We've been here for several days now and are enjoying getting to know Iris, and seeing Nanchang. We are staying at the Galactic Peace International Hotel.
All the babies saw a local physician on the 25th and Iris has a clean bill of health. She was a little constipated, so we offered her some mashed prunes (which she liked maybe a little too much), and Deb got to change her first blowout diaper on the morning of the 25th. On the 26th, Charles tried the local custom of holding the baby over the toilet and saying 'Ba-Ba mmm' at about the same time of the morning as her last BM, and incredibly, she pooped in the toilet!
She likes to eat Congee (a rice gruel) with a little hardboiled egg yolk in it, steamed bun, soft noodles, Cheerios, Fruit Puffs, and potato puffs (a local snack food), and is on a milk-based formula.
It took a while to get a big smile out of her, but now she's even had the occasional giggle fit.
We have been able to go on all of the optional 'tours'. We visited the August 1 Park and saw locals playing card games and Chinese Chess, as well as doing Tai Chi. We also visited the one major remaining historical landmark in Nanchang, the Teng Wan Tower, a pagoda-pavilion originally built during the Tang (Teng) Dynasty, around 650 AD. The Tower has been destroyed and reconstructed many times since then. Today's excursion was to the local zoo, which was actually pretty good – camels and elephants and a panda and a giraffe, etc. Our group attracted a bit of attention as well!
Our local guides have arranged a number of group meals which have been quite delicious. The cuisine here is Sichuan-like, though a bit less spicy. Here are some sample room service items: Pan-fried Fish Mouth ShunDe Style; Deep-fried Squid Beard with Garlic; Sauteed Ostrich Gizzard and Pig Stomach; Deep-fried Pig Intestine with Chinese Tea.
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Charles Swift
Moscow, ID
chaetura@gmail.com
http://www.uidaho.edu/~charless
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