Rain, Warriors, and Babies
"Why is the sky broken?" -April, our tour guide, retelling the story of one of Xian's rainiest seasons
IT RAINED.
IN Xian, today. Drizzled really, but who cares. IT WAS AWESOME! Atleast for rain-lovers like myself.
Anyways, so today we did three things, not necessarily in this order: See the magnificent terra-cotta warriors, MAKE our own miniature statues, and go to a foster care home with app. 50-something babies all waiting to be cooed and awed over by teenage girls.
Our own miniature warrior creation were made in a greenhouse-type building, where we picked out a split rock carved out inside to shape a warrior, handed two pieces of clay, and molded each into a side of the carved rock. While some kind of...did not stick to the other side to make a warrior with a hollow body, we were able to wrestle them into something resembling a human figure. After that it was off to the terra-cottas.
The rain made the day foggy and very very cold, especially on the go-cart ride to the terracota warrior museum, but it was worth it. We saw an 18 minute film on the history of the warriors in a surround-screen room, if that makes any sense, and then headed off to see 4 of the pits housing the warriors. IT WAS AMAZING. Some of them weren't escavated yet, as we must leave some for future generations of archaelogists, AND because the color had completely worn off the ones already dug out (You would never have imagined those brown terracottas had actually been painted colors of the rainbow).
After that, we headed off to a near restaurant (very hungry after all the walking) and ate a yummy lunch. Lastly we headed off to a foster care home on the outskirts of Xian, in a new residential neighborhood. We were divided into two groups (there were two apartments housing them). There we met the little kiddos.
THE BABIES/TODDLERS. WERE. ADORABLE.
You wouldn't believe how hard it was to let go of them after three hours of spending time with them. Some girls like Veronica and Giselle held their babies (we were assigned a baby, but you didn't have to stick strictly with them all the time) practically the whole time, and they had a hard time letting go at the end. That was the hardest part. When everyone was leaving, we didn't know where to place the babies or what to do. I saw one baby lying on a baby rocker, holding his arms out, just staring at me. It was so heartbreaking.
BUT luckily the foster care has a great adoption rate, and I know several of the babies/toddlers were already set for adoption.
The thing is, if anyone wants to adopt a baby from China:
1. You cannot be single
2. Must not be overweight.
3. Must have over 80,000 in assets saved.
YAH, kinda way out there, but okay. AND, here's a dispeller to a very common rumor among abandoned babies.
More boys are in foster care/orphanages than girls. Why? Because girls are usually (cruel as it is) aborted before they are ever born, with the whole male as heir/stronger thing. When boys are born with illnesses or other "weak" causes, they are left to fend for themselves.
Mkay, so last thing, we had a hotpot-style dinner at La Pinata, the restaurant in the second floor of our hotel. It was, needless to say, a very new experience for most of us. The food to be cooked in the boiling water ranged from egg and noodles to lettuce and tofu. The best part though, was the sweet bread dipped into condensed milk. Ohmigod, that was delicious.
So, we must pack today because tomorrow we fly back on a (small) plane back to Beijing, for one last day there for shopping and whatnot before heading back to dear ol' California.
再见!
(Goodbye!)
-Nayely