Eling Park

Today was a tour of the General Stillwell Museum. He was a US General who helped China in a war against Japan and had a beautiful residence in Chongqing. We also visited Eling Park, a beautiful park overlooking the city. At Eling, we went into a Tea House for a formal tea ceremony. Mary Kate was an angel baby and sat next to me for over an hour sampling tea biscuits during the presentation. The tea was delicious and a highlight for me! We then visited a bookstore, where we purchased a book to help us with basic Chinese words and phrases. The book was in the children's section intended for 2-3 year olds. I do not know whether I am up for the task of learning the Chinese language, but I will certainly support my daughter to be bilingual if she desires. We had lunch at McDonald's and then came back to our hotel for Mary Kate to nap. She is a great sleeper and does not seem to mind her crib. We took her to the hotel pool and she was not sure whether she enjoyed swimming, but she certainly looked cute in her swimsuit! Tonight we ventured out without our guide for dinner and our toddler Chinese book assisted us in ordering vegetables, rice and noodles for dinner. Pig blood and dog are favorites on the menu here so we had to emphasize NO Meat! The dinner was great and we had a nine-year old Chinese girl visit our table twice during dinner. Her name was Lucy, she was precious and spoke beautiful English. I have grown fond of the Chinese people, especially the women. They are very intrigued by our Chinese daughter. Mary Kate is 17 months old today and is growing more fond of us each day. She is happiest when she is on my lap or in my arms and she loves, loves, loves Cheerios. She also likes rice, congee (a Chinese rice) and banana bread from Starbucks. The Chinese refer to Chinese American girls as bananas because they are yellow on the outside, but white on the inside and we think that Mary Kate is on her way!