On our journey so far

Today is Sunday, August 6th - Word to the wise - even if your child is potty trained - take extra clothes and a sippy cup! On the first 3 hour trip Nathan split a whole glass of ice water on his seat. I didn't pack underwear but did pack a set of pj's and a clean shirt. On the next flight he split orange juice, water and seven up. I have already packed a sippy cup in his pack back. We leave in a couple of hours for Wulumuqi. Nathan has been wonderful. He has slept when we told him and hasn’t had a melt down yet.I do find myself being the mean old Mama bear again in a strange way. The Chinese people and really any adult actually are very drawn to him and watch him constantly. He, on the other hand, knows he is being watched and starts showing off. Then he gets wilder and wilder and the Chinese in particular think it's cute and so then I really have to reign him in.

The zoo we visited was very old and the surroundings are beautiful. It is the zoo + a panda exhibit + an aquarium + a river through w/boats on it and I saw a water park in the same area. What makes it lovely is the huge green areas with massive willow trees, crepe myrtles, and masses of flowers. They also use a lot of rock to decorate. I think one reason the zoo is so popular is because this is of course a huge metroplex with not a lot of green areas.

Next we had lunch in a nice restaurant - Rose (guide), Mr. Tong (driver), Glenn, Nathan and I. The food was very good and we had a nice conversation with Rose and Mr. Tong. Rose is unmarried and has been working as a guide for 8 years, the only job she has had since she graduated from college. She is from Inner Mongolia and her sister and her came to Beijing for school and stayed. Mr. Tong has two children. She said he had to pay a large fine for the second child but his Mother wanted him to have another child, to see if they could have a boy, unfortunately both are girls. This is what she said. We did see many children in the zoo surrounded by adults. In other words, probably several generations bringing the "child" to the zoo. Even the girls with parents -I didn't know how to say that- have very short hair. It was puzzling as the older girls/women have long hair. The boys have very short hair with little tuffs of hair in front. It looks very strange to me.

The foot message was interesting. We arrived at a typical building and walked up 5 flights of stairs and walked into a business. It back it was divided into rooms with around 4 chairs and a ottoman in front of each. We sat down and they brought in cups of tea and then Rose had them bring us water. They prepared by bringing in big wooden tubs for each of us plus two small foot shaped bowls for each. First they mixed up a portion of what looked a lot like runny clay and brushed it on our feet with a brush. It heated up and then when it was getting a little hot for comfort they used the brushes and applied something and water. After they finished this they put our feet in the tubs of a jelly like substance. We rested our feet in here and then they had us sit on the ottoman and they did a shoulder, arm, back and head message. It was great to work out the kinks of the plane ride. After our back message then they went back to our feet and dried them and then applied cream and messaged for about 40 minutes. At one point they brought in watermelon and Nathan ate Glenn's and his like he hadn't eaten in days. After the message we went back to the hotel and took a nap for a couple of hours. We forced ourselves to get up and went for a walk. I would imagine it is a typical area with apartments and businesses and hotels. We walked for a couple of blocks and came across a McDonalds. We stopped in and bought a snack - hot wings and chicken nuggets. We are doing pretty well with jet lag, we didn’t go to bed last night until after 9 and slept until around 5. Glenn is having the hardest time with it.

One thing about Beijing, it is always overcast. The sun shows through weakly. As Nathan said, "it looks more like the moon". Everyone speaks of Wulumqi with a bit of awe in their voices. I am not sure why. We will see soon. Will type more later and tomorrow we get Mandy! Haven't found out when or where yet.