Sunday - Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Acrobatics

Hello friends, let’s see if I can get caught up on the blogging!

 

After about 48 hours of relative peace on the ‘home front’, Maya Mei was due for a melt down and it happened at breakfast Sunday morning with Adam while I was sleeping in from my late night up with the fireworks.  So our day got off to a really rocky start.  Thankfully we are not superstitious, because it is really BAD LUCK for your child to cry or scream on New Year’s Day!  It is supposedly indicative of how your year will go.  Let’s hope that is just a myth!  And to top it off, Eliana and Adam are not feeling 100% and that did not help the mood.  Our rather grumpy half of the group got on the bus for a full day of activities.

 

Sunday morning BITTERLY cold.  We were very bundled up for our trip to the Temple of Heaven, but because the wind was really blowing we were pretty miserable.  We stayed to watch a show being putting on outside the temple, recreating what would have been done in the time of the Emperor for a good harvest for the new year.  We literally huddled together to try to stay warm, enclosing the stroller with little Isaac in the middle to block the wind.  There was also quite the crowd present due to the holiday and the show and we did not linger long.

 

We were frozen solid and next went to find an open noodle shop to have lunch.  It is good luck to eat noodles on New Year – long noodles for long life!  We went to a place inside a large mall and our table enjoyed the noodles with egg and our group’s other table enjoyed the noodles with pork. We also had a soup dish, a spicy duck dish and some very bland soup and just hot water to drink. Lisa & Drew did pretty well with one of their first attempts with chopsticks!  After the noodle shop, we got a warm-up at Starbucks (except the kids, who got a cool down with Frappacinos).  Believe it or not, this was my first stop at Starbucks in my 2 weeks in China so far!  But, I have been enjoying my instant Starbucks Via packets in the morning that I brought from the US. :o)  Also, Ben and Drew picked up some French fries at McD’s on the way back to the bus.  Drew is a meat and potatoes guy (like his Daddy), and he was a good sport about trying everything at lunch, but we also don’t want him to starve since he doesn’t have a lot of meat on his bones to start with!

 

The next stop was the Summer Palace.  Since this was where the Emperors used to go to stay cool in the summertime, we were a little worried given the current weather conditions!  But thankfully, the sun had come out and the wind had eased up, so although it was still pretty cold, it was not nearly as bad as at the Temple of Heaven.  It was really spectacular to see Lake Kunming completely frozen solid.  I like the picture of Adam walking on the lake with Eliana on his shoulders right by the sign that says ‘Do not walk on the ice’!  But since the water level was extremely low, you could actually see solid ground just below the layer of ice where they were walking.

 

Switching authors… this is now Adam.  LB is getting the girls dressed for our Beijing Duck Dinner tonight!

 

We did not stay too long at the summer palace.  Between the girls constantly stopping at the bathroom, the merchants pushing junk on us,  (We did buy some… see Eliana’s Panda hat and Ben’s Groucho Marks glasses with the built in noise makers) and the wind we walked through the long corridor very quickly.  The Summer palace is an amazing place and I am glad that we got to see it.  Our guide, Doyle, is excellent but I am sure he is frustrated with the unruly nature of our group.  We are slow, set on having things our way, and difficult to manage.  (Us?  No way!)

 

After the summer palace, we decided to come back to the hotel for a rest before we left for the acrobatics show.  The kids had some snacks and I  snuck in a 20 minute nap.  Before getting ready for the acrobatic show LB found a picture of it in a magazine in the showed to Maya.  She clapped and jumped up and down.  Very excited, she was a great help getting dressed and out the door.  The show did not disappoint.  The girls (and the rest of us as well) loved it.  It was an incredible show.  We ate ice cream and pop corn in the theater.  A good time was had by all.

 

After the show we came back to the room and had a simple meal of left over KFC and rice.  At 9:00 on the dot, Maya turned off the TV and decided it was bed time.  She grabbed me and Eliana by the hand and told us to go to bed.  Within a few minutes, Maya was asleep, though Eliana was a bit more of a challenge.  After the girls were asleep, LB and I had a few minutes to sit on the couch and look out the window at the fireworks (yes they are still going).  It was very peaceful as we reflected on the trip so far.  Despite the mornings tantrum, we know that things are getting better and more quickly than I would have expected.  

 

Just so no one gets the wrong impression of our new daughter, she is a good girl, very gentle, with a good sense of humor.  She genuinely wants to please us and gets frustrated because she does not know the rules of behavior in our family.  Sure she gets mad and expresses it pretty well, but with what she has been through it is understandable.  She is also smart and as soon as she learns English, things will be much easier for all of us.  Think of it this way… take a minute and reflect on all of the tools you have as a parent and how you use them on a daily basis.  Positive rewards, punishments, negotiation, reasoning, etc.  Now imagine that you have a new 8 year old you barely know and the only tool you have is… “You will do this because I am the parent and I said so.”  Imagine how the day might go.  It is a difficult transition for her, and us.  We will make it through and come out as a stronger happier family for the effort.

 

Thanks again for participating in our journey by reading the blog.  It really helps to have so many wonderful friends pulling for us.  Really, more than you can know.  We are in the home stretch of this  trip and looking forward to seeing you soon.

 

Adam