Today was a day that was mostly free for us. Our guide, Judy, went to the Consulate to do all our paperwork and called right before noon to say it was completed and they had no questions. That's good news because it clears the way for today's ceremony there which is for Ally's citizenship. We're looking forward to that and so hope they'll let Michael take pictures. Speaking of Michael and pictures, the first one on the blog is of Michael at a paper shop yesterday (with a worker). We had the guy in the photo write Ally and Lindsay's name in Chinese characters on really nice paper. Many of you know that Michael has written in a journal every day since he was 19 yrs old......anyway, he loves paper and writing and was fascinated with this shop. It took quite a bit of doing to get them to understand the girls' names, but we eventually got it completed. After that we had a great lunch with our friend, Melissa, then off to more shopping. Even Lindsay bought 2 bracelets, which she is very proud of. She also scored a couple more Chinese dresses -- she just loves them. We ended up at Melissa and John's house........an apartment on the 39th floor of a skyscraper. The picture of Ally is at their house.......Ally is looking at pictures of our family and our dog, Major. Melissa and John have a French Bulldog that sent Ally over the edge at first......which concerned Michael because Major is a permanent fixture in our family. But - this dog was little, had a high-pitched bark and moved really fast -- I think all that scared Ally. Major is a black labrador and much more quiet and gentle (although he weighs almost 100 lbs).....so we'll see. Another adventure awaiting Ally in CT.

The last picture is of the street next to our hotel. As you can see, there's lots of nightlife and, again, shops for anything you could ever want. We enjoy just walking at night and taking it all in. Can't believe we have just one more day here........Cheryl