Last full day in Nanchang

For fun today, I went out in front of the hotel, sat on a low wall, and took pictures of the world passing by.  I really enjoyed it, but I'll wait to share those until I can go through the full size images.  In the meantime, here's my hotel.  

Which I'm leaving tomorrow at noon to head back to the airport.  I just realized that I didn't do any shopping at all here (unless you count groceries, which, I do not).  Wow.  I hope Paul's impressed.  

As I sat out front, it became apparent that there was a wedding about to happen in the hotel.  Traffic was even worse than usual, and they had extra people out helping direct parking.  Right after we got up to the room I was all, Omigosh, what is that noise??  I looked out the window to see this smoke plume and realized it was firecrackers from the wedding.  The went off 3 or 4 different times over the next couple of hours.  

Luke woke up inconsolably cranky after his nap, so I tried the bath again, and it worked.  He likes to sit and splash.  

Today we finally got a real live cultural experience.  We were taken to People's Park and walked around for a while.  

Lovely flowers, although I'm starting to get a little self conscious about all the staring.  A few people say Hello, but most just stare.  I smile at them, but I don't know if that helps or makes it worse.  

A fish mob.  They were so thick, some of them would jump up and writhe across their friends like surfing a mosh pit.  

There was food you could buy to feed to them, of course.

Random pretty building across the lake at the park.  

My guide Helen, who is 12 years younger than I am.  I happened to see her ID when we were at the bank exchanging money.  

There's the side of the building above, and a nice little bridge in the background.  Just realized you can't see Luke's shirt in any of today's pictures.  It has a fire engine on it.  

Mobile reptile shop outside the park.  They had the cutest little turtles, just like Annaliese's was when we got him.  The whole setup is on a bicycle.  Hope those cages are secure!  People (bikes and cars) drive crazy here.  

Noodle boy!  My guide finally took me to a Chinese restaurant.  He likes his mein, just like Hannah and Eli.

Helen said, "You eat, I feed baby."  Seems it was too early for dinner for her.  So I ate, and she fed baby, and it was yummy and funny.  And now that we're back at the hotel, guess who crashed out in the stroller?  Given that I've been up 15 hours, I should take a snooze, too, but it's early, and I'm afraid of waking up unable to get back to sleep.

A big thanks to those of you who are still clicking our Top Mommy Blogs button at the top left sidebar. I was pleasantly surprised to see we haven't fallen while I've been unable to put the button at the end of each blog post.  

Really looking forward to seeing Paul late tomorrow night.  Also really looking forward to meeting Katie on Monday!