Hohhot - 1/24 - Visit Museum and Having Hot Pot for Dinner

Today was just a day of waiting. We slept a little longer and then had breakfast late. During breakfast we got the good news from the guide that we may be allowed to visit the orphanage tomorrow. This is very unusual since there is an order from the province not to allow visits. We think our repeated asking and the fact that Sue is Chinese may play a role. Bert thinks the real causes are the positive vibes from the Anhui Family (our travel group from the first adoption) and prayers from all of you. So far they have always worked.

Our next stop was a visit to the "Inner Mongolia Museum" ( Neimenggu Bowuguan). We rent a minivan from the hotel. It is a wonderful museum covering all of the history, culture and tradition of this area – from the Dinosaurs to the present with 14 exhibits. Two hours was all we can do with the kids but it was great. The museum is very new and there is still building up some of the exhibits. Some rooms are still empty but the building is so huge that it really doesn't matter. We tried to find some picture on the Internet (the building is so big that we never got a good shot). It appears that the building is so new that all posted pictures (as close as 11/2007) refer to the old museum in Downtown. Inner Mongolian because independent from Mongolian in 1947. Many new things were added in 2007 as they celebrate the 60 years of independence.

In the museum there is no much marble; they builders must have used a whole quarry or more to use in this building. Besides the exhibits, the architecture is just marvelous.

Inner Mongolia is famous for their grassland and blue skies with beautiful white clouds. The best time to visit here is in August. As we tour through the exhibit, Anna described that the Inner Mongolian people like American Indians. She made a very good observation there. They live in Mongolian Huts and ride horses. Inner Mongolia is one of the autonomous regions of China, like Tibet, where they have their own government and language, though they are still a part of China. Everywhere you go, you will see both Mongolian and Chinese languages on signs, menus and directions. Mongolian language is always either on top or in front of the Mandarin language here. The city has about 2 million people. Majority of them are Han Chinese. Sue is Han Chinese with ¼ of Mongolian blood from her maternal grandma. If we were visiting here in the summer, we would have opportunities to visit the grassland, the ranch, huts and even have horse rides. But, Bert was unable to find any golf course for the annual Anhui Dad's golf outing. It might be a niche market to open a couple of golf courses here, but then the summer is less than three month in this region – last frost in May – first frost again in September or latest early October.

We bought some souvenir at the museum gift shop. Toby and Joshua bought these knives rangers carry with them on their belt. Sue and Berthold bought some music CDs. It turned out to be VCDs containing sounds with videos for karaoke. Jenny loved it. She sat on Berthohld’s lap, watched and sang along with the music. It was a very beautiful music and sight to see her getting so close and comfortable with Bert.

After returning to the Hotel, kids were tired. We ordered the room service for them – four cheese burgers. Jenny was so hungry; she could not wait because it was 2 pm, way passed her normal meal time. She loved the cheese burg!

After eating, Toby and Josh took care of Anna, Jenny and Leah, one kid from the Murphy family and both of us (Murphy and Franz) walked around the city. We visited some areas where the locals shop and where you can haggle. Sue was just in her element. It was so nice to get out of the hotel and something from the city. But we have to say, it was sooo cold here!

In the evening, the Franz family had a traditional Mongolian Hotpot dinner with an old friend of Sue. She hadn't seen him for more than 25 years (gosh why don’t we get younger with every day that goes by). They were college classmate. They had fun catch up and made some phone calls to other classmates. Sue was very happy to make connections with her classmates again. The dinner was fabulous and we had far more food than we could eat.

All in all it was a good day. Anna exhausted herself throughout the day and there fore we had another melt down during dinner. She actually slept through the most of the dinner. But, we think it is mainly base on the exhaustion from all the play and running during the day.

Jenny is just wonderful. She is happy most of the times and always shares with others. In the orphanage, she slept with another girl in one bed whom she called her sister. This girl was handicapped. Also, her best friend is a 17 year old boy whom she called her big brother. Now when she talks about her sister and brother she talks about Toby, Josh and Anna. We thought for a while she was still referring to her friends in the orphanage. But because of her being around other handicapped kids she is very caring. When Anna cries she is concerned, when Anna sleeps she covers her with a blanket or a jacket, she cares about other little ones around etc. Hopefully we can preserve some of these good habits. But she does have a temper. We have not seen it but you can feel it. And she knows what she wants. It is very clear that we all will have our hands full as she grows up.

Jenny had her first melt down too, but very short. She forgot to take her tidy bear with her on our way to the restaurant. As tired as or maybe more tired than Anna, she had small cry, but did not last very long.

And we still here the word "Mama" all day and Bert still enjoys it.