Hot Pot Dinner....that wasn't so hot..

Kathy, Alivia, Keith, Dante, and Emma left for home yesterday.

As I've said before, they were heaven-sent :).  God put the three of us solo-traveling parents together and our fun times together truly helped me not be lonely here in Guangzhou.

Until last night, when they were all gone.

God knew I would be feeling a little down yesterday afternoon, so he sent along another family, Ming and Christie, who have one son and adopted a 4 year old daughter this week.  I had seen them in the hotel dining room during breakfast several mornings and we had chatted a bit. Ming is Chinese and likes to dine at more "local" places (more local than Lucy's, lol). They were trying out a "hot pot" restaurant and invited me and my girls to tag along.

We walked several blocks to the restaurant, which, if you're familiar with Guangzhou, is underneath the Holiday Inn. Johanna held my hand the whole way there and back, and I don't blame her. China is a bit creepy at night, although I felt very safe with Ming, his family, and the local policemen I was keeping an eye on. :)

Anyway, I will admit, when I first saw the food at this restaurant, I was completely grossed out. We passed the buffet on the way to our table, and all of the food is raw. Vegetables, squid, goat, beef, lamb, lots of weird (to us Americans anyway!) food, at least half of which I had NO idea what it was.

The man pouring our tea had this REALLY long spout on his teapot. I was amazed.

The idea behind the hot pot is that you start with a big bowl of broth in the center of the table. With your own heating element (the table) and temperature gage, you bring the broth to a boil.  Everyone chooses different meats and vegetables from the buffet (they are raw, remember) and plops them into your now-boiling broth. 

Like I said, I wasn't so sure at this point what I thought. I told Ming that it might be better for him to just choose what they liked and I would try it, since I was willing to try new foods, but not confident in my choosing abilities on the raw buffet.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised at how good the food tasted. Different foods were ready at different times, so we just picked out what we wanted and ate it. I especially enjoyed the beef, and dipped it in a spicy sauce that was yummy!

Unfortunately, after our walk home, I had another bad round of bonding-time with Mr. Toilet. I don't know what my deal is this trip. I can't seem to get rid of the "issue".....I will be honest: I'm feeling really drained physically. I did take a nap today, but I still feel rather faint. Our guide gave me some Chinese herbal medicine for diarreah, but I'm not sure if it's making me sick to my stomach as well? I'm praying I wake up tomorrow feeling better.

Speaking of tomorrow, I will be PACKING to go home tomorrow!!!!  I am very ready to have all of my children under one roof soon. Tonight I was envisioning snuggling with all of them on my bed, and reading books to them.....sweet times that I've really missed!

God has been so good to me and encouraged me with His word and through various people during this trip. I can't wait to see what adventures the last two day will bring!