Has it really been 6 weeks?

What do you mean I haven't posted since August 15th?  Well I did post twice on that day so that gives me a little leeway, right?  Oh well, I shouldn't be surprised that 6 weeks have zoomed by since our 6 month anniversary in Beijing is this week.

All is going well.  We are enjoying our first National Week where almost everyone in China is off of work.  A bit busy everywhere you go (to say the least) but beautiful weather to enjoy some of those parks I mentioned in my last posting.

 The girls started school on August 30th.  I think they were ready for it and so was I!!  They like their new teachers and are excited to go (almost) every day.

 My Brownie troop started meeting last month and it is great fun.  Fiona seems to LOVE it and it doing the Girl Scout sign at every opportunity....in her PJs and in fancy dress.

My troop has 12 girls in it and I am testing all my organization skills to get 12 girls to be entertained and learning something.  We'll see how it goes but so far so good.

Fiona had her House Competition last week which is why she is all fancy above. The Green House (the Saxons) sang "Money, Money, Money" by ABBA and Fiona was in center stage and shared one line with 3 girls. Very exciting!

 

The other BIG news in the McVeigh family is we bought 2 guinea pigs.  (I plead temporary insanity.)  Fiona named hers "Fluffy" and Isla named hers "Pet-ty".  It didn't take long for Isla to get mad at poor Petty for scratching her so she tossed her in the air.  We didn't think poor Petty would pull through but she is still alive.  Petty is no longer Isla's pet but mine!  His name now is Spike.  They are both very sweet and will hopefully be alive the next time I blog.

I am keeping busy with Girl Scouts, class rep for Isla's class and now Secretary of the PTA.  I know!!  Totally over-volunteered but there was some coercion involved in the PTA thing.  I play Mahjong every Tuesday afternoon after exploring the city with a group called Tuesday Trotters.  The founder, Eleanor Liu, is 90-something years old, lived in BJ for 30 years and has taken ladies around the city for 21 years.  She even wrote a book called "Off the Beaten Path in Beijing".  Fascinating lady!  I am happy to be a part of the group.

Eleanor is in the front in black

Our exploration of Beijing parks has continued.  I just posted a bunch of pics from September on Facebook but here's a few of my favorites.  The parks are absolutely the best thing about China.  Every time I go, I am amazed at how much fun the Chinese have dancing, singing, playing, etc.  They are so NOT self-conscious and being with their community means everything to them.

Dancing in Ditan Park (Isla on her bike)

Ritan Park

Bike Ride to Houhai

I'll be posting a funny (crazy) story from the Silk Market.  A little teaser...you know you got a good deal when the shop lady calls your husband "a VERY BAD man!"  Stay tuned...it won't be another 6 weeks....

What China Does Well...Parks and a Sense of Community

We discovered a new favorite park today called Jingshan Park.  Here's a little history from Wikipedia.

Jingshan is immediately north of the Forbidden City.  The 45.7-metre high artificial hill was constructed in the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty entirely from the soil excavated in forming the moats of the Imperial Palace and nearby canals. It is especially impressive when one considers that all of this material was moved only by manual labor and animal power. According to the dictates of Feng Shui, it is favorable to site a residence to the south of a nearby hill (and it is also practical, gaining protection from chilly northern winds). The imperial palaces in the other capitals of previous dynasties were situated to the south of a hill. When the capital was moved to Beijing, no such hill existed at this location, so one was constructed. It is popularly known as Feng Shui Hill. It is also known as Coal Hill, a direct translation of its old popular Chinese name. Jingshan is especially a popular place for elderly people socializing and gathering. One can often find elderly folks dancing, singing opera and doing other cultural activities, such as kuai ban, at Jingshan.

Ok, enough education...it's a beautiful park and it was a beautiful day to be there.  We didn't know what to expect but we walked in to see dinosaur skeletons and over 30 animatronic dinosaurs scattered throughout the park.  Surprise!  Only in China!  While wandering through the park we also saw people skipping rope, playing their version of hacky sack but with feathers, dancing, playing the violin and the accordion. 

Look at Fiona's face...she still LOVES Dinosaurs!

 The point I'd like to make...the Chinese have a real sense of community and are not in the least bit self-conscious.  I thought it was wonderful that people just find a park and hang out in it, doing what they enjoy with the people they want to spend their Sunday with.  I saw 5 middle aged people skip roping together and a 50+ year old woman dancing by herself.  None of them cared we were staring, they just smiled.

The Forbidden City from the top of Coal Hill (pretty big, huh?)

It was such a clear day you could see the mountains.  This lake is in the park called Beihai.

There's this great picture of my family when I was about 8 and Amy was just a baby.  My parents and the 2 of us were dressed as frontier people and it was shot in sepia.  I'm sure you've seen something similar.  Well China has its own frontier photo op...here is the 3 of us in the Imperial garb of the Ming Dynasty.

Each time I post about a park in China, I say "it's our favorite" so now I'm going to say "It's our favorite SO FAR..."  The Chinese do their parks very well.

The Burklews Discover the Middle Kingdom

Mimi and Pops' trip to China was a success!  They said they had a great time, saw all they wanted to see and left saying they would live in China.  I don't see that happening but I'm glad they enjoyed it enough to come back.  We miss them already!

Houhai Lake District

Forbidden City

Great Wall at Mutianyu

My 40th Birthday Dinner

Trip to Thailand - July 12-23, 2010

The McVeigh family had a wonderful time in Thailand.  We had a few bumps (like getting kicked out of our first tuk-tuk and booking a hotel ACROSS from the beach) but we went with and it all turned out wonderfully.
Bangkok
We absolutely LOVED our hotel in Bangkok.  If you are ever in Bangkok, stay at the Chatrium on the river.  We just hopped on the river taxi and visited all the popular sites like the Grand Palace and Wat Arun.  The food was so good in the hotel restaurant that we ate 6 of the 7 meals there.

One of the 2 pics from the entire holiday with the four of us

The Tuk-Tuk story 

We arrived at the pier for the Grand Palace and were told by 2 separate people that the Grand Palace was closed for the morning.  The 2nd person was a tuk-tuk driver who offered to take us to see other sights around Bangkok for 80 bahts.  What a deal!!  Ok, let's hop in and see some of Bangkok.  He took us to the Wat Inthara Wihan (pictured above and below)

Feeling the Need to Get OUT of Beijing

In April we went to the Great Wall at Mutianyu, in May we went to Fragrant Hills and in June we went to Longqing Gorge.  Our goal is to get out of town every weekend but we haven't managed that yet.  One weekend we told our driver we wanted to get out of Beijing and he drove us to this ranch with horseback riding, go-carts, carnival games and ONLY Chinese.  We had to explain to Hubo that when we say “OUT” of Beijing, we sometimes mean “AWAY” from people.  Getting away from people in China is difficult but a few less than usual feels good.  

Now if the darn pollution would improve, we'd be happy to explore Beijing as there are so many things to see in the city.  Unfortunately we feel the need to escape the air quality by going out of Beijing.