Lots and Lots of Photos...

It is my assumption (which very well may be a wrong one but I doubt it) that looking at pictures of the things I have been doing is much more interesting than just reading about them. So this blog entry will be composed of lots and lots of photos. I don't have the photos from the weekend in Shanghai and Hangzhou with me right now. I downloaded them to a different computer. I will definitely post them; the pictures of Hangzhou are really beautiful. Well, I think they are great. As I have rambled on and on about, blue skies now entrance me. All I have to see is a blue sky with a bit of green and I'm thoroughly impressed.


These photos are from our excurtion to the BaDaLing section of the Great Wall. It was really, really foggy that day. So visibility was rather poor. Still a great experience. There were tons of people there. It was a slippery walk; I only almost fell once. :)


One world. One Dream. The official 2008 Beijing Olympic Theme. We have become slightly obsessed with this during our few months in China. Its everywhere...and we love it.

This picture gives a pretty good illustration of how foggy it was. You can kind of see the specs of people walking up the Wall. Parts of the Wall were really steep and there was so much fog you couldn't see where they were walking.




The photos below are from a weekend trip to Beijing. We wanted to see the Olympic Park and the stadiums. Unfortunately, this was as close as we could get. They were (and still are) doing a lot of work on it. So it was completed fenced off. Still one of the coolest places I've ever been. I love the Olympics. It was really amazing to be at the stadiums.

The Bird's Nest.

The Bird's Nest. The Bird's Nest (on the right) and the Water Cube (on the left). You can't see the Water Cube very well. But its in the far background behind the white tents.

The following pictures are some random pictures I've taken during some adventures around the TJ. The city might not be a hot tourist or sightseeing destination, but we've managed to find some interesting things to do and have quite a lot of fun as well.

It is no secret...I love FuWa! These are the official Beijing Olympic Mascots. Fu means happy and wa means children. So literally fuwa means 'happy children.' But most often, in English, they are referred to as the Friendlies. They too are everywhere. It is awesome. I have also made Jeff and Keith love FuWa as well. They are very easy to love. This is a little FuWa display that is conveniently located right along one of our regular bus routes. So of course, we had to stop one day to take pictures. Fantastic!

A peacock statue near the FuWa.

Jeff and Keith being Jeff and Keith...enough said. :)

We like to get Starbucks as often as we can. A nice reminder of home. Plus they have dark chocolate mocha frappuccinos. Delicious. I don't think they have this creation in the states yet...I hope it does by the time I come home.

Yay! Mom!! We found this store while wandering around one of the malls. So I had to take a picture. Jeff and Keith needed to hair cuts, so I documented the entire experience. There was one woman at the salon that spoke a bit of English, so the boys told her how they wanted their hair cut, then she would translate to the stylist. It actually worked quite well.

And their hair looks very nice...I am going to wait to get my hair trimmed until I get back to the states. It makes me too nervous.

We found a western bar called Broadie's. There was a good mixture of expats and locals at the bar. It was a fun bar, nice atmosphere. They had excellent hamburgers. The drinks and beers were a bit too expensive for our tastes, but we managed. I think we are too used to 7 yuan ($1) from Walmart. I think I'm going to have trouble adjusting back to American food prices. The bar at Broadie's. The mysterious rooster found! So every now and then, we would hear a rooster. Sometimes in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon and early evening. We didn't know where it was coming from...somewhere within our gated community, somewhere on the street. Then one afternoon while walking near our CDC, I saw them...inside the CDC fence! Yes, our CDC has chickens and roosters. Why? Who knows! But I solved the mystery of the rooster. So I had to take pictures of it. There was one large rooster, shown in the picture, and many more brown chickens running around (you can see a couple in the background). It was pretty funny. I was making 'cocka-doodle-doo' sounds at the rooster trying to get it to 'cocka-doodle doo' back at me. But these efforts failed, but the people on the street were sure amused. A random white woman yelling at a bunch of chickens and roosters...thats a story to tell your friends if I've ever heard one. :) I like to give people something to talk about.