I learned my lesson early on- never go out and do anything fun on a Chinese holiday, unless you want a gazillion Chinese there to join in on the fun. American holidays on the other hand, are ideal for going out and about in China since N has the day off and things aren't so crowded on the weekdays.
So we decided to venture out to Royal Ocean World in nearby Fushun on Memorial Day with our neighbors, a fellow FS family. Since we don't have a car yet, we hire contract drivers whenever we need to go somewhere. Our go-to driver is Mr. Fu. We like him because he's one of the few drivers who has a van and he has the best rates around. Plus, he's really nice. We were afraid that he didn't like us anymore because of a few communication mishaps (Once he showed up on a Saturday when we wanted him on a Sunday and another time he showed up at 7:30am when we needed him at 7:30pm...) but he's been driving us around the last few weeks so I guess we are in his good graces again.
The aquarium is right off of the toll road but the locals don't like to pay the tolls so Mr. Fu took the LONG way to get to the aquarium. Our poor friends were following us and their little girl got carsick at the very end and threw up all over herself. What a way to start!
The aquarium, which is connected to an indoor water park called Hawaii, was not crowded as expected. But as soon as we walked in, bus after bus of school groups came in! It wasn't as overwhelming as the last time I came here (Oh, did I mention that I came here before? Without N? On a Chinese holiday? With our huge Phil and Teds stroller? To this aquarium which is not 100% handicap/stroller accessible?) but there were a lot of kids. A lot.
The aquarium has a large variety of sea creatures. We saw all different kinds of fish, turtles, crustaceans, dolphins, sharks, eels, you name it, they had it. My favorite part was the jellyfish section. It was a bit corny as there were different colored lights everywhere (I'm beginning to learn that the Chinese here love to put different colored lights on everything) but it was just so peaceful watching the jellyfish floating and around. The aquarium then segways into a bunch of random exhibits and animals. It's like they just kept buying animals and adding on. We saw crocodiles, huge snakes, parrots, peacocks, monkeys, porcupines, vultures.
I was getting a little sick as we walked through because it was dark, damp, and hot. Combine that with the natural smells that come with the above mentioned animals and you get a not so pleasant atmosphere. BUT the kids had a blast, and that's what matters.
There was an arcade section and NJ had fun playing fruit ninja on a game console which was basically an Xbox with a cover on it. I tried to get J to play whack-a-mole but he was surprisingly uninterested.
All through out our trip, people were staring at us and asking us questions- mostly "You have 3 kids??" Then they took pictures of us. I'm a bit uneasy about people taking pictures of our kids. On the one hand, what's the harm? On the other hand, a bit creepy... what do they do with these pictures? One of my friends once asked what they do with pics of the cute hybrid kids the Chinese take. One lady replied that she puts them on her blog, which is dedicated to cute looking children. THAT is creepy. N jokingly said that we should start charging 10 RMB every time someone wants to take a picture.
After we walked through the aquarium, we stopped to eat outside. The boys had a picnic lunch that I had brought and N and I bought some food from the vendors that were out there. We had kimbap (Korean sushi) and a seasoned ground mystery meat sandwich stuffed inside soft pita-like bread with chopped lettuce and red onions. It was pretty tasty, and no one got sick so we are good to go!
The real adventure begins after we left the aquarium. Mr. Fu was there to meet us and take us home. Of course, he took the long road home (no tolls remember?) and poor J started to freak out about 5 minutes in to our trip home. I recognized his cries right away- he needed to poop. He cried/screamed the entire hour it took us to get home. Poor guy was trying to hold it in. As the van entered the gates into our community, I started to smell it. It was BAD. Mr. Fu hurriedly drove to our house and I got J out. As we rushed to get inside, we realized that we were LOCKED OUT. I had given a key to our ayi (helper/housekeeper) and told her she could go home early today after cleaning (Yes, we have a housekeeper... don't hate me... more on that later) but N didn't know and assumed that she'd be here and didn't take his key.
I forgot to mention that not only did J poop in the car but that it was a major blowout on an already saturated diaper. It blew all the way up to his CHEST.
Now what??
I frantically called the lady who is the English speaking representative of our community and asked if she had a spare key and she replied that she didn't. Meanwhile, N has J stripped down to nothing and is trying to clean up the mess in the grass. K is screaming in her carseat. I hang up the phone and consider breaking one of the windows to get in. But then the lady calls back and says that she actually DOES have a key and said she'll bring it right over. 10 minutes later, she is there to save the day. I tell her to stay in front of the yard and that I'll bring the key right back, as I did NOT want her to see or smell the mess that was in front of the front door. And what does she do? She follows me.
The moral of the story: learn how to say in Chinese "Please take the toll road- we will PAY FOR IT." if it means that it will significantly cut the trip shorter than taking the local roads. (The aquarium is only 11 miles away from where we live. It would have taken way shorter than an hour to get there and back) And ALWAYS make sure before leaving that someone has the key.
This post is way too long. I'll have to post pics later on another post! Ahh China. Always an adventure.
