Pearl Market and Wasting Time...

May 31, 2012 - Yesterday we went to the Pearl Market. It is a huge shopping mall that consists mostly of jewelry, including real salt water, fresh water, black Tahitian pearls, and other jewels. I heard about the Pearl Market before we left for China and already had ideas of what I wanted to buy there. I wanted to find something special for Lucy and Isabelle for either their wedding day or for some kind of special day in their life, i.e. 16th birthday, graduation, or wedding. When I saw this necklace I knew this was exactly what I was looking for.

We did a little more shopping just to waste more time. Nothing too exciting. We try to find as much stuff to do as we can to make the days go faster. Let's just say, we are more than ready to come home at this point.

Playing at the hotel kiddie land. She likes to swing, yay!!! She will fit right in at our house!

We attempted to take Lucy swimming yesterday because she seemed interested in playing in the fountains on the roof top garden, but as soon as we put her near the pool, tears and screaming started. We tried to ease her into it, but she made it very clear she wanted nothing to do with it. Oh well! We will keep trying.

This morning was our Consulate appointment. The whole reason we are here in Guangzhou came and went without any problems. A lady came up to a window (picture a bank drive thru window at a DMV and just as exciting as the DMV), to explain to us what we were about to do and where to put all the papers we are given tomorrow. When she started talking about our children being U.S. citizens once they touchdown on U.S. soil, a little lump in my throat made it hard to swallow. A good kind of lump. The lady then asked all the parents to stand and raise their right hand. We took an oath to say that all the documents that we have submitted to the Consulate are true to the best of our knowledge. Then we were called up, family by family, to the window to turn in our information, review the information and then were told we were done. All those documents that we have had signed, notarized, authenticated and all the waiting on documents to be approved and all the tears because of unexpected delays flashed through my head when the lady at the window said, congratulations, her (Lucy's) visa will be ready tomorrow afternoon. It was a wonderful morning.
Lucy was dressed for the occasion with her red, white, and blue dress, however, we were not allowed to bring cameras or cell phones into the Consulate, so no pictures. One family brought their camera and left it with officers and we did take a family picture in front of the sign for the U.S. Consulate. If they email it to us, I will post it later.
So that was uneventful, which is fine by me. So on to wasting time.....Here is how we are wasting our time.

Every time we passed this display I said, we need to get pictures of those transformers for the boys. We finally walked over and found out it was a new fashion mall. It looks like a pretty fancy mall, way outside my budget anyway.

a pink transformer for Izzy : )

Always drawing a crowd. I think one man was asking if she was Chinese. We couldn't understand anything except, Chinese???

We found a beautiful park near our hotel. I think the Chinese people rank #1 in gardening in my book. Their parks are beautiful and they keep them clean and tidy.

cool tree!

My red, white, and blue girl!

I like these flowers, white with a little red dotted at the end

Another cool tree by the water

A little blurry, but still shows the beauty of these parks

Name of the park near our hotel...good luck pronouncing that one! : )

As we were walking out of the park this caught my eye......

A Mary Kay store in Guangzhou???

Our home away from home in Guangzhou (The China Hotel - Marriott)

U.S.'s newest citizen when we land in Minneapolis on Sunday