Every Day is a Holiday

Since we arrived in China almost two months ago, I have felt like I've been on vacation, a stress-filled one at times, but a vacation nonetheless. But you've never seen anyone enjoy a holiday until you've seen the people of Suzhou enjoy one. October 1 is not only Katie's birthday it marks the first day of the mid autumn holiday. National Day celebrates the anniversary of communism and this is the 60th year. The city spared no expense decorating with flowers, lights, lanterns, food, music and more fireworks.

Since many of Katie's schoolmates went away for the holiday we decided to hold off on the party until later this month. We instead went over the Sollars' apartment, where they prepared a feast of a meal. I did manage to order a cake (couldn't make one as our things are still sitting in some warehouse until after the holiday) with the help of John and May. I had no idea what kind of cake, what it would look like or taste like, but I knew it would say "Happy Birthday". When we unveiled the cake, it did say Happy Birthday, but it was written in Chinese. We then watched the fireworks from their 32nd floor balcony. I've never seen fireworks from eye level before. It kind of takes away the magic when you can look down and see where they are shot from . It was still pretty cool. Traffic stopped dead on the streets with folks just getting out of their cars to watch.

We were bound and determined to see the giant panda at the Suzhou Zoo before it got transferred back to its home zoo. So, along a few thousand others, the following day we went. The fee included entrance to the zoo and East Garden. All of the animals were active and out. We saw monkeys, giraffes, bears, zebras, birds, and, yes...the giant panda (ok...the panda was kind of lounging under a stump, but the girls got a good look at him). There was also this reptile cave we went down into. It was pretty sketchy, like something out of a horror movie, you know, with the single bulb lighting the way. Some of the cages were dark and you didn't know what might jump out at you, but we survived. Out of all the animals there, I think the girls were the largest draw.

Since we weren't all that interested in meat-on-a-stick for lunch, we went to a japenese/chinese restaurant. It was the same one Larry had gone to when he was in training, so I assumed it was edible. We walked upstairs and were seated on the floor, which the girls loved and thought was totally cool. With the help of Mr. Liu, we managed to order some good eats. Sarah enjoyed the shrimp, while Katie and Sydney stuck with steak and chicken, respectively. Unfortunately, bathrooms still pose a problem with some of us and without going into too much detail one of us left our mark there.