Saturday June 20th

*So sorry everyone for the delay in the posts! I was having technical difficulties! ~Katie Friar

We started the day off by visiting a popular park in Guangzhou.  This weekend is also the Dragon Boat Festival which is a national three day holiday so the park was pretty crowded.  Guangzhou is known as the goat city and there was a monument located in the middle of the park.  We all bought fans because it was so hot today.

After paying homage to the goats of Guangzhou we went to a different section of the park for a game of hacky sack.  Their hacky sack is a little different than ours.  It's made of feathers attached to a springy thing.  We've mentioned Simon quite a bit in the blog. He is the guy holding the fan in the following video.

 

 

Here's another video of some very skilled hacky sack players.

 

 

 

Then on to some Tia Chi.

 

 

We then went to another section of the park that has the last remains of the original Guangzhou city wall which is over 600 years old.  It was pretty cool to see the tree roots growing all over of the wall. 

 

After that we went to this giant jade mall which was extremely boring for Jack and myself.  The girls picked up a few pieces of jade and that's about all there is to report on that.  We then went to a souvenir shop.  We walked in and right in the front of the store was a huge Buddha statue.  Liya rubbed the Buddha's belly and then turned and rubbed my belly.  I can only assume that she believes she has been adopted by a living God.

When we climbed back into the car to head back to the hotel, I could not find the vomit bag.  After searching for a bit, Liya said, "peepee".  I looked at Simon and asked him what she said.  He giggled and told us she just said, "ass".  Sure enough, that's where the bag was.  I am also happy to report that the bag could've stayed right there under my peepee because she didn't need it all day.

Most of us are hitting a China wall, pun intended.  Taylor will report more on that later in her side blog!  Anyway, Jack, Nicky and I decided we needed a big dose of the good old USA so we headed to McDonald's for lunch and they did not disappoint! The lady taking our order must have known we were struggling because when I ordered my Big Mac she informed me that not only do they have Big Macs, but they also have Grand Big Macs here in China that are twice the size of normal Big Macs.  (These pics do not do it justice.)

After our fix, all was right in the world again. Unfortunately, Taylor chose not to have McDonald's for lunch today.  She hit her wall when we sat down for dinner.  Here's her "side blog".

 

A little update from Taylor Losse:
China is not I repeat NOT like in the pictures. Just kidding. I really miss St. Louis and Mac and Cheese and the library and people that don't stare at me everywhere I go. At least they only touch my brother's hair. But I am really lucky to be here. Just not for 2 weeks. And by the way I love my new sister. I am not trying to be spoiled, but you would understand if you were here! Taylor, signing off from China.
I am told I need to give an update on what we will be doing tomorrow.  We are headed to Shamian Island for more shopping...yipee!