Beihei Park

Hi all! I'm a bit backed up on what's been going on around here, so let me back up about a week or so. Trav's internship is going great so far. Like I said before, he is in a brand new building, a big office with a view, is working with investment funds and venture capital, AND gets free lunch every day (that seals the deal for me). Now, I mention this because before we came, a very small part of me was afraid that Travis would be working in some sweat shop making toys for the dollar store for you to buy back in the states. Ok, so that's an exaggeration, but I didn't know what to expect with anything before we came here.

Ok, back to Trav's internship. So, two weeks ago, Travis and his boss flew to a northern province for two days to conduct some business. Of course, he couldn't communicate very well with most of them, but the people loved him! We were told beforehand that seating arrangements are very important when eating meals. The seat at the head of the table is the seat of honor, and then from there people sit in descending order of importance or status. At each meal, Travis would try to be inconspicuous and sit in the seat furthest from the head of the table, but they wouldn't hear of it. They would shoo him up front to the seat of honor and sit him by the presidents of the companies.

After being seated, the food would begin to arrive, where Travis was served every "fear factor" kind of food imaginable. There was no getting out of tasting everything (most of which still had eyes peering up at you from the plate) because as soon as the food arrived the president of the company was serving Trav up a healthy serving.

Throughout the meals, they all made toasts, one right after another, half of them directed at Travis (of course he has no idea what they were saying, he just smiled and raised his glass of coke). They even made him toast one time. Hee hee, I wish I could have seen it when he stood and said one of the only Chinese phrases relating to food he knows...Hao Chi...which means good food. His vocabulary might not be extensive, but they liked it! Anyway, I laughed my head off at his stories from his trip about him trying to get used to a world completely different from what we know.

Ok, moving on to other aspects of our life. Church is now very interesting. Our ward has gone from HUGE to very small in a matter of six weeks. All of the expatriate families (except husbands) have returned home to the states for the summer and there aren't many visitors in July. Today, Kaleb, Barrett, and two other brothers were the only kids in the whole primary! The people are wonderful and we really like the ward. I just found out today that we have the opportunity to go to some of the orphanages and hold and love the babies and spend time with the children. I am really excited about this and will keep you updated! We are absolutely FORBIDDEN to speak about the church to anyone, so the church finds many ways to spread service and kindness. It is amazing to see the work over here even though members are not allowed to speak about it, even if asked directly.

Since Trav works all week, the weekends are our precious time to go to all of the places we want to see. Travis claims he wouldn't ever need a travel agent with me around. Dang right boy, if I'm going to travel all the way across the world, you better believe I am going to see all of the sights before I leave here! We have eight weekends left to fit everything in. So, needless to say, we have something planned every weekend. Last Saturday, we went to Beiheii Park, which is here in Beijing. I'll explain the day along with the pictures...


First, we went on a Hutong Tour in a rikshaw (spelling?). Yes, I know you are wondering how this skinny man pulled our fat American behinds all over, but he succeeded (he only had to get off once to push the bike up the hill). It was fun and shocking at the same time to see the hutong houses. What a humbling experience. I've said it before, and I'll say it again...don't ever be ungrateful for what you have. I feel ashamed to think of how spoiled we are in every way back home.

Some pics of the hutongs

Next, we were searching for Beihei Park, when we came upon a side entrance. I am so glad we found this entrance...we walked through a little ancient, round door, through a bamboo forest, through an old garden building, and straight into a fairy tale land. That's what I called it because it was so beautiful and didn't seem real...it should have been in a story book. I loved it! I took some pictures, but as usual, it didn't capture the moment. The whole day was great, but even if I just saw this, I was more than happy.

Next, we explored through Beihei Park and then rode on a boat around the lake. Of course, this was the boys' favorite part. Kaleb even got to drive and thought he was hot stuff. I kept hearing him say, "This is the life..." I was thinking to myself, yes, this is the life...even as a poor student family, we can do everything because it is so cheap!

Well, another successful day marked off in our travel log. I will post pics of our trip to Summer Palace and this week is Barrett's birthday and we are going to the Great Wall...Yeah! Thanks for the comments and emails...we love you all!

OH...by the way...Happy Fourth of July! Even though it is one of my very favorite holidays, I almost forgot about it completely! The swimming, barbeques, parades, picnics, and fireworks...I am truly sad to miss it. I hope all of you have a blast (no pun intended)!