A New Address

We have been pretty darn busy the last two days. Elizabeth had a pretty good day yesterday and we have taken her out and about a bit.

The really good news right now is that we just moved to a new hotel The Garden Hotel....and for those of you who know me well--you know I like nice hotels...well this one is NICE. If you told me we were in a room at The Peninsula in Beverly Hills I would believe you. The room is ultra modern, beige tones, everything brand spanking new, the carpet is divine and feels as if we are walking on air. It is such a relief after a week at The China Hotel in an unrenovated room.

I will post some photos of the room in the next post.

The area around the Garden Hotel is a lot more inviting so hopefully we will get the Little Princess out a bit more this week. Going out poses some challenges since we are pretty much the center of attention anywhere we go. Now we know how Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie feel. It is a little unnerving when you have a group of woman running after you with their cameras and trying to touch Elizabeth. They are all so friendly and have such good wishes but it is still unnerving. Born in New York City--strangers chasing you usually mean one thing--either they want to kill you or take your money or they have recently been released from the looney bin. I will however try to get over it since so far everyone has been so darn friendly. Elizabeth even got a present from one lady who said she was so cute.

The not good news of the last two days is that our newly made friends had a bad experience in the Starbucks just below the China Hotel...they had both their passports, their camera, video camera, money, and credits cards STOLEN! I guess they turned their backs for a minute and poof....the thief was gone. They were devastated but are feeling a bit better today. They should be able to get their passports replaced by Wed. when we need them for more adoption paperwork.

Marty and I had just been in the Starbucks where the incident occured and I told Marty it seemed really creepy in there. There were a few men in there who were definitely not locals and not Chinese and they kept staring at us. My New Yorker radar was on alert. I have a feeling it was one of those guys.

I was surprised since I had read somewhere that crime in China is so low owing to the strict penalties for crime--including the death penalty for theft. However it does seem that passports are stolen fairly often. Go figure. From what I hear a stolen passport can fetch up to $10,000 on the black market.

Scary stuff and has caused Marty and I to be even more vigilant. (as if my vigilance wasn't at 800% already).

At the moment we are waiting for room service and will have lunch in our luxury suite. One of the woman in our group said, "take advantage of this time --you have someone to cook you meals and do your laundry and clean up after you. You will miss that when you get home. " Okay I will try to keep that mind and maybe it will make this time away from home just a bit easier.

Only 6 more days and then Elizabeth is an American citizen!!!!

Hooray!!!!