In a word*

Before you go asking yourself, "where are the pictures," let me say that I am currently in Beijing on holiday and opted for not bringing my cables to hook up my camera. Little did I know that there would be an uber-fast internet at my cousin's apt . . . we return to Weihai on Wednesday the 4th of October, so I should be able to get lots of pictures to update you on everything that I see on a daily basis.

So, having not written a blog since 17 Sept (and then only rather cursory ones at that), I feel that I should do a bit of backtracking.

This week is National Holiday Week. Something like the 4th of July, I suppose but think bigger--they get the whole week off!! Included in this holiday is the Mid-Autumn Festival which has some ancient story connected with it. Something about a man shooting down eight of the nine moons for his love. I think his love ended up stuck on one of the moons and he's still looking for her. The traditional sweet concoctions--the moon cake-- celebrate the love. There is another story about these buns. A long time ago the Chinese people planned a rebellion of some sort by baking directions pertaining to the rebellion in sweet buns. Those are the dumbed-down versions that I've heard at least.

To celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival and the arrival of the foreign experts, we were all given Moon Cakes and boxes of apples. Neal counted his apples and the total was around 55. That's a lot of apples for one person to eat before they spoil. I've already boiled down about 8 to freeze. I've eaten 3 a day since returning from Beijing. They are quite yummy. The Moon Cakes, not so much. The version I have has dates inside. There are rumors that there may be small traces of chocolate as well, but I have not been able to decipher this ingredient at all.

Beijing was fast and crazy and fantastic and tiring all at the same time. Oh, and polluted. I blew my nose each night to find black mucous. Gross, I know, but I had to share. We visited the Simatai section of the Great Wall--definitely worth the extra hour or so drive as it was not very busy. Also caught the Lama Temple, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, and Tia'namen Square (saw the flag raising at 6 am and then went back to bed for another couple of hours).

Funny story about the Great Wall and guide books-- we slithered out of bed around 4:20 am and left the apartment at 5. Got to the bus station at 5:45 am to catch the 6 am bus to the Great Wall. Well, the ticket office didn't open until 6:30 am. It gets better-- we had to wait until the bus was completely full before setting off. That happened sometime after 8 am. In the meantime, we met some nice Ecuadorians and got to practice some Spanish (which made me happy and was pretty much worth being tired all day). So, beware of those guide books. They can be sneaky and lead you astray in the wee-hours of the morning.

The trip was good and I have quite a few pictures (despite the already used, cheap batteries that I fell for and bought . . . they stopped working after about 4 pictures . . .) I will post those up here tomorrow morning or afternoon depending on the speed of the internet.

As nice as Beijing was, I am sure glad that I live here in Weihai where the pace is slower, the air cleaner, and the people less likely to kill me with bikes, taxis, rickshaws, etc.

*For all curious minds: "in a word" is a phrase that flows from the pens of my students as if it were the only transitional phrase in the English language. The most amusing part? They all continue on for much more than a word. It usually clocks in at about an additional paragraph or two.