Britney Spears and the Amazing Race

So today we had a fairly free day since we decided not to go to the park with some of the others in our group. Julie, Dan and I were feeling adventurous so we decided to head out to the state run department store that is near our hotel. You would think the prices in China would be better, but at the state run stores, the prices are fixed and they are not particularly fabulous. After we left the department store, we had a "fan encounter" that was on par with what I'm sure Britney Spears experiences every single day of her life. We were walking along with the girls in the strollers when all of a sudden, a group of locals just kind of gathered around Julie and Lucy. Julie handed over her card that explains that we're Americans in China adopting a baby and that we love China very much. This obviously pleased the crowd. And I told them in my very limited Chinese that Julie was my mei mei (little sister) and I was the jie jie (big sister). They seemed intrigued by this prospect. I had told Julie before we left that if you ever wanted to feel like a rock star you would here. Now she believes me : ))

After our brush with fame, we went to Starbucks. We decided to be super adventurous and try to find these special birthday candles that we bought when we were in Chongqing five years ago. The candles are really cool because you light them in the middle and then fireworks come out the top and about eight small candles come down and start spinning around the fireworks while the candle plays "happy birthday". So I asked the woman at Starbucks, who spoke limited English, about the candles and she wrote down the name of a bakery that she thought would have them. So we set out with just our Chinese travel guidebook and this small slip of paper in search of the birthday candles. About every two blocks we would stop and point to the phrase in the guidebook that said, "I am looking for" and then pointed to the Chinese characters for the bakery. Of course we hadn't thought about the fact that we wouldn't understand their answer. But whatever - we got their drift by their pointing. At one point Dan mentioned that we were just like the people on the show "The Amazing Race" with our trusty guidebook and our paper with directions. It was pretty funny. We eventually did find the candles at a bakery and they were amazed that we wanted to buy ten of them. But we wanted some for Chloe and Lia's future birthdays. And we probably need to go back and get more because there are a couple of people at Dan's work that want them too. From what I understand they are particular to China and maybe even Chongqing. I included a picture of the candle from one of the baby's birthday party last night in my previous blog so you can see it.

Tonight Bill, Dan and I are heading to McDonalds for dinner since we hear that it's just like the food at home. Not that Dan and I usually eat McDonalds but we're going to here.