Day 9 - More Sightseeing

I'm not sure what is happening but there must be some paperwork that is being done. In the meanwhile, we're like the movie Groundhog Day. We wake up, eat breakfast in the hotel, go sightseeing, come back to the hotel around lunch time, and then are free for the day. Today, we visited the Hunan University which had some nice gardens. We visited some historical spots where Confucius once taught (the acadamy?). There was some nice artwork made of sand - we bought one. It was sort of a relaxing stroll. People do come up and stare at Katelin and the other adopted boy in our group. Its a different culture than in the USA.

We returned from the touring, blew off lunch and decided to go swiming. This is the 3rd time we've been swimming but this time we got stopped. At the pool, they require a swim cap. Each time we go there, we just say that we don't have one, they hand us one and we go in. This time, we had to pay. I guess we had to buy swim caps, no more borrowing. It cost us $72, ouch! ...but its only $10 US for 4 swim caps. OK, thats better I guess :).

To top off the day, we headed over to our new favorite dining spot, JoNo's. Things went a little smoother the second time there; we knew what to expect and what was on the menu. I thought that we got the steal of the century the night before because I was confused between the weight of the steak and the price. I saw 180 and I thought that was the price (about $25 US sounded reasonable). Well, the second night I noticed that the 180 had grams of some measurement of weight after it and the price was like 28 Yuan (thats like $5 US). We are there for the rest of the trip, at those prices I can tolerate the kids looking at there meal and saying no thanks.

I more story from the night before at JoNos. When we sat down, a lady came up to us and in Chinese gestured that Katelin looked cute. She gestured as if to ask if she could hold her. The agency told us that this would happen so we went with the flow and said OK. So she picks her up and walks away behind a wall. We looked at each other for a minute and then Halli chased her down, this didn't seem right. We told our guide the next day and she said that was too much, don't let anybody walk away like that. So now we know the line.