China Day 5

Today was the first day for breakfast at our new hotel.  It was better than the breakfast at the other hotel.  Quite nice, actually. After breakfast, I went across the street to exchange some money.  You have to get a number, fill out a form, and wait in line.  It seems that I was moved ahead of some other people waiting because I was American.  The teller sits behind glass, and you pass things back and forth through a little hole.  They made copies of my passport, and who knows what else.  It took a while just to exchange $200.00, but we finally got it. Then, we headed with our guide, Elsie, to get a visa photo for Allee, and her medical exam. She did not seem to mind the exam at all.  It didn't seem very thorough to me, but she saw the main doctor and the ENT and they didn't say anything at all, so I assume they didn't find anything out of the ordinary.  She also had to have a TB test, so we will need to go back for them to read the results of that.  It does not appear that the area they injected is getting red, so I think she is okay. We had lunch in the room, oatmeal and noodles, then we walked to the park.  We went in to one little shop, Jordan's shop, on the way and purchased some trinkets.  There is a pretty nice park only a couple of blocks away.  There is a play area, but Allee would only go down the slide a couple of times.  We looked at the river, and walked around and took some pictures. We rested in the room, and then went to dinner at an American restaurant, Lucy's.  Lucy's has a lot of American choices on the menu.  It is not exactly what you would get in America, but it was okay.  Allee's favorite is french fries, which she picked off of the menu. After dinner, we came back to the room.  Allee took a bath, and we watched a little TV.  National Geographic is in English.  Then we went to bed early, at about 7:30.  We were so tired, I think from the travel the day before.