Fuzhou and the Fixed Stare

Fuzhou capital of Fujian Province. Port city amidst green, green mountains and the Taiwan straits-at least that is what the maps and brochures have told me. It is very, very grey here and hard to tell what time of day. Apparently this region is experiencing unusual rainfall, hence the gorgeous outdoor 6th floor pool has not been filled yet. By Fuzhouian standards it is not hot. Since I can't swim I think I will have a spa day in the hotel spa. Their menu is quite enticing. Hard to decide, but I have chosen "Charcoal Sauna Bath-It will clear away dust particles& poisonous substance, nourish your appearance and brighten your skin. Further more, it will kill the bacreria infecting your face, which is also a cure fir acne, rheumatism, arthritis, rosacwa,etc."(sic ) I may have to see what the obsession with ear cleaning is and get one here as it is also offered. I had to hold back in Tokyo from buying a plastic ear cleaner complete with light-I just didn't know who I would give it to and I thought those that didn't get one may get jealous.
We had a rough first few hours here as we are back to a big city with crazy hair raising traffic. Luckily we had seat belts and Mr. Shen's driving expertise. Our guide from Xiamen had warned us that he did not like this hotel as "the service is not good". That is our running joke. We heard the beds might be hard, well hard they are-like those pretty"comfy looking" display beds in department stores that are actually wood boxes-exactly that. We are sleeping on box springs. Great way to cut corners in a 5 star hotel, just buy box springs. Chris had me call housekeeping to get a non-down "piller" for myself(allergies) and tell them our beds were too hard. The solution? Feather duvets-the cushioning is unbelievable! Ha! Anyway, they brought me two more down pillows and another down quilt after they put the duvets on our springs. I donated all my feathers to Chris and she built herself a deluxe princess and the pea nest. We decided that we'd go to the department store for a pillow "zhen tuo" and padding. Our dinner, (in a private room that kept us from the constant stares) ended with a special dish of fish head in hot chili peppers and black bean sauce-it was actually quite delicious-well the chilies and sauce-mr. fish was rather carpy, muddy flavored, but the sauce was great. We then headed to the neon ladden department store to get some bed fixins. Schell, our new guide who speaks Mandarin, French and English is a great guy with a sense of humor and big heart. He has a British accent and is very easy to talk with. He found me a foam pad and was excited as it was only 280Y ($30) and he had recently bought one for 1000Y! I will give him mine when we go to Guangzhou which he is excited about. I then found a fantastic silk pillow for about 10 dollars which will be coming back to Portland with me! At the store we caused quite the commotion, groups gathering around to see the four foreigners-what did they buy? why are they here? Who gets to help them? Saturday night and the four floor department store was absolutely packed-10 to 12 people at every check out lane pushing thru and hundreds of mopeds lining the front sidewalk. This whole province sees very few foreigners, that is why we seem to get the ongoing, not try to hide it stares. In Xiamen as we walked along the waterfront (I later named the gauntlet) every single person turned their head away from the view and fixed eyes towards Chris and me...not a situation you can deal with for very long.
Today is Family Day-we will get Hazel in 4 hours!!!!!! "Not soon enough!" Chris just piped up. I am very excited and feel lucky to have already met her and made her giggle. I've got all my batteries charged and am ready to document all. I am so glad that I brought the video cam-Thank you Jana and John! I almost left it as we came over carry on only. Anyway, we are off to Wal-Mart-not our choice, but Schell wants to take us their. I think he really likes the shopping! I am so excited and grateful that Susan is here with us again. She is the adoption agency's Chinese representative. She is constant giggles and entertainment and a wealth of knowledge. We have made a deal to teach each other our native languages. With Susan you can get whatever you need or want and always best quality and best price. After Wal-Mart off Then to the Civil Affairs office to get baby Hazel or fondly known as "Basil" by my niece and nephew. Looks as though we will get to visit a few "very famous" temples, laquerware factory/shop and stonecutters. Those are things Fuzhou is known for. I can't wait to try "Buddhas jumping over the wall"-a special dish here. I have no idea what it consists of...
As I look out the 19th floor window, it looks like a cold November day, hard to compute that it is 89' and saunaesque. We are off-look forward to pictures of Hazel on the next post!