I picked up my camera Wednesday morning full of hope, snapped a photo in the shop -- it looked OK and I left...after taking this shot of Helen making a Beijing opera mask at the children's program I became suspicious, and some outdoor shots confirmed it -- the camera is still not working right -- although it does take photos, they are overexposed and poor quality... with the help of the hotel concierge, I got the shop to agree to refund half my repair cost, but small comfort since its still not working! I will have to work on it back in Xiamen -- but I am worried I will need a new one -- what's a blogger without a camera????
I am hoping to get some photos from my friend Linda to post from our last day...in the evening the Fulbright program took us to a Tibetan restaurant. Having eaten Tibetan breakfast with some trepidation in Lijiang, we were a little concerned. The food was pretty good, if a bit unusual, and was only a prelude to a show featuring traditional instruments, singing, dancing and the appearance of two "yaks" who engaged in a fierce battle to the delight of young and old alike. It was really quite entertaining, and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Beijing. The restaurant was called Makye Ame, in the Chaoyang district. (By the way, friends and family -- some folks have already purchased their tickets to visit us via Beijing -- if you don't have yours yet...it is not to late to make up your mind!)
We bid farewell to our Fulbright friends, most of whom we will likely not see again (unless it is back in North America!). I was especially glad to hear about how other families had adjusted to varying degrees to life in China. One family who was going to leave in December decided to stay on for the rest of the year. Everyone has had their unique ups and downs it seems.
Thursday night was the Lantern Festival, the official end of the 15 day Spring Festival season. I am afraid it ended with a bit of a let down... we went out in the afternoon to the street vendors and bought a lantern and some light up toys on sticks for the young one (and a light saber for Thomas), having been told that children would go out at night with their lanterns on that night. I guess we missed the party, because we saw no one else on our walk after dark. Maybe you had to go to a big park or something...oh, well. At least my overexposing camera was good for a few night photos...here's the paper lantern with a birthday candle inside..
Here's Sophia's fish...
And Thomas's light saber..
The kids had fun in the dark, we saw the moon, it was 65 degrees at 8:00 at night -- not a total loss....
Today (and yesterday afternoon for Michael) was back-to-school day. Thomas was dreading it and Helen was thrilled, as expected. After bringing Helen, I went to meet with the principal and beg once again for her to admit Sophia to the 2 year old program for the second term. As it turns out her main concern is not space in the program, but fear that Sophia is too young to handle the immersion experience with no one to speak English to her. With the help of a bilingual friend I convinced her to give it a try for at least 3 weeks to see if Sophia makes a good adjustment. So at least we can try it out and see, and I can go ahead and enroll myself in the Chinese program...I have been trying to teach Sophia Chinese words all day now! Sophia has been kind of stubborn lately, so I have some fears, too, but we proceed boldly forward -- if it doesn't work out we are no worse off than we were, I guess.
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