One Week Later

Well, we have had a good week. I can't remember what all we did to keep busy but we've certainly had some fun. We went on a taxi ride to see the Bird's Nest stadium and Aquatics center for the Olympics. They are very cool looking and HUGE! I guess all Olympic stadiums are but this is the first one I have ever seen. It was a little lost on the girls since they have no clue what the Olympics are. We tried to explain it to them but I think until they actually see it on TV they won't understand it. Beijing is definitely gearing up for the festivities. They have started their air pollution control policies and only allow odd licensed number cars drive on certain days and even on other days. They have done it all week and I don't really notice a difference but I guess it is helping. They aren't allowing any big trucks to drive on the road either. It is hot and humid here so lots of days you can't see the sky it's just a thick haze but I'm not sure if that is pollution or just thick humidity. I guess a combination of the two.




We felt very successful today. Lauren lost one of her eye pad pieces on her glasses yesterday. I know I brought extras but for the life of me I cannot find them anywhere so I called the eye doctor in Dubuque and they are sending some replacements to us via my friend, Cathy. But this morning we woke up and decided we would walk about 20 minutes from the hotel where we had seen a big glasses shop. Once we got there we showed them and "told" them what we needed. They were able to switch out the eye pad pieces with no problem. I was a little worried at first as they were just snapping things off the glasses and all I kept thinking was, "oh, please don't break them." They, of course, did not break them and fixed them wonderfully-all for free and with a cup of tea for John and I to boot...and not a word of English! :)

I think the girls are finally beginning to acclimate to the heat and the walking as today we walked the whole distance without one complaint of "I'm hot" or "how much more walking". Lauren did ask once we were done with the glasses, "can't we just grab one of those cabs?" It made me laugh. Two weeks ago I'm not even sure she knew what a cab was and now she's an expert at "grabbing" them! :) We did reward their good behaviour with ice cream cones from McDonalds on our way home. You've got to love getting 3 ice cream cones for less than a dollar!

Here are a couple of pictures from our walk today:
Now this one is really funny to us and not at all unusual here in China! John and I just crack up at the naked babies that are out and about. The other day when we were at the park here at our apartment there was a Grandma with her grandson that was probably 15 months old. He had on socks, shoes and a very small tank top like the one below on. The amazing thing though was that he was just going every where in the park - sliding down the slide, swinging, playing on the teeter-totter all bare bottomed.