfully, our rooms are very well climate controlled : )

10. Oh...and doors...to public buildings seem to be those plastic curtain things despite the fact that there are real doors behind them. They prop the real doors open and use the curtains as doors. Interesting.

Those are just some of the things that have stuck out to me over the past few days. We are going to a local park this afternoon which will be nice. I hope to get some good "local" photos since this in the province Keeghan is from. The city she was in is about an hour or an hour and a half from here so not too far. I guess YiYang is a big city with about 4 million people and is the only city in Hunan with not one but two orphanages. Wednesday we are visiting a museum (with a really old well preserved mummy) and an embroidery factory.

Thursday we have been given the opportunity to go to the girls' orphanages (the other little girl is from the other orphanage in YiYang). We debated whether or not we should do this with our girls (especially after all the trama yesterday) but I think I owe it to Keeghan to have every piece of her past that I can. I also found out that Keeghan's orphanage is moving to a new location so if I don't go now, I may never get the chance which sealed it for me. We had to make this request at the Civil Affairs Office yesterday and we also need to write a letter requesting this visit. I'm very thankful that I'll have photos and stories to share with my daughter.

Friday is our last day here in Changsha and we have the day free. We do have to wait to get the girls' passports and then we fly to Guangzhou late on Friday to begin the American paperwork we have to do.