The count down begins...4 days if you are in China

Here is a picture of Alice in her. dress that Amy bought her. It is a little long for her, but I know she is going to grow and she doesn't seem to mind it one bit.



And here is the infamous "red couch" photo that each group will take prior to leaving. These are the other kids that were in Alice's group. The are from left to right Polly, Bliss, Alice, Larissa, Clara and Paige. Then this is also Bliss looking at Alice wondering what all the fuss is about!




Yes, I have begun the countdown!!! It is Tuesday here now so I leave in 4 more days -- my saturday morning and then I arrive in the AZ saturday afternoon.

It is interesting to see how accustom we have become to the daily activities. Such as how they drive. The first day here we were intimidated to even put one foot in the street because there is no evidence of traffic rules being followed and definitely no pedestrians right of way. But today we even walk down the middle of the street right along with them all and we know which cars we can walk in front of without fear of them not stopping! All the shop owners recognize us and some even know us by name. We know which shops we can get the "good" discounts in. When I look out my window down at the street and see people walking around, I can recognize at least someone that I know either from our group or one of the shops!! And we can actually count out our money ourselves now when we purchase something rather than just letting them point to what we need. I also don't try to convert everything to USD before wondering if it is a good deal or not. Another thing that you would be having a fit over in the US is when you order your dinner, they just bring out whatever is ready whenever it is ready -- this could mean that one person might get there dinner literally 10 or 15 minutes before anyone else at the table. I remember this being very noticable the very first dinner we sat down at in Beijing, but tonight I didn't get my dinner until about 15 minutes after the first person and it didn't even phase me. In the US this would be grounds for a free meal!!

I missed the tour this morning because Alice fell asleep at 9:00am and I wanted to let her sleep. I heard it was beautiful and I can't wait to see Daniela's pictures -- she is Sabrina and my personal photographer. She said she is going to put all her still photos from Guangzhou on a CD for me so I can bring them home. She has a wonderful eye for getting interesting shots.

I went to Lucy's for lunch and then walked around a bit and then came back to the room to rest before the big photo shoot. The red couch photo is just a tradition for each group from a particular agency. It does help to signify that we are on our way home, finally!!! And tomorrow we will be off on our last tour of the trip! After this, I believe the next two bus trips we will take will be to the consolate and then to the airport!!

:=)