Day 11 – Day 2 For Oslo, Tea Farmer, Meds, Laundry, Adoption, & Dinner
Ok, so let’s see, the driver and guide arrived at about 8-8:30 am to take us to the government office to officially adopt Oslo. We had a 9:30am appointment, so we had to stop by the photo stop to pick up the family picture and we would be on our way. Just after we stopped to get our family photo our guide started to explain about the region and its tea. She got as far as the elevation and earth make for the best tea in all of China when I interrupted to ask about our appointment.
We were told there was some delay with the notary or some paperwork or something but all-in-all there was nothing of value being explained except that we were going to the tea farmer’s house first then the Silk museum and then maybe later we can do the notary paperwork.
Well that is not how our day went at all.
Last night just after I went to bed it began to rain and was still raining on and off so we took a nice quiet ride up into what I would describe as the foothills of Hangzhou, passing many walking bridges (each with a very interesting story as told by our guide - NOT!).
“Ok soes you know da story of da love of da budderflies? No? of course you do, so diz bridge is da broken budderflies love bridge so many of da luveers cumz ta walket dis bridge for da love”
Broken Love Bridge?
“Ok soes dis bridge is da bridge about suh women who was princess uh and shees looves da man who not prince so dey could no be married so he kilt himself yeah zen she says ok to marry prince but she no happy so she kilz her da self on wedding day. So yeah, people whose wantz suh love they walk this bridge yeah? But you knows this already yeah.”
Sign in the Tea Field
So 30 bridge stories later and a 20 minute explanation about when to pick tea in the hills, we were at a tea farmer’s house to sample real tea grown feet from where we sat.
After walking up into the fields
Turns out we were not at the farmer’s house. We were two doors down at her friend’s house because her house was being renovated. Her house was a palatial 3 story version with carpenters discussing the best way to get the marble slabs up the third floor. None-the-less it was very charming and she concluded also that I was “Zhong Gou Tong” so she was very adamant that I take her address down so when I came back I knew which house was hers.
Inspecting the tea grades
After having paid ENTIRELY too much for tea (regardless of how elite the grade and that it had been saved back for the families personal stash) I told her (in Chinese) that I could not come back and see her in the new house because then the price of the tea I just bought would be double the price then, to pay for her nice house! She laughed and said that she would see me later. Little did she know!
Tea so good you can eat it.
About half-way through the whole tea inspection, slash sales-pitch Oslo really became fussy and Christe initiated the “ok tea’s cool - let’s go” face so I pulled out the money and bought some tea. I made sure to explain that I wanted the good stuff from the family stash. We got two full packages for ourselves. It costs roughly $75 USD for each box. Don’t worry I was made to feel better by our driver when he told me that this grade of tea could be purchased at many of the tea-only shops in town for 5 times the cost and you don’t get to inspect the tea because it’s already sealed up.
It was also at this time that our guide and driver explained that this tea from the farmer’s house would be an excellent gift for the orphanage director and vice-director so I told them I needed 3 more packages, of the lower grade stuff, that is!
Packing up the buy!
When I told the tea-farmer lady I wanted the lower grade because they were not for me. All the Chinese people in the room laughed and the tea farmer said to our guide in Chinese “Oh you were right, he is Chinese.” When she left to get 3 new tea pouches I asked our guide why she said I was Chinese. My guide said that is what the locals do; they buy lots and keep the best for themselves. I explained to her that’s not Chinese, that’s just cheap, and I’m cheap.
So we piled back into the van for a picturesque drive back out of the hills back past the 130 bridges of “duh brokens loves” and back to the hotel because our guide wanted to go back to government offices to see what was going on with the adoption proceedings and then she would call us back.
Back at the hotel, Christe was now changing runny-poopy diapers again and again so we determined that not only was little man a shitting-machine but that we clearly needed to get some laundry done. We took a small nap proceeded by feeding him some more formula that had been carefully picked out previously by our guide as “dis is the good one, this is the ones I used for my son yeah, it’s good yeah, it’s da perfect one yeah”.
With another runny diaper to be changed looming, Christe suggested I call our guide and see if she would take me to a pharmacy to get some anti-diarrhea medicine and a new package of diapers.
