Reflections from Day 3

Slept in a little more.  She seems to be sleeping well, better than us I must say, that is good. :)  She is getting a little more comfortable at breakfast.  It is a very formal dining space at the hotel with a very elaborate buffet, nothing like you'd find at an American Holiday Inn.  It seems stressful for her to be in this space, like she senses there is formality and etiquette expected here that she has not learned. She struggles to cut things with her knife and we help her. Her vision seems worse in the morning and in stressful situations like this. She is much more herself when we eat at the more casual places.

We started the day by going to her "finding place", the place where she was left by her biological parent(s).  It was the store front of a large department store.  It appears she was never told about this, so our guide explained to her what this was. We took pictures, it was a busy place so I'm sure she was found quickly.  Later at lunch out of the blue she said didn't understand why her biological parent would just leave her there. :(

Next we stopped by her school for the blind (which Marnie will tell about) and then went to a small historical area turned into small shopping area. Ani gets very excited here and wants to touch and play with everything, and our guide is very helpful to us in explaining shopping etiquette. We buy a necklace for her and she helps our guide negotiate a lower price.  Both her and Neela pick out watches in another store. We are surprised at how much she seems to know about the shopping experience from being in an orphanage, then we learn that they teach "shopping" at her school and she has been on several trips.

Our guide finally joins us for lunch instead of just dropping us off at the hotel. Best restaurant so far, they had a few of our favorite dishes from our trip last year. We learn that Ani does not like wide noodles, but does like skinny noodles, and does not like meat so much (even though at day 1 she wanted to have a hamburger for lunch). We are nervous that she will be a picky eater.  She does like fruit but veggies may be a challenge. She enjoyed the pizza we had the previous day, so there is hope for her in America.

It seems crazy to us that she will be starting 4th grade in 2 months. The school for the blind she was at is a good school, she is very proud to have gone there and I feel they have taught her good learning and perservance skills, but it feels she has been missing a chunk of basic skills her peers have been learning. We installed a bunch of preschool and kindergarten apps on the iPad, which looks like it will be very helpful in helping her learn the language and basic skills. To her credit, she is very energetic, curious, and loves exploring and learning her new environment, I think she is very much ready for the challenges that lie ahead.