Our trip to Chuzhou

On Thursday we went to the orphanage where Zoe is from. We took a large van to Chuzhou. We had a driver and a guide. The guide's name was Eva and she was nice and kind. She spoke English and Chinese. This was good because the people at the orphanage could talk Chinese but did not understand English and we do not speak Chinese.

The trip took about two and a half hours. Zoe got real quiet and started crying and then she got sick just as we got there. She felt horrible most of the time we were there because she had been sick - and she was sad.

At the orphanage Zoe got to see her best friend Chao Chao (pronounced Chow chow). Her friends were very excited to see her. They all ran up to the video camera I was using. They seemed happy.

We went outside and played on the playground with her and her friends. Zoe was beginning to feel alot better and started laughing again. I started playing with her on the playground.

The Director invited us to a private lunch. We drove to a restaurant. It had dead fish and meat hanging on wires on the front. They took us back to a small room with a round table.

In the middle of the round table was a big round thing that turns. They put all the food on that and we turned to get our food.

There were alot of interesting foods. My dad ate almost everything but really didn't like the pig ears. EEEEEEWWWW. My mom gave me some meat that had a ribcage in it - I just found out it was a bird. I ate some of it. We are not sure what kind of bird.

Some of the other foods were great. They cooked a fish that they called a grape fish because the meat looked like grapes. (well kind of ) They made some foods just for us because we were Americans. They made steaks that were very thin and soaked in rice, then fried. They had fruit, beef, and peanuts! Eva called Skylar the PEANUT KILLER because he just ate peanuts for lunch.

During our lunch Eva explained what the Director said in English to my mom and then explained to the Director what my mom said in Chinese to the Director. It was pretty confusing to me and boring to Skylar.