smokerblog

Flying By the Seat of Our Pants

[GUANGZHOU, 1/20 10:PM]

I lied about the no-post thing tonight. The internet access is so good in this hotel, I had to give it a go. No new pictures. I had my hands full traveling with Ben. There are some older ones at the bottom of the post, though.

The morning got off to a great start. Ben is beginning to mimic some of my English, but I have to catch him in the right mood to get anything to stick. First thing in the morning is a great time. We've got "high five" down pat, now we're working on "let's go" and "all done." Oh yeah, and "potty," that's an important one.

I'm picking up some new Chinese phrases too, like "almost there!" That card probably got overplayed today because, holy cow, I had to try to keep this kid occupied for four hours in an airplane seat during our flight to Guangzhou. I did okay for about a half-hour.

Luckily, there were five or six people on the flight amusing Ben by asking him questions in Chinese. Most were questions that I am beginning to recognize from everyone else who who talks Ben:

Those exclamation points in his responses are real, too. He doesn't win people over by being adorable (although he is that), but through sheer force of (his exuberant) personality. For instance, he was scribbling on some of my index cards and then accosting people with them, handing them out like Las Vegas strip cub flyers to anyone who made eye contact with him.

We did okay, though. I was a little harried, but was "rewarded" when Ben asked me to carry him through the unfamiliar Guangzhou airport and then gripped me tightly the whole way. I put the scare quotes in there because, even though I was happy that he still trusted me after I was mean to him for four hours, I was hot and sweating profusely in my turtleneck in the tropical weather.

As an example of how difficult it is to control Ben, and as an explanation for why there is no blogging during the day (nightime EST) and I why haven't actually used Skype since picking up Ben, here is a little pictoral study taken literally minutes after bringing Ben back to the hotel for the first time--note the orphanage clothes that he is wearing. There was no prompting here, this is an actual record of events as they occurred:

Step 1: Open drawer, notice laptop

Step 2: Remove laptop from drawer, place it on coffee table.

Step 3: Start hacking

That's why Ben's not allowed to be around the computer on this trip.