I'm Out In The Sun Having Fun With My Friends

Whoops Now - Janet Jackson

After he and my sister returned from visiting my parents in Vancouver, my nephew has started referring to his family members as his "friends." He would say, "Now have three friends - mommy, yiyi, and TeeTee. Missing porpor and gonggong." [yiyi = aunt - mom's younger sister = me, porpor = maternal grandmother, gonggong = maternal grandfather, TeeTee = our housekeeper]

For the little one's birthday, we took him up to a suburb of Guangzhou called Panyu. Within Panyu is an area known as Chimelong. It's a place for holiday-makers to visit a zoo, theme park, water park, and other attractions that, while gigantic, are all also within a ten minute drive of each other.

After visiting Xiangjiang Safari Park on Saturday [and getting attacked by mosquitoes], we went to Chimelong Water Park on Sunday. Shortly after arriving, the storm clouds rolled over us and dropped some heavy rain, lightning, and thunder. But after about a twenty minute wait, we were told it was safe to go have fun.

Some general observations made at the water park:

• Chinese bathing suits suck. They must. Because it's either that and people are trying to avoid embarrassing sheerness, or I'm missing out on the trend of pairing underwear with swimwear. And it's not just panties but bras also.
  
• Either way . . . I guess people don't really notice the problem of the camel toe that is often caused by the underwear trend.
  
• When faced with the problem of forgetting one's swimsuit at home, the Chinese just go swimming in their underwear. Or in the case of one boy I saw, buck naked. [Kindly note that there are plenty of suits for purchase there.]
  
• I can understand using an umbrella when it's really sunny. But when it's raining, you're in swimwear, you're already wet, and you're standing in a pool in a water park . . . is the umbrella really necessary?
• Last I checked, shower caps do not equal swim caps.

In any case, our little group stick together and we had a really good time. My nephew was so absurdly happy that he kept squealing with pleasure. For all the times that we think to ourselves, he's growing up so fast . . . those moments when he was having the time of his life quickly turned him back into our little baby.