Cruising to the finish line.

One of the China Team people got on the loudspeaker as the bus took us to our Pearl River Cruise dinner, which is another right of passage for us adoptive parents sojourning in Guangzhou while we wait for our embassy meeting. He warned us about Chinese people's "manners" and basically told us that shoving, pushing, and cutting in line were permitted (as are spitting, clearing your nose and slurping you tea or noodles).

He told us to stand back, hold onto our children and let the other people embark but that when it came to the buffet, to push our way through or there wouldn't be any food left for us.

Picture this...300 Chinese tourists ready to party on their (expensive) Pearl River cruise. Some of them are already hammered and, well before the first call to embark has gone out, they're all stacked against each other like spoons, trying to be the first to board. This is what happens when you have a billion + people in a country. You don't stand on ceremony or you'll be trampled. The law of the jungle prevails here. This is the future. This is Emily Post's worse nightmare.

Naturally, my agoraphobic husband bowed out of the occasion and I set off with Mak and Jack to see the city lights at night from the water. Luckily, our seating was assigned so it didn't matter that we boarded last. By the time we had gotten situated and purchased our thirst quenching Tsing Tao beer we headed for the buffet. The food, consisting of greasy noodles, soupy duck, mysterious vegetables, and spicy fish balls. Plus an array of other foods that I couldn't name or didn't recognize so I avoided. Jack decided that fish ball were his favorite food on the menu and went back three or four times to fill his plate. I think he really wanted to practice shoving and elbowing people.

Not only am I going to have to readjust to our time zone when we come home in a couple of days but I'm going to have deprogram Jack. He's enjoying Chinese manners a little too much. We've been here almost three weeks and he hasn't whined to come home. He's already talking about wanting to come back to show Makena her country and has expressed interest in attending this Chinese Culture camp in Beijing when he is older. I'm telling you, I don't have the heart to tell Jack that he isn't Chinese.

We were also taken to the electronic market which was extremely painful for Jack because we were the only parents who did not purchase the $1 dollar DVDs that were offered or the PSP games. Jack ended up with a pair of walkie talkies but couldn't stop getting weepy at the sight of the other kids going home with Pirates of the Carribean part 2! My husband was forced to give Jack his first lesson in copyright infringements and intellectual property rights. He better start learning this now, since he shares Ingmar Bergman's birthday and this may affect his future one day.

Today,I also ventured out to a Friendship Store by myself and practised my Chinese manners. There were two groups of people, clearly standing in line, at the taxi stand outside the hotel. A cab drove up and I boldly walked past them, opened the door and got in.

Time waits for no one. Score one for me!


Is - a - rude