We've had a soggy summer here in China. I would take the rain over the glaring sun any day, so I've been in heaven! Last summer, while in Beijing with a friend, I first learned about Beijing's poor drainage system. This week has proved that LangFang's not far behind. Ting and I ran some errands the other afternoon, and our travel time home was doubled due to the flooded streets. Nothing stops their many modes of transportation!
This was the scene on our street when we finally arrived home. My room is upstairs in the bakery.
Work is still progressing on the new therapy pool. The concrete has been poured since I took these photos, so we're now looking at tiles and completing the exterior walls.
A couple of weeks ago, some of us took a little field trip into Beijing to visit the Planetarium. It was definitely the most state of the art platetarium I had ever visited. Wow! Aside from the many star-gazing shows, they offered several other science related theatres. One featured Big Bird and Elmo, and I'm proud to say I picked up on quite a bit of the simple Chinese words they used! The 3-D show began much like The Tower of Terror. We were ushered into a 'holding chamber' and shown a video of a press conference with President Bush, dubbed over in Chinese, of course. Apparently dinosaurs had escaped from an experimental project and we were being assigned to capture them. From there we were lead into another room with a gigantic video screen. We were seated in a theme park-type ride and buckled in! You know those 3-D rides you see in shopping malls?...this was much like that. I think our favorite show, however, was in the 4-D theatre. It showed an underwater pursuit between predator and prey, and with my lack of Chinese language skills, it was the easiest for me to follow along with. Added to the fun of our 3-D glasses, the seat-backs in front of us contained water and air blowing mechanisms to scare us right out of our seats!
Even with all the amazing shows the Planetarium offered, the twins will tell you their favorite 'ride' was the wheelchair lift. In China, it's hard to find anything that is handicapped accessible, so this was really the first time they had ever seen such a thing. We're used to just grabbing a couple people to help lift their chairs up and down stairs. I think the unknown of it scared them at first, but I assured them that they were actually quite common in America and people in wheelchairs rely on them all the time. I love their faces in these photos!
Look what I found in the corner of a market. Go Big Red?
I did something wild and crazy this past weekend. I went to a public swimming pool! EEKK! It was an experience! When we arrived, there were only a handful of people there. We parked our electric bike and cart beside the building and went in. Later that afternoon, when we went to leave, our bike was blocked in by fifty other bikes! You can see the girls waving from their perch on the cart as Mr. Worker Man tries to find us a way out.
Sometimes we have some strange things come in as donations. This is a good example.
Of course I had to try it on. I walked down the street toward The White House where a bunch of the kiddos were hanging out outside. They all squinted their eyes as I came toward them, trying to figure out who I was. As I got closer, they finally called out, 'Nicole!' Too fun!
Last week, I had an appointment at the US Embassy to add extra pages to my passport! That either means I'm a super traveler or I've had a lot of visa problems, ha. Now my passport is extra fat and ready to be filled with more visas and stamps. It is now out of my hands again, as it's been submitted for yet another renewal. If you remember, my current visa expires September 15th. Will keep you posted.
If my visa does indeed get renewed, I have my eyes set on the Beijing Half Marathon. The race is Sunday, October 18th. I've been gearing up for about twelve weeks now, and hope the temps will drop quickly as I add more mileage in the remaining time. I'm telling you my plans so I won't chicken out. :) Knowing what China will do to a pair of shoes, I opted to leave my fancy racing shoes at home. My junky shoes have just not been cutting it, however, so I was blessed that my parents were able to send my good shoes to me with a visiting volunteer team from Nashville. Adios old shoes, hello pretty shoes!
It's laundry night! I love these nights - my room smells like detergent! So much better than the typical China smells that can make their way to my nose. Ahhhhh! Goodnight, friends. I like you!
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