I got off the island

(g.r.)
The title of this post relates back to our adoption of Elijah and our time in China. The place where we stayed was a beautiful and safe location on a island originally created (literally carved out of the coast) as a place to trade with Westerners and to not allow them any further into China. It was very comfortable there both in terms of food, friendliness, and architectural style. At the same time, it was kind of sterile. We could have stayed there all three weeks and never grasped anything of the real China at all. We spent many days trekking across the land to see what we could see and experience what we could experience. After doing that, I wrote a blog about how life happens of the island and that to experience life, one had to get off the island.

Two days ago, Carl I JUST GOT MY FIRST KISS FROM MY NEW SWEET GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Editors note: Sorry about the interruption to this normally schedule blog posting, but breaking news is breaking news. I now return you to our regularly scheduled blogging). the kids and I got off the island, though in a way, we were ferried off of it. Our driver finally listened to us (well, sort of) and took us to some more traditional Indian type market places. Even still, they were rather commercialized as evidenced by the McDonalds directly across from Kentucky Fried Chicken. We struck off on our own, ignoring his advice about shops to go into, and eventually got ourselves into some pretty interesting situations. At one point, I asked him if he thought our adoption agency was sensing a disturbance in the force. We were up and down small market alleyways with motorcycles and rickshaws zooming past us just inches away.

Today,Carl and I simply began walking away from the hotel to see what we could find. We hoped to find some of our own markets. The trek was immediately challenging as we had to figure out how to navigate the most monsterous, ridiculous, mind boggling intersection I have ever seen. Seriously. This intersection makes some of the circle intersections in the US look like a marked path with no way to get off of it. It is so complex that I never really got time to study the whole thing. The best way to describe it is to take one of the circle intersections, add it a compass-style intersection right through the middle of it. Oh yeah, throw in some elevation changes and a raised train cutting across part of it. Fortunately, after some walking and talking about how to get across, we stumbled across a train station that allowed us to cross over above the train.

We then walked. And walked. And walked. For over three hours. We saw some cool things like a golf course with netting along the road that ran about 200 feet high. We saw nicer stores and tiny markets. My favorite was a market where the owner rented a space below the level of the sidewalk so that his face was at about our knee level. The shop was only about three feet deep and about six feet long. I should have bought something from him just to reward his perseverance.

We finally stumbled upon the art fair Maren mentioned. It was fantastic. The prices were outstanding. Learning from my experience in China, I didn't feel the need to bargain with these folks as all their wares were made directly by each of them. I got Maren some totally cool earrings and an anklet. I got Kailey some totally cool earrings and a necklace. I also got she and Sneha some matching bracelets. I got Justin a totally cool wooden puzzle, and I got Elijah a totally cool hand puzzle thingy. I also picked up a very pretty dress for Sneha.

Finally, we made it back after dark. We asked some Germans for directions at one point, which really was as silly as it seems! We walked to our room only to be met outside the door by both our wives. BUT, we were smart, we already had some of our goodies out and held out in front of us as a peace offering. It worked. Score one for the good guys!