Beijing Saturday 10/22

Beijing, Saturday 10/22
1am. I’m not sure if this is considered jet lag since I am regularly up during the night at home. I’m looking forward to the cooler weather that is supposed to blow in today. We can already tell we are starting to need jackets. The last two days as we walked about in short sleeve shirts I noticed we were the only people with any skin showing. The people can obviously tell we are foreign, but I wonder if they think we are from Canada or some place with cool weather? I just can’t stand wearing long sleeves when the temperature is 70. Nor have I needed my sunglasses a single day with it being “overcast”. Pollution is a big problem in China, the air and the water both. Angela said 19 million people live in Beijing and all of the “youngers” want cars. To get a car you have to have a Beijing home address ID card. Only if your parents have Beijing cards can you get one even if you are born in Beijing. If you do not have a Beijing ID card and you have paid taxes for 5 years you can still apply to get a car license too. Every month there is a drawing from the applications for who will be allowed to buy a car. So there are no guarantees of when your number will ever come up. Quite a bit different from our home town where children get their drivers licenses at 16.

Making use of the peaceful early morning young D and I headed out together to find a less expensive supermarket and see our neighborhood. Going off the main tourist road is a great way to feel the real city. D and E were still sleeping so we decided to also bring home some breakfast since it was only 7am. After walking a few blocks I mentioned, “Everyone on this street is staring at us.” Dalton said that he had noticed as well. LOL When a full bus stopped beside us at a light there were so many staring faces I actually thought the people on the opposite side of the bus were going to move over to look also. Next time we have decided to wave. It doesn’t bother us yet but I can see how it would get old. At the Summer Palace yesterday we had many people taking our pictures, especially E’s. Today while out E even had someone touch his shoulder and ask in mime to take a photo. Afterwards another person said he should ask for Yuan. No, we are not letting him do that. But he thought is was a great idea to earn some extra spending cash. LOL

Saturday was our first day on our own. We headed out walking to the Forbidden City. Our guidebook said the North Gate would be less busy but after taking a wrong turn we ended up at the main South Gate. Wow. If 19 million people live in Beijing I think half of them were there today! The line was so long it stretched past the gate line area and far into T Square which is the courtyard of the F City. The lines at Disneyworld might have been this long at the worst times, maybe. We didn’t stand in long lines at Disney and guess what, we didn’t here either. Hopefully we can return earlier another day. Checked out T square a little and decided to walk to Bei Hai Park. Beautiful. Built in the 900’s with wandering pathways and rock sculptures everywhere. Jade Buddha and a temple built for the Dali Lamas visit in 1651. The lake was “foggy” but we rented a battery powered boat to see the shoreline and relax after the long walk. Walking there we of course took some back roads and saw many interesting people and sights. Even the sight of a mother and daughter getting granddaughter to urinate on the side of a building in her split pants by whistling. Children are taught a special sound to make them use the bathroom. Got to remember to ask Jewels signal noise.

After the park we took a taxi back to the room and tried to walk to a restaurant Dalton and I had seen on our walk that morning. I’m getting better at my charades and the rest of the family just stands there and laughs. But they sure don’t mind sharing in my purchases or using the information I obtain. Restaurants are only open during meal hours and we were to late for lunch and to early for dinner. Maybe tomorrow. We found a grocery store and bought some lunch for the room. There is an indoor pool we planned on using but found ourselves too tired today and just spent the rest of the evening resting in the room. E is full of excitement and is having a hard time today staying with the group. A good nights rest should recharge all of us for Sunday’s excursion. Angela is coming over after church. We are going to purchase some ingredients and she is going to show me how to prepare a couple of very simple Chinese dishes for the children. When I asked her about cooking lessons, I was thinking that an American child in such a emotional situation sure would benefit from a grilled cheese sandwich and a hot dog, maybe with some mac n cheese too.

Angela. I can’t say enough good things. She has made our stay so much more comfortable and I will be singing her praises to the online groups where I am a member. Not only does she connect us with our children by sending care packages and getting updates for the families, she also guides and hosts in her home. From the moment she met us at the airport with the traditional sign, helped us with check in and even escorted us up to our room she has smoothed the path. Our driver is someone she hires regularly to get us safely from place to place. Answering my thousands of questions along the way she gets us our tickets into the sights and tells us many personal things about China. Sure we could have taken a taxi and gotten checked into the room ourselves. But the time and stress saved had been worth any fees. She tries to get us the best prices for shows and our driver too. Without any prepayment she has bought our train tickets to Nanchang already and Sunday the tickets go on sale for the Nanchang to Guangzhou train we need and she is getting those too. Angela worked at one of the SWI’s for two years and the children have a place in her heart. That is why she has the package service and guides occasionally. I believe she only guides adoptive families. Her passion for helping the kids has even lead her to advocate for a specific child whose family is coming soon and she is involved in raising the standards in another very poor SWI. The city does not have money for essential services including the SWI. Her group buys formula for the babies and is trying to get enough money to hire some more staff. Can you believe 3 Ayis care for 50 babies 24 hours a day. She said they really care and the children are happy but it is very hard on the Ayis to be so short staffed. If you are interested in reading about her group (I think it is loves reach.com) there is a link on her care package website. ladybugsnlove.com

I’m off to try to catch a few winks before getting an early start to our Sunday. I’ll post this as soon as D wakes up since the internet connection is in the bedroom. ADVICE Take an Ethernet cable just in case. WiFi is spotty and the Ethernet cable in the room was broken. Saved a lot of hassle that we brought one. I’d rather spend my time blogging, shopping or sightseeing than working on getting the internet to work.