Another Day...

...More beautiful fall weather and blue skies. We headed to Chaoyang Park to enjoy the sights. I've mentioned the surprising amount of green space in such a big city, but I forgot to mention one of the peculiarities of Beijing parks--you are often prohibited from walking on the grass, which keeps the grass looking nice, and the people all confined in the cement streams. I guess Chaoyang is different because grass-walking is permitted.

It's an interesting look at Chinese leisure time. There were big paved plazas, with very little decorations, but lots of room for kite flying. There was an amusement park--dated, like the former Como Zoo rides--but good enough fun. There were lakes, paddle boats and pedicabs for rent, and the requisite descriptive areas: The Garden of 100 Generals, The Forest of Everlasting Clouds and Harmony, that sort of thing. There were human hamster balls that you could roll in on a pond. There was a parachute ride that took us up for a great look at Beijing. Of course, the kids acted as though they had never seen rides before, and of course every ride was the very best one, just this one, please Mom? Look closely and you'll catch a glimpse of the Nazi mom who rules the Kingdom of NO. And who is co-Dictatorette of the Land of Your Own Allowance. Surprisingly, Ava pulled out her wallet and bought herself a big ol' bunch of cotton candy. And the boys managed to eke out enough to ride the death-defying Fire Phoenix (oooooooo).

OK OK OK FINE. I did spring for the parachute ride. Because I wanted to do it and that's just how it works around here (when Mark's gone).

There was also a statue garden. We couldn't figure out the theme. Gandhi, Magellan, a pole vaulter, a guy that looked a lot like Lenin but the sign was in Russian so we couldn't tell, and several Polish people, none of whom I recognized.

Yeah, I'm not going to apologize. I do so try to reinforce and encourage good manners. I think an appreciation of art is important. I think people should not sculpt a face on a rock with wide-open nose holes. So there you are.

We decided it was definitely worth stopping by the kite market next Sunday before heading back with a few miles of string to see if we can get our kite game on against people who definitely have kite flying in their blood.

I am still have a strange time adjusting to how to get a feel for life here. I really feel like we're in a school bubble. I can't even say an "expat" bubble because there are so so many of us. In Arusha, most of the places that we hung out at were not affordable to Tanzanians, so they were very much expat enclaves. Here, no matter where we go, we're still the minority. I feel much more on the outside of everything. I think a large part is the language...and the alphabet. Even if we can ever learn to speak Chinese, we'll hardly be able to read it and so much will pass us by.

Luckily we have Cameron and Noah! The other day Noah was studying for a test and read a whole paragraph in Chinese. He looked at the characters and read it aloud in Chinese. I was beyond impressed! And then today, I was puzzling over the map--several of my options were written only in Chinese characters. Cameron was able to read the characters and tell me what road we needed to take. Pretty cool!

No need to interpret this sign. We went next door and I limited myself to just 1 slice of delicious pizza. You never know when you might be receiving a message from God or something. We'll be back, though--it's a hotpot restaurant. Spicy and non-spicy broth and then you dip meat and veggies into it and cook it, and then attempt to fish it out with chopsticks. I'm thinking it's going to be delicious, yet a lot of work, kind of like eating crab legs. I'm waiting for the weather to get cold to try it. If it doesn't work, hey, there's fondue at the place next door!