Normally Shanna does all the blogging, but today I thought I (Barry) would write a little because I'm excited about our first day here. First, Shanna and Meredith were up at about 3:30 am Beijing time. They were up that early because they were tired of sleeping. When we finally got to our hotel at about 1:00 pm on 5/11/07 we were all asleep by 2:00 pm. Shanna woke up briefly at about 6 pm and asked if we were ready to get up. When neither Meredith nor I responded, she went back to sleep until we all woke up and about 10:30 pm. Needless to say, we were all tired from our traveling.
We were up for a couple of hours, eating some snacks that Shanna had packed. We were even watching the National Geographic channel - in English. If it were not for the Chinese subtitles, we would have thought we were at home.
Today, we got up early. We would have made Charley McGuire happy this morning - we were awake at about 3 am. But we wanted to get onto a normal schedule so we forced ourselves to stay in bed until about 5:30 am. We all got showers, got dressed and went downstairs for our complimentary breakfast. There was one thing that I thought I would have the most difficulty with and that was the food. I have been pleasantly surprised by the food. Our breakfast was delicious. Meredith and I had one of our favorite dishes - pasta - for breakfast along with ham, Chinese grits (which seems to be watered down rice with bits of ham in it), a rice dish with peas and egg, a very delicious tea, and a great breakfast pastry thing.
After breakfast Shanna and Meredith made a friend at one of the gift shops. She gave Meredith a little present and we tried to go down a little later to return the favor. Unfortunately she was gone, so we will try again tomorrow. We also wanted to do a little walking and we were told by Sim, our Beijing tour guide, that there were some shops and things down an adjacent street from the hotel. We went walking seeing the sites, at least near where we are staying, and did some shopping.
We then went to Beihai Park which was a lot of fun. It has been a beautiful day. Temperature here was about 80 with a stiff breeze. The Chinese people are very talented. We saw a guy writing in English and Chinese "Welcome to Beijing." Both the English and Chinese writing were very artistic - much better than my scratch. Shanna also participated in a dance/exercise. I got some video of this so Shanna can teach Melina when she gets older. Here are a few pictures from our time at the park.
Ted Strawbridge - check the cheek.
Madeline - we miss you very much. We hope you are doing well. We know that Aunt Susan and Uncle Kent are taking good care of you. We will be going to dinner at 6 with some folks from Kentucky. After that we will try to call you at Uncle Kent's. We love you.
2 comments:
It is so good to see your happy faces, and to realize that you are finally in China!!! Doesn't it all seem surreal?
You guys look like you have been to China a dozen times! We are so glad you are feeling comfortable in your surroundings.
If you think you attract friends and attention now, wait til you have Melina in your arms....
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