Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Day Two, Beijing Cattle Drive Part II

Starting early again, we headed toward the Temple of Heaven on a bright hot morning, great visibility, Beijing is huge, beyond my comprehension, huge, and we could see it real well, huge. China Central Televion (CCTV) sent a reporter, camera man and photographer to cover our day in connection with this 15th anniversary of the CCWAA and we got stalled out at the first courtyard before the entrance to the Temple of Heaven to get footage of the kids playing bird feather rubber washer thingy and to give me time to work up a good sweat before hitting the inner courtyard, I guess. Mimi had her chance to be interviewed, but clammed up, so don't look for us on CCTV tomorrow.

Onward to a Thai food restaurant, delicious, and then a tour of the CCWAA administrative offices. the infamous matching room where child A in pile 1 is matched with family B in pile 2 and Bam, Magic Family Juju. I met an older gentleman who had been with the CCWA since 1996 and Ellie's file probably went through his hands. I gave him a heartfelt thank you very very much. True magic with that match.

We were ushered into a large conference room, and the director of the CCWAA, sorry I did not catch names, welcomed the group, we got a short lecture on Chinese culture, the kids all tried paper cutting, my kids perfomed the task the least well of all the kids in the room, I'm a proud mom, and we were giggling and giggling about their mad paper cutting skills. One of YuYu's attemptes looked like a string of pink butts rather than paper dolls, mad skills.

We beat feet over to an acrobatic show and the girls were completely rapt. Mid-way, Mimi leaned over and said, "Mom, these people really know what they're doing." They loved the show, the popcorn, not so much, tasted like coconuts.

From the show, we were driven to the Beijing Hard Rock Cafe where it took them so long to bring out the food that two of my girls were asleep before they were served and it turned into an endurance test rather than a nice meal. Back at the hotel with very very exhausted girls and they crawled into bed and were out like lights. Oh, did I mention the heat? Oh good hell. I have heat rash. I kid you not.

More hard driving tomorrow. Still can't figure out an easy way to post photos. I'll get on that tomorrow. Must slip into a coma now.

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