From Jodi:  Last night Mike and I attempted to go out for dinner and enjoy one of my favorite Chinese meals--hot pot.  Accomplishing this with a two year old we don't always understand made it quite the challenge.  There was one person in the restaurant who spoke English, but unfortunately his English was about as good as my Chinese.  Not very.  So between the two of us and our poor second language skills, we were able to manage the process of ordering.  Now hot pot is a meal that you are supposed to eat over a long period of time, with drinks and conversation and lots of rounds of different meats and veggies to throw in the boiling pot of spicy soup.  We knew our meal would be abbreviated due to the company of a toddler, but we were okay with that.  With the help of some toys we'd packed in his backpack and the magic peez dispenser that seems to distract him for short periods of time, we were able to tag team our meal so that we both could eat.  I don't know if I could say that we experienced hot pot the way it is intended, but we tried and wemade it out of the restaurant without a major scene.

Tonight we decided that we would avoid the stress of a restaurant by purchasing street food.  The three of us wandered around until we soon found ourselves on a street that had a variety of very cheap (and probably sketchy) food choices.  For a total of $2.75 we had purchased our meal for the night.  Spicy noodles to-go (which meant they gave them to us in a plastic bag), lotus root, fried onion bread, pickled cabbage, an unidentifiable pastry and THE CHICKEN FOOT.  We brought all of this food back to our room and had ourselves a little carpet picnic--this was a lot more relaxed than our previous dining experience.  The chicken foot provided us all with some good laughs.  Since I had already tried this Chinese favorite ten years ago, I did not feel the need eat another.  Liam and Rowan, I can't say that your dad actually ate the foot...but he did put it in his mouth to taste it.  You can see by the pictures how much he enjoyed it.  If you look closely at the pictures, you can see that the foot still had claws! 

Tomorrow we will fly to Guangzhou and will move to the second phase of our China journey. We have had many good memories in Jinan, but I think it is safe to say that Mike and I are both ready to leave. Living out of a hotel room with a two year old that we can't easily communicate with has worn us both down. And while Eli has been a trooper throughout the week, he is worn down too.  I hope we all have a good night's sleep tonight so we're in good spirits for tomorrow's plane ride.  We may need your prayers.  :)