We got some serious stares!

Thursday was the first morning we had Joseph. We got some serious stares that morning, stop-in-your-tracks stares. At breakfast Coleman put his plate of food on a table to save for us, and two men came and sat down and started eating his food. There were no tables left, so we ate at a table right outside of the restaurant with an audience standing around us watching us eat as they talked about us. It was an "interesting" start to the day. We then went back to the Civil Affairs office for a couple of hours of paperwork. They rushed things for us so we could still leave from Shanxi, Joseph's province, on Friday, as originally planned. Thank you Lord!!

We then went to a Chinese Walmart. Check out the apples.

The Chinese writing didn't break the skin.

There the people were interested in us, yet pretty nice. They were very confused when we were trying to buy things for Graham, when they only saw two boys. Joseph has been our little interpreter when he can. Earlier we had asked him to tell our driver "okay" to show we understood, and Joseph looked at him and said, "okay", in English. We all had a good laugh at that one, even the driver.

This could be the longest word we've ever seen.

We got back to the hotel and the boys put together Joseph's new lego tank he had gotten while I started packing up. We then went out to a local mall to find an extra suitcase. Joseph helped us out in bargaining for the suitcase. On our way back to the hotel, rolling our suitcase, we saw the same window still with a long line of people waiting to get food. So we figured it must be pretty good. We got in line and watched what most people got and just pointed at the same thing when it was our turn. It was a type of bread that actually got better the more you ate, or we could have just been hungry. One had something inside, Steve didn't like it and couldn't tell what it was, so that was all I needed to know - I'll pass.

Friday was our day to fly to Guangzhou, but not until 7:30 p.m.. We had to be out of the hotel by noon, so after breakfast we finished packing up and went back to the mall to try to fill Graham's wish list.

"Walking" to the mall. Maybe this is why they stare.

The lit floor of the 5 story mall.

Joseph found a new friend. Graham this one's for you.

We checked out of the hotel and went to the Shanxi Museum.

This province is thought to be where the Chinese civilization began, so there were many ancient artifacts that have been discovered in Shanxi. This area of the museum was like a tomb, a little scary to Joseph.

We then headed to the airport. We had to wait an hour to check in because our flight was delayed. That's when the imaginary baseball came in handy. It was nice to see everyone's face, because at the Beijing airport everyone had on masks. After a while it makes you feel like you should have one on too. After checking in and walking to security I see my name in bright bold letters taking the whole screen above me. "Oh, kind of neat," I thought, until I see all 8 screens with my whole name and only my name on them. I nervously proceed to another security area where they ask for my passport and for me to open my suitcase. They take out a bag and ask me what it was for, so I demonstrated shaving my legs to answer their question of what the can of shaving cream was, (with a sigh of relief). You can not take any liquids on an inter-country flight, so I must have had too many ziploc bags of unknown liquids. They didn't ask about it, but Coleman thought it was his green Skittles spray that was the real issue. We think he might be right.