Morning at Martyr's Park

This morning we visited a beautiful park here in Changsha. It's called Martyr's park and honors all the people who died in the National Revolutionary War early in the last Century, when Mao Zedong took over power in China. It was very pretty - it has a lake, little ponds, little restaurants and pagodas where the locals are making music. People are dancing, doing Tai Chi, and strolling around with their children. It has some carneval rides on one end, and a big monument on the other. It's shaded by many large trees. We went there together with A and S and their family, which caused quite a stir with the local folks: Here were these 2 westerners, speaking chinese, with identical chinese twin girls in tow. There was ususally quite a crowd gathered around them, which was nice for us, going unnoticed for the most part.
Nina was pretty tired and hot, but perked right up when we bought her a balloon and an ice cream cone. She loved both. She is still pretty withdrawn this morning, but her funny little personality shines through every so often. She absolutely LOVES these little yoghurt-like drinks that seem/smell super fortified with all kinds of vitamins. Oh well, whatever makes her happy is our Motto at this time. She slurps them down in record time, and is always ready for more.
Daphne took us to a very old local restaurant (over 100 years old) that was so interesting: Waiters and waitresses had little carts with different food selections that they pushed around in the restaurant, and you could pick out the ones you wanted. We all shared about 15 different dishes - lots of veggies, fruit, Rice, tofu, meat, soup and more. It was delicious. Most of it. I was very excited about the mushroom and chicken soup, but when the misteriously looking black piece of chicken turned out to be a chicken foot (claws and all) - IN my bowl *shiver* - I reconsidered that selection. What I really like about the restaurants here is that they just bring out the bowls of food, and you serve yourself up with an appropriate portion. No pressure to eat a huge plate of stuff. Also, they bring out dishes as they are done cooking them, so you might have been eating for quite some time already, and then they bring out something else you had ordered earlier. I was really worried that all we would be eating for 2 weeks was rice and noodles, and I'm pleasantly surprised with all the healthy foods we have available. We are thouroughly enjoying the local foods. And the truly local restaurants are very cheap - I think our entire meal (for 6 adults and Nina and the twins) cost about 29 Dollars - and that included drinks. And you don't need to tip!
Nina hat somewhat of a meltdown while we were eating, but it was pretty short lived.
We went to Wal Mart (again - gotta have some comfort shopping *ha*) which was just up the street, and we bought Nina some more of her very favorite Yoghurt drinks, a hat and a cute cute dress (and guess who is getting the same ones?? I give you a hint: They are related, and between 2 and 3 years old... oops, we were not going to tell that we got them at Wal Mart... oh well, secret spilled!), and watch out, Fun-shoppers in the family - Miss Spicy girl LOVES shopping! She was so excited about her new dress and had a great time! Well, except for the minor run-in with Daddy, who would not let her tear into the milk before we paid for it. That was a little baby-cow-crisis, but we headed to check out right away at that point :-))
Home we went, and we showered as we desperately needed it, and Mike and NIna crashed for a couple of hours.
Today's events will be continued, but Mike and I will watch some "Scrubs" and then turn in for the night. Spice drop is already snoozing.
I will leave you with some pictures from this morning though. Love you all - 10 more sleeps, kiddos!