July 10 in China!

 Special kids, silk, and acrobats

What a day!

We started our day by visiting a school for some special little people. Most of the 150 students are Down syndrome. They weren't all there because they are in summer vacation. Quite a few wanted to come when they knew we were coming.

 Talk about precious....

We got off the bus and were met at the door by all these huge smiles and clapping. The little people would grab one of us by the hand and lead us in and show us where to sit. Once we were welcomed by their teacher (translated by our city guide), they performed a little dance they had learned...then another gangman style dance. After they performed, they would come over, grab us by the hand and pull us up for them to teach us the dance.

 We performed ... With our singers performing the Star-Spangled Banner ... Then Kyle (from the Seattle group), did a break dance...that's when some of us shed a few tears. There was a little boy in a green shirt...who wanted to be involved in everything. He went out by Kyle, and tried to do the same moves as he did...all with a big smile spread across his face. Then as the little guy started doing some different moves, Kyle started copying him. His little smile as he watched Kyle do what he did...well, it was priceless!

 Playing games came next...the games were varied...rolling a ball back and forth, a mock game of badmitten, hula hooping, sitting in a circle making hand movements while a person in the center tried it figure out who had started the movements, basketball, etc...I wish you could all have seen your kids! As one of our leaders commented, this was a true ambassadorial moment!

 We said our goodbyes and headed to a silk reeling factory and learning about silk. Silk products in the Yangtzee delta have been dated back to 4500 years ago! We were taught about single and double cocoons. Singles only have one pupae inside...and they are used for making things like scarves, pajamas, etc. Double cocoons have 2 pupae inside. The silk from that is used to make things like comforters. In WWII, double cocoon silk was used for making parachutes.

 We had some shopping time in a shop next to the factory...it was dangerous! (Not physically, but financially dangerous!)

Kylie spotted this dress...loved it...and was trying to find out how much it cost.  I went to talk to some of the workers, finding out it was not for sale...it was advertising the silk you could buy to make it yourself.  Well, like I said, Kylie really wanted it.  I talked some more, and they decided they'd sell it.  She tried it on and a lot of the other delegates offered to donate money to her to help her buy it...because everyone agreed, she looked spectacular in it!  She bought it!

 The Shanghai Museum is amazing! That was our next stop. We had close to 2 hours to explore. We saw a complete mans outfit made out of fish skin! The paintings, the furniture, the clothing...oh my!

 

We then went to watch the Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe practice!!! Our group got to try their hand with one of the members who did things with a Chinese Yo-Yo. Weq were definitely challenged by this. 

 Snake wine...we saw it at dinner!  No takers!

 We were drooling after seeing a Starbucks...so after dinner, we headed back to Starbucks for a much needed coffee fix...and then to the actual performance of the acrobats, wow, wow, and WOW! You just can't believe all they did.

Tonight was the laundry fiasco...about 4 boys did ALL their laundry..just washed...and then the hotel dryers weren't drying. We sent them to their rooms for bed at 11 pm while we tried to talk to the hotel manager about their non-functioning dryers...we eventually got the boys' money back...but we have 4 plastic garbage bags of wet clothes under the bus. As I write this (but not sending) we are on our way to Suzhou, "The Venice of the Orient". For the next 3 nights, we are in a different hotel each night...not sure how these clothes will dry, they probably won't :(

A sore throat/cold is circulating around...it's not too bad, just a bit of discomfort.
Another day of an amazing journey through China!