Day 2 Update from Beijing

Day 2

First off, I wanted to mention one thing about yesterday that I forgot. When we
were working on our plane tickets our original plane was to
go through Tokyo instead of going over Greenland like we did. Because of the oil
prices going up, we had to change our plan and go up and over
Greenland. If we had gone through Tokyo, our layover would have been right
around the time of the earthquake. We realized this as
soon as we got into our hotel room and turned on CNN. I just wanted to give God
the credit on that one as one of the many blessings we've
received on this trip!

Today we went to the Great Wall and it was beautiful. It was 70 degrees and
sunny! The weather here is the same climate as
Chicago, so we were very fortunate to be here during some early spring weather.
We started the day out with breakfast sandwiches
from KFC and we had the kids practice some basic Chinese words like please and
thank you before we headed out for the day. I
think it's important for us to try their language even if we don't speak it the
right way and the people seem to appreciate it.

We hired the driver who picked us up from the airport to drive us to the wall.
We drove for about an hour and a half to the
Badaling section of the wall. It was very beautiful and there were a lot of
people there since it was Saturday. The kids were
"rockstars" once again. Tons of people asked to have their pictures taken with
our kids. Probably close to a hundred people.
The teenage girls especially like Sydney and tell me that she is beautiful. One
young man who spoke good English told me that
they are not used to seeing American children in China. They see adults quite
often, but not children. He also said that they
never see four. Most people hold four fingers up when they see us in disbelief!
It's kind of funny. The people couldn't be
nicer and they always ask if we mind if they get a picture with them, so we
don't mind.

On the way home from the Great Wall, we stopped into the Summer Palace for about
two hours. The buildings were beautiful
and full of ancient history.

After the Summer Palace, we asked our guide to drop us off at the Olympic
Village. The Bird's Nest and the Water Cube were
absolutely huge, amazing buildings. We paid about $15 to go inside the cube and
it was worth every penny. We saw where Michael
Phelps won the gold and got to sit in the seats. The nice surprise was that
while we were in the building they lit up the whole
blue outside part of the cube. The blue material is also the ceiling and walls
in some places on the inside. As they lit it up,
the ceiling over us turned a really cool, blue color.

On the flight from Newark, we met a really nice businessman who had gone to
college in the US and lives here in Beijing. He offered us tons of information
before
getting off the flight and we exchanged contact information. He is married and
they have a four year old little girl. He also
mentioned getting together for dinner and offered his drivers to us during our
stay. We thought he was really nice, but didn't'
really think We would see him. Well, by the time we got to our hotel, he had
emailed and was so concerned about our time here.
They live in the Olympic village, so he picked us up after our little tour of
the village, and we ate the best Chinese food I have ever had at a non-touristy
restaurant in their neighborhood. It was so much fun! It tasted like our
Chinese, but much better. We were so relieved that
there is food that we like here and that we're not food failures after all!
When we told him about our "frog and cow intestine" hot pot restaurant and he
just laughed. He said that since we're staying in such a trendy area, they have
that type of food and it was not what they normally eat. Phew,
we felt lot better after he told us that.

I still think this city is clean and modern, but I take back a little of my
"clean" statement from yesterday. The air quality
is very poor and there is a haziness even on a sunny day. I noticed that I
didn't need my sunglasses as much as I do at home.
The cars and everything outside get dirty from the pollution. Seeing that first
hand really makes me appreciate our clean air
even in industrial areas and big cities in the US.

It is now Sunday afternoon here. The kids are swimming at the hotel pool now
and after that we're planning to see Tian'anmen Square
and the Forbidden City.