Fun at the Park

Hello!

This week the kids and I met my friend Jean and her kids at our local Bamboo Park. (Jean's husband Travis goes to school with Joab and they are also here doing an internship in China). Jean loves to takes pictures and you can see how great she is at it!!! Thank you JEAN!

The park was a bit nuts as it was the grand opening of the park's flower display to celebrate the Olympics. They are not for two more years, you say? Well, they seem to use every opportunity to make sure we all remember they are coming to town. The flowers were amazing, so many different kinds and the kids loved them. Jean has two boys, so Miriam had a blast playing with them.

As it was opening day for the flower displays, there hundreds more people at the park. Which made taking any pictures of the kids hard as the Chinese would take pictures of you and the kids while you were trying to make the kids just look at you! Also television cameras were taking shots of the kids and telling me to tell them how to pose. Once a crowd surrounded us, we would just move on to the next section of the park. Thank goodness it was a big park!

Parks in China are truly a lesson in cultural! Just in the bamboo park yesterday we saw the following groups of people doing: salsa dancing, traditional Chinese dancing, sword fighting, badmition, more dancing with tennis racket looking things they hold and balance a ball on, groups of people gathering for a sing a longs, groups of people playing traditional music together, yoga type looking exercises and so many other types of excercies you need to see to believe.

That is about it for us this week. Joab has been super busy at work. He is learning so, so much but some days are really hard too. I went shopping to buy fruits and veggies for the first time alone with the kids this week. I messed up a few times, but I am learning you have to fall on your face a few times (daily) if you want to learn how to say anything! Also was able to speak a few more sentences to the babysitter who watches Asa when I go to Chinese class. The more I speak, the more I want to learn. I think this is a good sign!