Noodles

Hello from the tropical rainforest that is Guangzhou! We had a
relatively quiet day today. Our Consulate Appointment was this morning,
and Lee (our fantastic guide in this city) took our paperwork over this
morning and took care of everything for us. We waited by the phone until
she called around noon to let us know that everything went smoothly and
there were no questions. We all go to the Consulate tomorrow afternoon
at 2:15 for Hannah's swearing-in ceremony! We bought a special silk
dress today just for the occasion!

This afternoon Lee took us shopping at the Pearl Market. I don't know
quite how to describe it - like a giant shopping mall (many many levels)
and on each level are row after row of wholesale jewelery stores. Lots
of stores with pearls, along with many other strands of various
beads/stones/jewels. Anything round, really. Chris says "imagine an
endless maze of the same store over and over and over...imagine if the
Williamsburg Pottery only carried one thing and you stacked twelve of
them on top of each other." He clearly had fun. :) The prices were good,
though if you wanted the strands that were clearly higher quality, you
had to be willing to pay (we were not) - more than I wanted to spend,
but much less than if you bought at a store in the U.S. I did bargain
for a few strands of low-quality pearls and a funky strand of
probably-not-real-jade beads, which was fun. Quite the experience!

Hannah's favorite part of the day was clearly dinner. We went to the
highly recommended Cow and Bridge Restaurant (Thai food) where she got
her very own order of rice noodles. (I love that this is the second
restaurant on the island with a "baby" section on the menu!). Enjoy the
adorableness! :)