White Swan

Things are going a little better now, although, I seem to have a sore
throat and a tiny cough. The smog is not nearly as bad as it was in
Beijing, but it is still pretty smoggy. We did, though, see a bit of
sky yesterday (both literally and metaphorically). The White Swan
hotel is much nicer than the place we stayed in Beijing, and there are
lots of families running around that look like us (white adults with
Chinese children). I have to buy batteries for the still camera today
so that I can start posting pictures. The video camera is taking nice
movies, but I'm having trouble posting them via email. We will be
here for another 12 days, and I must admit, it is (right now) okay
with me that we don't get on another airplane for a while. Here's
what we've traveled since the 13th:

Atlanta to Chicago: 710 miles
Chicago to Hong Kong: 7,793 miles
Hong Kong to Beijing: 1,225 miles
Beijing to Guangzhou: 1,173 miles

By the way, all of these posts are submitted via email because I can't
log into blogger from China. That means I can't read any post/
messages that you guys put up there (but put them up anyway, I'll
enjoy reading them when I get back). If you need to tell me
something, send me an email: perrykat@me.com

We get to meet Zi today at 2:30 pm (which is 2:30 am Georgia time and
1:30 am Alabama time). We go to the bank this morning at 9:00 to
exchange our orphanage donation from dollars to Yuan, and then, I
think, we will make a shopping run (more stuff for Zi --and camera
batteries than souvenirs). Then, the big moment.

I promise to get some sort of photos soon.