A quick call to our guide and she was quickly downstairs in the hotel lobby (she is staying at another hotel across the street because it’s less expensive). She came upstairs to double-check my wife’s request and make sure we weren’t just crazy American parents who didn’t understand this is “a Chinese baby”.
Having confirmed the smell in the room was in fact poo and not just fine Chinese take-away and yes in fact, we did know we had a Chinese baby, the guide and I were off to get some poo-poo stop medicine and some diapers.
During the walk which took us in several directions as our guide is not from Hangzhou, — she had to ask several “officials” on the street for a “pharmacy” – our guide explained that the government offices are closed right now. This is because of the “big meeting” that all of the officials at these kinds of offices (like we were at yesterday) were attending at some other office, and they were NOT planning on coming back to work today.
So basically she had just returned to her hotel room when I called her because while we were napping she had been at the government office pleading with people to give her phone numbers of officials so she could beg them to come back to work after the meeting so we could officially adopt Oslo and then go to another office (also closed now) where we could process all the paperwork with the famed notary (pronounced “lottery” by our guide) which costs a cool 4,000 RMB.
She said that she kept being told that the officials did not care about our need to do this today, because we had to go to Wenzhou tomorrow, because Wenzhou was getting a typhoon today so they surely would not have government offices open tomorrow.
I asked, “What do you mean a TYPHOON?”
She said, “You know the typhoon, a typhoon. Why you think it’s a raining now? It’s the typhoon you know?”
“Oh that explains it, thanks.”
We found a pharmacy where she explained that our baby had diarrhea and sticky eyes and we got drops for his eyes and some poo-stopper stuff.
We got back to the room gathered up all the laundry we had since landing in Shanghai and the guide and I were on another expedition.
So I’m carrying 20lbs of clothes in a brown sack as we walked another mile in numerous directions looking for a laundry place someone at her hotel had told her about. It turns out that this laundry was nothing more than a guy with a stall on one of the local side roads with a washing machine. It was nestled in-between the fruit stand and smoke stand but had no sign so we had passed it twice already.
He quoted the price a bit high to which our guide said, “It’s because it is summer you know, in winter not so much business so it’s cheaper then.”
“Oh yeah, that explains it”, I said.
Just as we finished the uncomfortable task of having each garment dumped out of the bag on the street in front of his shop and inspected and counted in front of me, (I can’t explain what a great experience it is to have you underwear held up in front of your face by some strange man looking at you with a weird look) our guide got a call on her cell phone and she wandered a few paces away to take it. The laundry man said in Chinese “Come back tomorrow to get your laundry. It takes me another day to do this big laundry”.
It turns out the call was from an official who had agreed to come back to work to do the adoption and we must go now!
We hustled back to the hotel where an unaware wife and baby had to get ready very quickly to meet the driver who had just been called, downstairs immediately.
We drove 20 minutes back to the office from yesterday where we rushed into the same room and waited for what turned out to be a little girl (or at least she looked like it) who asked us for the family picture that she glued on to a sheet of paper I was to inspect all the names and passport numbers on. I did that then our guide to check the same numbers and then told Christe to inspect all the same information and then she squeezed an official seal on part of the photo and paper and we were done.
Officially part of the family!
I had noticed the t-shirt the “official” was wearing and asked if I could take a picture of it and our guide said yes of course you can take a picture of her with you and the baby, once the paper work was put in the “red book”.
Happy Virus To You Too!
As soon as we snapped a couple quick photos (including a close up of the official to key in on the t-shirt) we were off and in a rush to get to the notary office (at another location) where we could get all of the other paper work notarized.
So a quick half-hour later through rush-hour traffic we were at the notary office where I had to proof 9 documents that I had no idea what I was proofing for because at this late hour, who would make any changes if anything was wrong. 4000 RMB lighter, we left.
With our guide very tired, a driver over his scheduled time, a baby still suffering from water poo and no lunch in Christe, little man or I, we opted not to press for the silk museum but were assured that we could do it on our last day in Hangzhou if we wanted.
So back at the hotel we now had all the paperwork we needed to go to our baby’s hometown tomorrow. We did however still have the small problem that our guide was telling us we would have to pack our room up tonight and we would leave all of our bags at this hotel because we would be checking out tomorrow.
