Yesterday, I went to the Embroidery Factory while Kelly and Nicole stayed in the hotel room. Kelly needed more rest, actually we both do, but since this was a one-time opportunity I could not pass it by.
Changsha is in the Hunan Province and it is the ONLY province in China that has a form of embroidery found no where else. It is double embroidery, one picture on one side, with a completely different picture on the other, or sometimes the same on both sides, which still requires the same effort. This type of embroidery is usually done on a transparent silk tapestry. It is a rare embroidery style, which is quite amazing, but sadly fading away due to diminishing trained workers.
It takes years for one worker to complete a large one, many months for the smaller ones. We (our group) were allowed to watch the embroidery workers in action and later purchase finished products.
I bought one large "normal" embroidery and 4 of the double embroidery. The purchase was made in the Chinese tradition of picking out what you want, get a ticket from the clerk, go pay the cashier, bring the receipt to the clerk and then she gives you your merchandise. I’ve posted a picture of the largest double embroidery on transparent silk tapestry that was there. I would say it was 15 feet long, 7 foot high and must have taken someone a lifetime to create.
Side 1.........................and...........................Side 2
Later in the evening we went to another local restaurant and had an incredible dinner, all for about $11 USD for the both of us. Eating here is cheap, except of course in the hotel. This dinner was the first time Kelly was able to get full and she and I really enjoyed it. The meal was served traditional style, on a rotating platter, and the staff never stopped bringing more and more food as we ate.
Later on in the evening, we gave Nicole her nightly bath, which we took some photos of, and then put her to bed. Nicole LOVES taking a bath at night, and we get soaked everytime. She splashes the water nonstop from the minute she gets in until she gets out.
While Nicole was in the orphanage, she would wake up at about 9-9:30 for a bottle, which up until last night, she had not done while with us. So she screams bloody murder promptly at 9, and it took us a while to remember that in the orphange she got a bottle late at night. We fix her a bottle and when she finished, she starts to nod off when all of a sudden, SHAZAM, she is wide-awake and wants to do nothing but PLAY.
OK, Kelly is in bed feeling extremely exhausted, and I’m in the bed next to her feeling the same, except I’ve got Nicole with me who for all intensive purposes might as well have drank a full bottle of sugar water. She was crawling all over me, pounding on my stomach, talking a mile a minute in baby talk, laughing, rolling all over, and just going, going, going, going. At one point she figured out how to take my watch off and was teething on it.
She did NOT stop until about 1 AM. The whole time I’m helpless due to exhaustion and at the same time I’m laughing about my predicament; I want to go sleep yet Nicole has other plans.
Well, 1 AM finally rolls around and Nicole has had enough, she falls asleep in my arms and I put her in the crib. I dragged my butt back to bed only to hear her at 4:30 AM "asking" for another bottle. The morning bottle we have already premixed, just add the hot and cold water. Mornings are getting to be pretty routine, but boy, last night kicked our butts.
We are definitely loving every minute with Nicole and our experience here in China.