A Night on the Town

I know I have been whining about being tired. And believe me, I really detest whining, so I apologize.

I think I have some legitimate excuses for being tired. I'm traveling. I'm handling 4 kids, 3 of which are 5 and younger. I'm dealing with the trauma that Ryan has gone through. All of those are good excuses to be tired but perhaps it really boils down to lack of sleeping area and the resulting lack of sleep.

This was our first night with Ryan and he slept at the foot of the bed because every time I tried to move him he got upset.

A couple of nights later. Notice they are all pretty compact at this point. However they have just gone to bed.

The next night/ morning. Can you believe this?

The next night. Yes I do sleep in this bed, I try to on the left side. Its obvious that my children need a refresher course on the rules of sleeping with mom.

I realized a few nights ago that sleeping 4 of us side by side was not working and that all 3 of the children were about 3 feet tall or shorter. The bed is long so I slept across the bottom. Notice my pillow at the bottom of the bed.

Julia joined us this night and we got a roll away bed-- there was just no way to put another body in that bed. I do realize that my motto is There's Always Room For One More, but I do have to draw the line somewhere. You will notice that Emma has made it down by me in the night.

And finally last night. Ryan is a spinner, in case you hadn't noticed in the photos above, and last night he was voted off the island, offered the roll away bed. Before you think he was really banished, he WANTED to be there and fussed when we went to move him so Julia said she would rather sleep in the bed anyway.

So if I have some circle's under my eyes in photos now you know why. But now back to the real topic of the post.

Yesterday, Thursday, was filled with more shopping on the island but that evening the Jiangxi group all decided to go back to the shopping mall area that we went to to when we went to the Pearl Market. It took 3 taxis to get us there. My group was first, Penny, Shannon, Norah and my mom were next and Jim, Shannon, and their girls were last. Jim still had the paper that told the taxi driver where to take us and showed each driver before they left the hotel.

The first 2 cars dropped us off at the Pearl Market. Jim and his family were dropped off at the opposite end, by the mall. When we first got out we really weren't sure where we were but after getting our bearings we figured it out. The problem we weren't sure where Jim and his family really were. This is when you really miss cell phones! We decided to watch for them as we started walking that way.

Soon we were all reunited and we decided to have dinner at McDonalds.

All McDonalds are not the same and the Chinese like things that are spicy. So chicken sandwiches are spicy. My cheeseburger had a spicy sauce. It might have been ok but they didn't have Coke Light, the Asian equivalent to Diet Coke, and the Sprite tasted like carbonated water. Because of the communication problem we orginally ended up with 8 drinks for 5 people! In the end we still had a couple of drinks too many but it wasn't worth the effort to solve the problem.

Julia enjoyed her chicken nuggets and french fries. The McDonalds counter is behind her.

The kids all got teddy bears with their Happy Meals so they were extra happy.

Emma enjoying her french fries and chicken nuggets. Ryan is chowing down on his hamburger. I wish I had gotten a Happy Meal myself.

Penny snapped this pic of Norah at McDonalds. There were several other photos and I love this one because it looks like she is holding up her hand and saying "enough with the photos!"

After we left McDonalds we headed out the back door and into the Chinese food court.

Here is the Chinese equivilant to a food court. It was a long alley with stalls on either side. But I promise you that you won't find some of these things at your local mall.

What in the world could that be? Some appear cooked and other parts raw...

Why that would be fried squid tentacles. Yum, yum. And on a stick. Everything tastes better on a stick. Just ask people who buy corn dogs at their local mall food court.

But wait, fried squid tentacles not your thing? Hold that thought---

What in the world is this? Could that be...?

Yes, that would be spicy, fried scorpions! With the stingers still attached. Ashley and Brooke actually bought one. I forgot to ask how much this delectable treasure cost.

How could she possibly eat that???? She didn't she was just pretending to. However, she did lick it hence the knowledge that it was spicy. I don't think this is something everyone eats though. After playing around with it they tried to give it away to the local Chinese but no one wanted it.

Here is our group standing outside the Women's and Children's Essential Store. We were about to enter when something caught our attention...

A man dressed in a chicken suit blowing an obnoxious horn. Brooke went up to him and he offered to let her blow his horn but she declined. He was selling something that he kept tucked inside his suit but we never did figure out what it was.

We went into the Essential Store and the other 2 families bought various baby items but we just watched. My Mega Stroller really caught some attention there and one couple had a baby and they brought her up to us to show her off. She was very cute. I wished I had thought to get some photos of them.

After a while we left the store and were soon on our way.

Here is a photo of the outside shopping mall area when we first got there.

And this is after. Sorry its blurry. The Chinese seem to really like colorful lights on their buildings.

Here is a picture of the big screen overhead. It was showing some kind of story about 2 babies but I couldn't figure out what it was about. Jim and his family's heads are at the bottom.

A photo of the corner where McDonald's is. It was on the 2nd floor.

Penny and her family and my family were tired so we decided to take a taxi back to the hotel. The problem was that the Chinese don't believe in taking turns or standing in lines. You have to understand that I am a very patient person (most of the time) and I totally believe in fairness and taking your turn but after I had a few taxis snatched from me I wasn't going to let the next one get by.

So I grabbed a taxi, or Shannon did actually, and the Mega Stroller wouldn't fit in the trunk. I wasn't about to let that stop me!!! I think the driver wanted me to hit the road in someone else's taxi but I finally had one and I wasn't about to let him go! So I took it to the front seat and started to put it in. The sun shade/visor wouldn't quite fit and I'm sure the driver was feeling a bit smug trying to show me it wouldn't fit when I just reached over and smashed down the visor and pushed it in the car. The driver looked at me surprised, kind of laughed and shut the door.

Don't' try to tell ME that something won't work, even if its in another language.