The most wonderful girls born in China!

This morning, after breakfast, Matthew the Guide arrived to take us to Green Mountain Park. This is a major tourist attraction of Nanning, and it was truly a beautiful place. It is a big park, and we saw only a small part of it, including the Palm Arboretum and the pagoda tower, from which we got what Matthew calls a "bird's view" of Nanning City. I wish we could have spent the whole day there, but our outing ended with a great lunch in a spectacular setting, at a very traditional Chinese tea garden house. We ate on a terrace overlooking a lovely lake. Matthew said that "slowness" is a Nanning ideal--that you should be eat slowly, to enjoy your meal, and walk slowly, to enjoy the sights and sounds, so that a lunch at such a "house in the wood" is a great pleasure. After lunch, we fed the carp in the pond. It was actually sort of disturbing to me, as there were so many carp crowding around us, they were practically stacked on top of one another. They were beautiful, but horrible in their appetite. Of course, everyone else thought it was great fun!

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel, and I took the girls to the pool. Libby's idol, Jazz from Chicago showed up, and Lulu even went into the water and played in the pool with Pierre.. She seems to be a bit of a Daddy's girl! This suits Libby fine!

After a while, though, Lulu had a bit of a meltdown. She began crying, and I thought she was just tired and/or cold, but when I tried to take her back to our room, she became very agitated and cried bitterly. She kept saying things that I couldn't understand at all, so I asked the locker-room attendant if she understood, but alas, the attendant spoke Mandarin only. She did try to calm Lulu, saying "gasou wo", etc. (tell me what's wrong), but either Lulu didn't understand, or wouldn't say. I felt helpless to comfort her, not a good feeling. Eventually she calmed down, and we walked back to the hotel. I bought her an Apple piano to cheer her up. This is a truly bizarre toy, which features a tiny keyboard, and four Teletubbie-like characters, who play tunes like "Jingle Bells", when you press their antennae. The package says it is "the best welcoming toy for children". Of course, when Libby arrived back at the room, nothing would do but I had to go back to the store and get one for her. Cacophony reigned in the room, till we went to dinner.

After the drama of the afternoon, we decided to eat in the hotel. Libby loves the hotel's spaghetti (she thinks it is the best she has ever had!), Lulu loves the congee, and Pierre and I love the noodle soup, so it was a good meal. Our toast for the evening: "to the most wonderful girls ever born in China!"

Libby-and-Mom time was a walk around the neighborhood in the evening. It is very relaxing, walking under the palms, and watching the bicycles, who far outnumber the cars at that time. Then we had a snack at the bar--cookies and Sprite for Libby, and Irish coffee for me. Libby said that she loves her mei-mei only a little, "less than the size of a cherry." (?) She also confided that she does not miss Adam, a boy who left her school, because "he always hurt me.", and wondered why "teachers yell at kids". After this interesting conversation, we retired to the room, where Lulu and Pierre were already sleeping.

Off to the zoo tomorrow! Good night!