Good day Everyone!
Another couple of busy Days for us here in Changsha. We have a couple of day to take a breather from official business as our paperwork needs to go through Notary Registration and they prepare Zachary’s Chinese Passport.
On Wednesday, we visited Yuelu Academy, on the campus of Hunan University (the “Penn State” of Hunan Province). Known for educating Teachers (for Elementary and Middle Schools), Hunan University has its roots in Yuelu Academy. The Academy was one of the four famous Academies of the Somng Dynasty and its history reaches back over 1,000 years. The architecture is historically significant and the arrangement of the buildings and courtyards makes for a very interesting tour.
As we walked from our bus drop off to the Academy, we passed a very large and very popular statue of Mao Zedong. Chairman Mao studied at the Academy and he played a very important role in its transformation into Hunan University.
We toured many of the buildings, courtyards and gardens, and even visited a museum of Calligraphy.
Tree IV’s, if you will!
After our tour was over, Steve had arranged a traditional Chinese lunch for us at a restaurant near the Academy. We enjoyed a wide selection of dishes, and the shopped at a souvenir shop nearby (Unfortunately, we didn’t see anything!)
After Lunch we asked if Steve could have the driver take us to Walmart on the way back to our Hotel, to see if we could locate a stroller. By Steve’s reaction after talking to the Driver, we knew something was amiss… It turned out that Walmart was on a very busy and difficult one-way street, and there was NOWHERE to park the Bus. We could go… but we would need to WALK back to our Hotel. After considering options for a moment, we agreed, since the walk back would be easier with the Zachster in his stroller. (I’m still not certain why the Driver couldn’t just drive around for a while – about 45 minutes – while we got our stuff, and just picked us back up…but whatever…). The good news was that Steve agreed to walk with us to show us the way back.
When we got to Walmart, we could see that it was still in the process of opening – lots of empty shelves and racks still being assembled. We (UC, Kyle and I) made our way to the Kids department while AM and Mom gathered some more needed items for Z’s Orphanage that we would be visiting on Friday.
We found a cheap bargain stroller for Y140 (about $20), so we jumped on it. Before we bought it, we thought it might be a good idea to have Zachary test it out. We thought he’d be OK with sitting and riding, instead of walking. When we picked him up and tried to put him in, it became obvious to us, and to most everyone in the store, that he would prefer NOT to ride. He screamed, and screamed, and screamed, fighting against being put in. Then, once strapped in, he then screamed and cried loudly through the checkout lines and out of the store. Surely, he’d tire out and surrender. Not so much – For the next 2 hours – he carried on loudly – pretty much all the way back to the hotel!
If it wasn’t bad enough that our family was already the object of much curiosity to the locals, imagine what a spectacle having a non-native family pushing a screaming Chinese four-year-old through the streets of Changsha was like!! But it’s par for the course for Lockhead adoption adventures. We took it in stride and soldiered on.
The walk back was challenging, but interesting nonetheless… We saw new parts of the city and even got a chance to stop by a Starbucks to pick up another China City-themed coffee mug to add to our sizeable collection.
We finally made it back to the hotel, after nearly an hour! We took advantage of some downtime and UC and AM even got foot and body massages! It was nice to get off OUR feet for a while, too. Zachary was finally, free, too! And he and Ashley, Ryan and Tyler spent time playing cars and stacking cups, before we considered making dinner plans.
We got everyone energized again after resting a bit.
Guess who could NOT wait to climb into his stroller to head out to dinner!!!
After a good night’s sleep, we were at it again, bright & early! A big breakfast at the buffet, and we were on our way to Orange Island. An island oasis, overflowing with fruit trees. It’s well known for it HUGE Mt. Rushmore-like sculpture of a young Chairmen Mao. It ended up being one of our very favorite places we’d ever visited in all of our trips to China. Their were hundreds of paths winding through the gardens, and it was an absolutely beautiful day – brightly sunshine an 70+ degrees
When can we go!!!???
We took a quaint train to the far Southern End of the island, then walked all the way back!
As we gathered for our own Family Photos in front of the Chairman Mao monument, we attracted a HUGE amount of curiousity among the native tourists at the park. As usually happens, we are typically asked to take photos WITH the natives. Not a big deal anymore – the people are generally good natured and appreciative of our family. But today was unusually busy for our family as photos of US are now on HUNDREDS of Chinese phones, SD Cards and Social Media sites!!
It happens a lot more than you’d think.
Kyle wandered by this shed and snuck a picture.
About 2/3 of the way back, we saw a neat sculpture garden made up of artworks made from wheat appeared to berepurposed Car Parts and other metal objects. Sort of like Transformers…
UC and I thought it was something more nefarious – surveillance, perhaps.
When we stopped for a quick snack, we attracted some more attention. There was a table of older Chinese tourists just next to us who were secretively trying to photograph us without us noticing. I busted one of them, an older woman, smiled at her and told her it was OK. It was like I set off an alarm! Soon, we were surrounded, and the shorter-snapping madness began!
We attracted the attention of a school group who we crossed apts with and UC made contact, orchestrating a huge, loud chorus of “Hello!” And “Goodbye”!
One of the Garden Paths had a set of interesting stone benches. Many were Chinese Zodiac creatures, while others were decidedly NOT.
Well…
Was this.
Still not quite certain what the sculptor was going for here?
AM was not pleased either!
As we pondered our last night (hard to believe it’s here) in Changsha, we knew that…
“Nobody OutPizzas tha Hut!” – So Pizza Hut it was!
And he nailed it.
As we wrap up this post, I’ll leave you all with this. As we were eating dinner, Zachary was blasting through his bowl of spaghetti, wearing as much as he was eating! I was eating pizza myself, enjoying the family and the various conversations. When I noticed something – I almost missed it – but I’m sure glad I didn’t. Zachary had snuck his hand onto my leg – I’m not even really sure when or how it happened. As if to say… I’m not really sure exactly, but I know it was something good; and comforting to him. But I had my phone handy – and I captured the moment. This is one of those pictures that just kind of happen.
It reminded me of THIS ONE (that is still crystal clear in my mind these several years later) during our trip to bring Ashley home… Scroll down to the last picture of the post. If you’ve read this far, you may as well check it out!
Thank you Charlie and Lisa. I love the posts everyday. Can’t wait to meet Zachary. Your family is amazing. 💕
Thank you for the picture of Tyler with Oakie! I will share the picture with his friends.🦉