Brayden’s CP Blog

Good-a Sataday to ya, me love!

May 4th, 2008

Well, our day didn’t exactly go as planned, but we had a fantastic time with Giovanni and Elvia today!  The driver picked all of us up at 9:30 sharp in a mini-van.  Let me tell you, two wheelchairs, 7 adults, and two kids in a van- that was quite a site.  A young man, Felix, or Alex as Giovanni calls him, served as kind of a tour guide.  He had our whole day planned out for us, and gave us the quick run down of the history of each of the planned stops.  Our first stop was supposed to be a cruise of the Qingdao Bay, however, it was “too bloody foggy to see anyting, so-a we don’ta get to go on dat boat, so what!”  Not to mention, it was like 30 degrees colder at the ocean, so we didn’t want Brayden or Elvia to spend to much time outside.  We then decided to stop at the Trestle.  We stopped along the railing to watch the locals dipping for clams, crab, and fish in the rocks.  All of the sudden, Giovanni takes off running and goes down to the rocks.  We spot him buying a turtle.  He brings it back up, and tries to convince Elvia to hold it.  She never gave in, but Brayden and Brylie got quite a kick out of it.  Brylie latched onto that thing and held it for quite awhile!   I was sure that Giovanni planned to return the turtle to the vendor, but guess what is crawling around our room!!  We tried to keep it out on the balcony, but apparently it really loves us bc it climbed over the treshold and into our room.  We took our eyes off of it long enough to talk to dad and mom, and now the turtle is missing in action!!  Hope we find it before the cleaning lady does!

We made a stop at a VERY busy shopping market next.  Let me remind you that this is like the Labor Day weekend over here, so the crowds are enormous!!  The population of Qingdao is 3 million in the city and 5 million in the countryside.  All of the people from the countryside come into the city for this weekend!  Imagine all the people!  Trying to find a parking space is nearly impossible.  We headed down this little lane to find a parking place that was barely as wide as the van.  For about 10 minutes, our driver attempted to fit our big ol’ van into a space for a motorcycle by manuevering around in that very narrow lane!  Oh my goodness!  Thank the Lord that a car left, so we were able to just park along the lane.  After a quick bit of shopping, we were off for lunch.  Being the very kind Italian man that Giovanni is, he asked Felix/Alex to find a restaurant that serves both Western and Chinese food- you all know how much I loooooovvvvveeee Chinese food!  Thankfully he took us to a place that served steak.  Jason, the kids and I devoured it like it was our last meal!!!  I certainly realize why we American’s are so “chubby” and these Chinese folks are so thin.  Our family ordered steak, of course.  In the picture on the menu, it showed that it came with a baked potato and some steamed veggies.  Perfect!  We also ordered a side of fries for Brylie.  We get our plates and there is a steak, 5 french fries, 3-4 water chesnuts, and a cherry tomato.  Thank goodness we ordered the side of fries for Brylie!  I’m sure the Chinese folks that were with us thought we were complete hogs!!  They had rice and veggies with fruit juice while we pigged out on steak, fries, and Coke!!! 

We next headed to the Olympic village.  Qingdao is hosting the sailing competition in August.  The village is still closed to tourists, but we got to at least drive by it and have a look.  Our journey ended with a stop at B&Q.  I was wondering why on earth we were headed to another restaurant- B&Q is similar to how they spell Bar-be-que in a few places over here.  This place was however very similar to Academy Sports back home.  It was very nice, but Brayden was being not so quiet so we were ready to get out of there.  On our way to the check out, Jason and Brayden were a ways in front of Brylie and I.  As Brylie and I came out of the side aisle to follow the boys, a man who was staring at Brayden and Jason ran smack into Brylie and I!  It almost knocked me over, and poor Brylie hollered at him.  I guess I need to learn how to say “watch out” and “excuse me” in Chinese!! 

All in all, we had a “bloody good day mate!”  Giovanni and Elvia are such nice people, and Felix was great to our family.  After spending a day with the Aust-Italian’s, we find ourselves saying things like they do.  Kinda funny!  Well, until Brylie starts throwing around the four letter words like Giovanni does!  Both of the kids really like him.  We are back to the grindstone tomorrow.  Kind of odd having therapy on Sunday, but I think maybe the holiday threw things off a bit.  We also have the suprise birthday dinner for Ching from NJ.  Hope you all have fun at the weddings and ball games this weekend!  Talk to you soon! 

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