Blog post # 30 A Busy Month 1000 Days in China

October, 2016

While my last post talked about routines, October was anything but routine. As I was returning from Ministry of Education meetings in BC, the school was just coming back from its National holidays. These holidays technically took 3 days from the Monday to the Wednesday in the first full week in October. However, to give people a chance to go back to their home villages and spend some

meaningful time, Thursday and Friday was given as days off as well. To make up for these extra holidays, students and teachers had to report back to work all day Saturday and Sunday as well as working the following week. That made a full 7 day work week for all staff and students. Needless to say it was grueling for students and teachers alike. But this is the way things are in China.

Shortly after returning from Canada, my daughter Laura –Ann came to visit me in Beijing. She was on a short break between cities with Cirque du Soleil with Karen joining us in Beijing the next day. Then LA and Karen were going off on a Mother/daughter China tour. But before that and after sleeping through some jet lag, I took LA for a Peking Duck dinner.

The next day, we met up with Karen and then I took LA to a place that I know she would never have expected to see in Beijing, China. It was from LA’s favorite TV show, “Friends”. Here was a re-creation of the coffee house “Central Perk”. Beside the coffee house was a re-creation of “Joey’s apartment” complete with a foosball game and his leather chair. Of course we had a latte and other specialty coffees and I also had a butter nut muffin! It was a fun experience!

After that it was off to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants in Beijing, The Pear Restaurant. What can I say?? It was another delicious meal!

The next day, Karen and LA were off to begin their China tour, starting with the main sights of Beijing – the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.