Hunan Provincial Museum Wednesday March 9,2011

Another early morning in Changsha.  Today I stayed in bed and Christian headed down to look at emails and worked out.  At 7:00 a.m. we enjoyed one of the best parts of our day - Skyping with Avery and Claire!  They look so adorable sitting at the kitchen table eating their dinner.  It is very comforting to see them so happy in their usual routine.  We have no adoption work to do today.  Our next official item on the calendar takes place on Friday when we pick up Blythe's Chinese passport.  Today we met with our guide Ashley and headed over to the Hunan Provincial Museum.  When we arrived we learned that in the last two years the Chinese government has made all museums free to the public.  That is the good news for the locals, the bad news is the country is so populated you have to stand in a line for half the day waiting to get a free ticket.  Fortunately we did not have to stand in line.   While waiting to get in a group of Chinese schoolgirls approached us and asked to be photographed with us!  Now we know what it is like to be famous.  The Museum was excellent.  The main exhibition was the contents of three 2000-year-old tombs that were unearthed in the 1070's in Changsha.  The highlight was the preserved corpse of a woman, skin, wig, and bones still intact.  The whole exhibit was very interesting.  Afterwards we headed to a local restaurant for lunch.  I am a bit shy about the local cuisine but I have tried a few things.  They like their food very spicy here so Christian is enjoying what our guide picks.  Blythe eats everything that we put in front of her - bottles with formula, rice cereal with fruit, bananas, local foods, and cheerios.  She loves to eat and has become fast friends with the waitstaff at the Sheraton. They come by every morning and make a fuss over her.  She took a very restful nap after lunch and played all afternoon in our room.  She will be surprised to learn that at home she will be able to play with something other than a small beach ball and a few small toys.  I wonder what she will make of our playroom?  We are anxious to move on to our next destination - Guangzhou.  We will meet up with three other Gladney families there and we hope to become fast friends.

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