It was just a walk in the park.....and a visit to another

HideeHo readers!

We had a good day so far today.  Ally is warming to Jo which is great.  She has never truly rejected her but has been leary.  She was letting Jo help with hair and all things, as long as I was around too.  Holding her and carrying her was not really happening before but this morning I think Ally was getting caught up on her sleep and adjusting a bit more.  You can see she still wakes up in thishotel room with that look like, dang, what did I have to drink last night?  Where am I......OK maybe not quite like that, but you know what I'm talking about.  You know when you wake up somewhere foreign and it takes you like 30 seconds to remember where in the world you are?  Imagine that every time you nap or sleep and your getting close to Ally's world.  So, like I was saying, she just seemed to perk up quicker and overall happier this morning.  She let jo be more involved and it kept up that way all day so far.  Fingers are crossed that she'll wake up from nap that good too.  So we went to the largest park in Taiyuan city which also contains an amuzement park.  No rides going except the ferris wheel which we felt at 20deg wasn't going to be that much fun.  So we skipped that.  But I think the reason we were brought there is to see how morning excersices and Chinese culture works in their parks.  It is a place where people come to dance, sing, do tai chi, plat kind of hacky sack with an overgrown shuttlecock, and do just about any thing that involves invigorating the mind and body.  Age and gender were not a factor what so ever.  I saw a guy had to be 70 playing that hacky sack game.  It was very cool.  If you don't know what hacky sack is, google it.  It was a brisk walk, but well worth the cold.  We were given a very interesting look into Chinese social culture.  As a pretty staunch traditionalist, I found it very cool. Very, very cool.  For the next part of the day I need to back up a bit.  See, we new we were going to a park today and I remebered that Ally was adandoned at a gate at a park so I brushed up on my park names and asked if that was the one we were going to when we met our guide in the morning.  No, not the same park.  We also needed to hit the wal-mart to grab a few things not easily found at the market.  So I asked our guide also if after the park she could take us to the wal-mart and also the park she was abandoned in.  She agreed and spoke to the driver who also agreed.  The problem was that they were on opposite sides of the city.  But, then she remembered there were two wal-marts and the second was very close to the park we were looking for.  After a more in depth discussion though with the driver she also let us know that the park where Ally was abandoned was being demolished in the name of high rises.  Traditionalist me thinks this is stuuuuuupid.  So after going to the initial park we went to the one where Ally was abandoned and it was an interesting ride into the neighborhoods I think they would rather the tourists didn't see, but exactly the type of things we really did want to see.  I'll add some pictures to illustrate.  So we walked to the East gate of Longtan park.  It was a bit surreal to be in the spot where the story really began for Ally.  At approximately one month old she was left there in October 2006.  We didn't linger but rather snapped a few photos and left.  I still don't know how I feel about the place.  So, from there we went to the wal-mart.  It's not the one most Taiyuan SWI adoptive parents go to, and also smaller.  I am thinking though after seeing all the marketing on products that Jackie Chan does not hurt for money.  Wal-mart is interesting here.  We only came for a few items and chose to buy other items at the local market later.  But walking around and having so much of the food unpackaged is very funny.  Frozen fish steaks were just sitting in an open freezer, no packaging.  Dried meats, like jerky, once again, just right there in a basket.  This include whole, dried ducks.  It doesn't even hit you right away when you see it, but ten steps later I say to Jo "Did you just see......." "Yep"  we both chuckle.  It was a good day though to this point.  Ally is down for a nap and we are having dinner tonight with the Norwegian couple who are as pleasant as could be.  I'll leave you with some pics of the neighborhood around Allys park, the the sign at the gate she was found at, and finally of the first park we visited.