DAYS 16 and 17: Yikes, I REALLY need to think about travel!

Today, I have a whole bunch of little things to report on. First up is news that our agency is hoping to have our travel group depart for China on 5/24. Since we've requested to go to Beijing a day early, that would be 5/23 (EJ's 8th birthday!) for us. She thought that would be the coolest birthday adventure ever. CAWLI is hoping that our travel authorizations are mailed from China before 5/1, the start of a holiday week in China.

From wikipedia.com: In the People's Republic of China, International Workers' Day marks the start of one of the country's three so-called "Golden Weeks". Three days off work are given, and the surrounding weekends are re-arranged so that workers in Chinese workplaces always have seven continuous days of holiday starting on the first of May and ending on the seventh. This holiday, known as "Wu Yi" (五一, literally "5.1") also includes Youth Day on May 4, and is the peak period for Chinese citizens to travel around China and abroad. Also on this day, a huge parade goes through Tian'anmen Square (天安门). It is the largest national parade of the whole year, always televised on CCTV. Most of the parade consists of military demonstrations like air shows and marching soldiers, and many who are selected to join the parade see it as a privilege and take pride in it. The government mandates the "Golden Weeks" holidays more for the purpose of rejuvenating the country's tourist business than its political purpose.

Anyway, let's hope those TA's come through in the next week! I mean, I could be in China in LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS!!!

Next up was an interesting post on an adoption site today about a T-shirt that was included on the UrbanOutfitters.com website. It was a yellow T-shirt with large black text that reads "Adopting is the new black", implying that adoption is trendy. Well, the adoption community took offense to this and started making phone calls and sending emails and within a few hours, the T-shirt was removed from the website. It is interesting to think that hundreds of thousands of international adoptions have probably taken place in the last 25 or 30 years, but as soon as a handful of celebrities choose adoption as a way to expand their families, it is considered fashionable. I'm all for anything that would promote positive messages about international adoption programs or multi-racial families, but they also have T-shirts that say "Rehab is the new black" so let's just say that adoption was not in good company here. I'm glad the T-shirt is gone.

And finally, all the sports talk in Boston today was focused on the possibility that the blood on Curt Schilling's sock during the '04 World Series was really paint. You can read all about it here. Doug Mirabelli said he was misunderstood, and Red Sox Nation can sleep tonight knowing their legendary win was truly legendary, complete with self-sacrifice and blood and all. But I wouldn't be surprised if DNA tests were ordered just to be sure.