Rewind

Okay, I'm sure you are noticing the date of this posting...yes it's March 20th and we've been home for almost 24 hours. The jet lag is starting to catch up with us as the children are watching Mulan and are trying to stay up until a reasonable bedtime.

As for a recap of our last four days in China let's see what I can do. I don't remember being as busy in Beijing as we were this time around. In the last days of our trip we visited a school, went to the Beijing Zoo, watched an Acrobatic Show, spent time walking around the Temple of Heaven, visited the Pearl Market (but never got to the floor with all the pearls), relived history at Tian-men Square and the Forbidden City, went to the indoor Silk Market, visited with S.J.'s grandparents and had a "Goodbye China" party. Oh and did I mention SHOPPING?

The Water Cube and The Bird's Nest

A trip to an elementary school proved inviting for S.S. as she was pulled to the front of the gym class to show off some skills. She also did a wonderful job of delivering a thank you speech on behalf of our group. What amazed us most about the school were the students. It was obvious to us that work very hard and are committed to excellence. Take a look at these videos if you would like to see top notch performances.

A Chinese Zither Performance

Basketball Frenzy

Each of our children met a pen pal and had a great time chatting and getting to know one another. The Chinese students are learning English and did quite well conversing with our kids. Hopefully they will become friends and continue to keep in touch.

We were served a lovely lunch. Apparently the students all have lunch served to them at school everyday. Boy do I wish we didn't have to make lunches all the time.
After a visit to the school it was off to the Beijing Zoo to see the pandas. R.E. noted that the zoo certainly had changed since 11 years ago when he and M.T. had gone. Like everything else in Beijing, the zoo has been rebuilt.

We were certainly in for a treat when we went to the Chinese Acrobatic show. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed. I did however take this picture at the beginning of the show. The highlight of the night was 12 girls on one bicycle and then there was the slack rope performance that was pretty cool, oh and the juggling act and the...it was just amazing!

The Acrobatic show was a great ending to a very busy day and a great way to end this posting. In trying to get this note posted quickly I discovered that Blogger ran into problems saving it and so I had to start it all over again. The next posting should cover our last two days in China and the trip home.