Christe and I were flabbergasted because we were told by CHI that in all the money we paid them for this leg of the trip, which was nearly half of all that we had to pay, we would be paying for a hotel room both in Hangzhou and Wenzhou one night. Our guide was sure that we were not, so she and I went to the front desk and Christe and Oslo headed back to the room.
I then had to pay for another night and I asked our guide to find out how much a bigger room would be.
We ended up being told there weren’t any bigger rooms but that there was a nicer room on another floor and that the bell boy would show us the room and if we liked it we could discuss the price then.
We all went up to get Christe and the baby went down to the 7th floor and saw a much nicer room with a better view and arguably bigger so when we asked how much the difference was the bellboy had no idea so the guide and I were back down stairs.
We got the “upgrade” for free which I later found out was because our guide had called her agency and her manager had called the hotel and told them if we got the better room she would surely book many other people in that hotel. It turns out that our guide used to do the entire hotel and travel booking for her agency before choosing to work in the field.
So what followed the room upgrade was truly a cluster-bleep but it basically amounted to our guide and I going up to our current room and telling Christe everything had to go to the new room NOW!
Four large suitcases and 2 ½ days worth of daily life had to be shoved in suitcases and sacks from the hotel and moved immediately. There is something strictly un-Chinese about having other people outside of your family stuffing and going through your personal belongings that is very unsettling but the job got done.
Exhausted and now severely hungry we suggested that our guide go with us to get some food and buy some long pants and a jacket for the long ride to Wenzhou tomorrow. Our driver was adamant that we get some pants and a jacket for little man because 6 hours in the van’s air conditioning in shorts would not be acceptable on his watch. He had also recommended an inexpensive clothing shop within walking distance of the hotel. We made a quick stop in the lobby to turn in our old room keys and we were off.
Mommy and Oslo waiting in the lobby.
The clothing shop turned out the be the secret hidden store that all Chinese parents must know as it seems this is where you find those clothes that have sayings in english that make no sense, and all the clothes were used! Christe just did not want to spend hours rummaging through the piles of boxes for the right size so we went to a proper department store where we purchased some fine ‘BOBDOG’ brand pants, shirt and a jacket.
We walked back to a restaurant where we finally could relax a bit with some food and a beer. It was at this point I truly wish I had brought the camera or video because little man is clearly an eating machine!
We ordered about 5 different dishes, mostly of local specialties and some white rice. We could not shovel it in his face fast enough for him. Both Christe and I were taking turns, back-and-forth, shoving food in his face.
This was a “nicer” restaurant and we were clearly being stared at by all the patrons and the help. His high chair was wooden and looked like something straight out of London’s orphanage. Much like all restaurant high chairs it had no eating surface which made it easy for little man to swiftly grab a saucer and throw it to the ground and break it. It also allowed him to be close enough to try and grab his own food.
After both Christe and I tired of trying to fill his face with food from our plates we started putting his food on a small plate in front of him so we could just shovel it in him while the other broke more food up.
Now while we were doing this and trying to talk to our guide, little man decided that the small breaks between bites was just not acceptable so he began lunging face first towards his plate.
At one point he was successful and with a 1.9 degree of difficulty he scored a perfect 10 in the face-plant-to-the-plate-with-mouth-wide-open-dive. He got some food in his mouth and came back up to show off rice also stuck to his face. The three of us lost it. We were laughing so hard and he was just looking at us like “WHAT? WHAT?”
The rest of the restaurant was looking at us as well. Shortly there after we paid the bill and were off to get back to the hotel to pack for tomorrow and off to bed.
Now sitting here, I should mention that Christe and Oslo are asleep in the bed (he basically will sleep in the crib for a couple of hours only) so one of the questions we have for the orphanage besides what kind of formula was he on, is, what’s with the sudden waking and screaming/crying he does every couple of hours?
He seems to wake up but not be fully awake and he just goes into this angry cry / gagging thing and we can’t seem to soothe him out of it. We told the guide and she just seems to think it’s us but the pattern is too regular for it to be new. We’ve thought it was gas pains or his cleft pallete or many other things but it seems to be less frequent when he’s sleeping on our bed between us.
I am currently sitting here documenting the intervals to have when we speak to the nannies.
Enough for now, I will hopefully post more from Wenzhou tomorrow.
