China Day 8 - Temples and Fish Heads

We had our first day in Guangzhou and went to a family temple and Buddhist temple. Our guide explained that the family temple was created by all the people with the last name of Chen in Guangzhou. It was used as a sort of study place for when students were getting ready to take an exam so they could work for the government. The artwork was incredible.

The decorations on the top were crazy ornate

This was a mother dragon. She has a baby. Even though it's kind of scary, I still said "Aww." Stone dragons love their babies too.

Jack really handled the heat well. Our guide said "Isn't it like this in Florida?" Jack said "Yes, but when it's this hot and humid we stay in our pool." Spoken like a true American.

For a moment, I seriously thought this was a statue of Gollum from Lord of the Rings.

"I'm not talking to you."
"Fine, I don't even like you and your goatee is stupid."
"At least I have hair."
"Oh that's rich coming from a guy who sits next to a pot all day."
"This pot? It's your mom's."

Carved from bone.

This is a room where the monks hung out. Our guide told us they talked, read, played games and smoked opium. I suddenly realize why Buddhist monks are happier than Catholic ones.

After the family temple, we went to a Buddhist temple. Again, lots of incense (note the correct spelling). We got to take pictures of Buddha, where we weren't allowed at the last temple. There were lots of beggars at the front steps. This one woman was literally scooting herself around holding out a bowl for money. I felt bad until I watched as she spotted someone giving money across the courtyard and ran full speed over to her. Well played madam. 

After the temple, we went to a local market. People had containers of frogs and turtles for sale to eat. The fish they splayed out and had rows of puffed up bladders. For what I'm not sure. Our guide told us that the fish head is the most expensive part of the fish and properly cooked it's delicious. I'll take my fish in sticks, thank you.

We went to McDonald's for lunch because it was the only thing we could find around our hotel. Talitha kept pointing at Matt's coke so he gave her a sip. This is her face.

Yes, she is eating chicken nuggets and drinking coke. There is nothing I can say that will make this better.

As soon as the worker at the counter saw me coming, she presented me with a picture menu. We are not big on fast food so I just pointed at a couple hamburger meals and a four pack of nuggets. After I got my tray, I stared at it blinking. They were kid meals. That was a fun walk of shame through the restaurant, holding my kid meals with the generic Little Pony toys aloft. It was enough food for us though and I felt pretty even with McDonalds when I noticed the hats the workers wear:

They have huge plastic french fry containers on them. Can you imagine that in America? People would be calling the ACLU, teenagers marring the hats by replacing the fries with cigarettes or phallic shapes...

We went home and Talitha took a nap. We stopped by the pool for just a bit. Tali wasn't thrilled but neither was she upset. She just calmly took it all in. She'll be swimming soon...

Ready for the pool!

She's also incredibly flexible. Like newborn flexible. She often brings her feet up to her eyes. She will splay her legs out flat to the side when laying on her stomach and sit up, keeping her legs still and coming up into a split.

This is often how she sleeps. Either like this or with her knees bent but legs apart like that.

We went to dinner up at the Executive Lounge. While I was waiting to get some hot water from the coffee machine, one of the staff sidled up to me and rubbed my shoulder for a couple seconds, asking "Can I help you with anything?"

"Well, you can start by not touching me. I know my sweat pants and chubby bare fingers may say otherwise, but I'm actually taken. You can get me a bottle of beer though. Do you have any snuff? I could go for a pinch right about now."

Later this evening, we witnessed a great moment. I was feeding Talitha her bedtime bottle of formula and singing her songs and nursery rhymes. She was touching my mouth the whole time. Then I started reciting my favorite children's book 'Where the Wild Things Are.' I recited the line "Max stepped into his private boat and waved goodbye.' She took her hand off her bottle and waved goodbye at me. I said it again and she did it again. What a clever kid. 

She'll fit right in.