Day 20 - GIVES concert, Pearl Market, River Cruise

Hallelujah! Breakfast call time was 9am. There's a 7 Eleven next to the hotel, so some of us went there to get water and Oreos for Doc's birthday.

On the bus to the concert I learned that if a child has a birth defect - like a cleft palate or is handicapped in anyway they can't go to school. Also, they can't be adopted unless their handicap is fixed. Amazing, it makes their story even sadder.

The concert today is for a charity. There is an expression "TIC" (This is China) because things change all the time and flexibility is required. The concert was originally supposed to be in a special olympics stadium, then in another larger venue. It's now in a room at an American school. It benefits GIVES which works with handicapped and autistic children.. The group has 2 concerts 1/2 hour in length and a lot of downtime which is what they need to recover, especially since tomorrow there are 2 performances.

After the concert, we decided to try the Pearl Market again. But now, there are 13 of us. We split up into 3 groups and tried to get 5 into a taxi, but that didn't work. Not that it's easy to get a taxi in Guangzhou anyway. We had hailed down a taxi pretty quickly at one point, but he pulled past us and a white woman that had just come from the charity event started to get into it. She asked where we were going and I told her the Pearl Market and she asked if she could help us (I wanted to say, ya - gives us our taxi, we were here first), I said no and let her go. So anyway after 2 attempts to get 5 of us into a taxi, we split into two groups, me, Dain and Tyler and Teresa and Clinton in the other.

The ride is not 20 minutes from the school, it's more like 40, so by the time we got there, we were supposed to be heading home. I tried to get money from the ATM, but my card didn't work at that ATM. Meanwhile, Tyler watched for Teresa and Clinton. At this point, I just decided that we should walk through, which we did, the floor is mostly jade, but after cruising through I did find a pearl stall. I asked if they had pearl chokers, they pulled out a strand, I asked how much, they said 150 yuan, I said too much and walked away. They tried to talk me into it, I kept saying too much, Tyler reminded me to give them a price (I forgot this wasn't corporate America) I said 30, they said no way, I walked away, then they recanted, pulled out another strand - nope didnt want those, I told them 30 yuan for that strand or no deal. I got my deal. Tyler did too.

As if this trip hasn't been exciting already, the real fun begins. It starts to rain. Tyler, Dain and I unsuccessfully tried to hail a taxi for a couple of minutes, then saw Teresa so ran down to her. Now it's really pouring, none of us have jackets, only Teresa has an umbrella. I have my backpack with my computer and cameras in it - I'm not sure how waterproof it is, At one point, there were 4 of us huddled under a regular sized umbrella - although really, what's the point we were soaked already. My backpack was facing forward, all I really cared about was keeping that dry(er). I tried making several phone calls to different people in the group, no one answered. I called the hotel, couldn't get anyone in the lobby that spoke english to get Doc on the phone. In the meantime, while I'm on the phone with the hotel, Clinton has negotiated with a van to take us to the hotel. It's not a regular taxi, no meter, but we figure there's 5 of us and one of him. Here's the thing, the van has only 1 seat in the back and it's only built to hold 3 people max, we crammed in 4. Clinton was in the front seat and that's good, he's our schmoozer, he's learned the most chinese, he's chatting up the driver. In the back is Tyler, me, Teresa and Dain. I'm not sure Dain is really sitting on anything, Teresa has one of her legs over Dain, Tyler and I are way too close. Tyler handed Clinton his video camera and I handed him my still. We all decided this was the highlight of our day, maybe the trip. I also said I was glad I was having that experience with the 4 of them, there are some that would have whined about it, but we laughed. After 30 minutes, Dain said he couldn't take it anymore, he didn't care how gross the back of the van was, so that's where he sat.

40 minutes after we got in the taxi we made it back to the hotel - 30 minutes to find a taxi, 40 minute drive, we've missed the bus for dinner and the river cruise. There was a note left at the front desk saying they'd come back for us at 6:50 and that they'd tried to call my phone, sure enough, there's a missed call, but it never rang. I called Doc and handed the phone to Teresa who explained the day. We figured we had a little time, so the guys went up to change out of their wet clothes, I figured what's the difference and stayed in my dress and sandals, but then decided to go up and get my rain coat with a hood. While we're upstairs, Doc calls to say they aren't going to do the Las Vegas Buffet after all, that they are turning the bus around now to get us. Teresa washed Dain's pants and the water was almost black - and no, it wasn't the dye from the pants, it was dirt. About 10 minutes later they arrived, we got fruit, ice cream and drinks from 7 Eleven before heading to the river cruise.

The cruise was nice, the rain eased up and the lightening stopped so we could go on the upper deck, which a few of us did. I saw a group of young girls - ages 10 and 11 and started talking with them.. I got them to go downstairs and say Happy BIrthday to Doc. I talked with them for about 15 minutes and learned all of their names - one had the name of Coco and she was pretty fashionable.

After the cruise, we went to Pizza Hut for dinner. They weren't going to serve us since it was 10 and they close at 10:30, but we said we'd order fast. It tasted so good, it was the first cheese I'd had in almost 3 weeks. Mmmmm!

Teresa and I left before the main group and started to walk back to the hotel, since she'd been to Guangzhou and knew were the hotel was. But as we were walking, she realized we'd gone too far, so we stopped 2 young guys to ask for directions to IKEA (that's our landmark), they gave them to us and we walked back, essentially to where we started, but by now, it was really pouring and my rain jacket, well, it's only waterproof if you are in So Cal running from your car to a building, not in a Guangzhou downpour where you have to walk about 3/4 mile. Needless to say, by the time I got back to the hotel I might as well have been coatless, in fact, that might have been better.

Happy to be be dry and now really ready for sleep.