(Gary)

No pictures from today really. We had our Counsul appointment and the US Embassy does not allow cameras or cell phones so we had to leave them at our hotel room. I've included a few extra pictures from 12/30 (today as I write). We had to go into town twice. In the morning we had our appointment to swear that every thing on our documents were true. The great thing was that she was very well behaved the whole trip and waiting in the waiting room.

We came back to the hotel and had nap time which is always followed by tears when we wake. Lisa and I took a page out of the Chinese book for this one.

The Chinese have to be the "snackingest" people I have ever met. They may be very thin people. You can say that they eat reasonable amounts of food at meal times. However, they have a snack at every turn. The grocery stores sell the in huge bags. There are vendors on every street corner and lane hawking everything from corn on the cob to curiuos fried fruit looking balls on a stick and everyone is eating constantly.

On our second trip into the city I had a poctet full of snacks and just as I thought, we decided to cry. Stick a rice cake in our mouth and we were just fine (reader-please remember that my stock and trade as a special educator is operant conditioning so I am aware of the dangers here). Once at the Embassy our new waiting area had a play area which Chuen-Chuen enjoyed very much. It was nice to see her smile and pull me closer to help her play. After our oath as a citizen, the trip on the bus went much the same way.

I'll have to cut this off now as we are about to have a harbor tour at night.