It was great to begin today with a Skype call to my father back in California. It was early Sunday morning for us, but Saturday afternoon for him. The technology all worked, and he was able to see and talk to all his China great-grandchildren. After that it was waffle morning as we prepared to gather with brothers and sisters.
Getting to the gathering is a bit of an adventure. Between our apartment and the subway station is a railway line. There is a longer way around, but we generally choose the shortcut that involves the treacherous path up and over the railroad tracks. It is really difficult in the dark, but this morning was bright and clear, and we made it over easily.
It takes about an hour to get to the gathering. We begin with a 20-minute walk to the subway and that time includes buying tickets. The subway trip takes another 20 minutes and involves taking 2 different trains. There was plenty of room on the trains this morning. On the first train we even found Grandma a spot right behind the engineer where she could see out the front of the train. At the end of the train journey we had another 20-minute walk to the gathering place. One of the things I find interesting is that there are escalators for going up, but not always for going down.
The gathering place is an office complex next to a grocery store. It is a new location and it still isn’t quite together. We attended the English gathering and the music was led by the African choir this morning. A large percentage of the gathering are from various places in Africa. Many of them are students here in Beijing. There are over 70 nationalities that gather at this location and it is amazing to be able to share in the experience. Today was fun because we all got to go as we are all feeling better.
We got back to the apartment about 2P and had leftovers for lunch. I had a combination of kimchee, a peanut butter sandwich, and something called bing. Kimchee is a Korean staple and guaranteed to clear the sinuses. Bing is something like a pancake rolled around a variety of fillings. Mine was filled with onion and carrot.
Grandma took all of the pictures in today’s blog.
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