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Jensen: I am getting really tired so I am passing the blog on to mommy to do the next entries.

Tricia:  We got up bright and early Sunday morning and headed down to Beijing’s South Cathedral - also called St. Mary’s. This is the first Catholic church to be built in Beijing. The entrance is a classical hutong courtyard, and is very picturesque. As you enter the church courtyard, there is a beautiful grotto - probably the most beautiful grotto Carolyn and I had seen! 

After we passed through the grotto we entered the cathedral for mass. The church is beautiful - wonderful stained glass windows, Asian influences all over but also a definite sense that you were in a true cathedral. It’s a beautiful church setting. 

Mass was very similar to mass at home, they do Mass in English every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. The songs and service had a Philippino infuence as well, and some of the readings are repeated in French. After Mass we went into the gift shop and made some purchases and then walked around the grounds and looked around and took pictures.  It was exciting to be able to go to Mass in China of all places. The church leadership has to be approved by the local government, and is often not in alignment with the Vatican. People are free to practice their religion but are not allowed to disciple to others, strictly forbidden. It made all of us realize how lucky we are in America with all of our freedoms!

After Mass we went for a quick lunch to McDonalds. Steve and I try to do this wherever we go just to compare. The food basically tasted the same and was a bit cheaper than in the States. It takes a little work to get the order in. 

After lunch we went to tour the Mansion of Prince Gong in Beijing. This is Beijing’s most complete example of a historic mansion situated in a charming hutong district. It is thought to be the inspiration for perhaps China’s greatest novel, Dream of the Red Chamber. It was built during the reign of the Qianlong emperor, more than 400 years ago. Many different dignitaries and important people lived in the mansion over the years. It was eventually bequeathed to Prince Gong in the Xianfeng emperor’s reign during the mid 1800’s. The gardens are beautiful and buildings incredible. We took a lot of beautiful pictures. 

It is not a popular tourist destination for Westerners. There were hundreds of tourists, mostly in large tour groups, but they were almost entirely Chinese. It is undergoing a lot of renovations (as is almost everything around here in preparation for the Olympics.) It is in the middle of one of the most complete and historic hutongs in Beijing, and we hope to do one of the hutong bicycle tours soon.

After touring the mansion we were worn out, and we headed home and had dinner. 

Today was the first day of the cousins vacation. School is finally over. Today we got up and came down for breakfast and watched a little TV. We had waffles, eggs, bacon and little hot dogs. This morning me and Maddy rollerskated down to the club house to pick up butter, eggs, and juice at Jenny Lu’s. We were supposed to get little smokies but we accidentally got little hot-dogs. We had to make two trips. I biked some of the way while holding a dozen eggs. (That was hard.) Maddy carried the milk, juice and mini hot-dogs. That was a lot to carry.

We watched a couple of episodes of LOST, went upstairs and played and watched TV and played on the computer. While we were doing this the Moms and Melissa went to the clubhouse to workout.

Me, dad, Uncle Tom, Maddy, and Mia took a trip down to the clubhouse. We went swimming in the outdoor and indoor pools and hot-tub. I taught Mia how to wash herself in the shower and then we went home to have lunch. Mom made noodles for us.

Melissa had her first formal through her Church group, and while she was getting ready, Aunt Carolyn was making our dinner. She made chicken breasts and potatoes. Uncle Tom reheated Xiaoyan’s dinner from the night before. We watched more lost while the Dad’s went to a local bar called Pomegranate. It’s in a hutong nearby, and they watched England beat Paraguay 1-0 in their World Cup opener. Then they picked up Melissa and brought her home.

We had to go to bed pretty early because we’re going to Church in downtown Beijing tomorrow. That’s it from Beijing. Zai-Jian!!

Today I tried to sleep in and take it easy this morning. Today was a busy day, and I thought I’d let my cousins tell you what it was like for them.

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Melissa: Wow, the retirement ceremony was really amazing. It had been my first military ceremony and it was really cool. Everything was so clean cut and smooth it seemed. The speech that one of Mr. Riva’s friends made was really beautiful.

Afterwards we had a party at the Marine house which was awesome! It was also my first time in the Marine house. My Friends and I were joking that it felt like the marine house was like foridden or something! lol! The marines were really cool, one of them had just gotten back from Iraq. They are all really, really nice. We even had a live band there. All the little kids thought it was really weird that the lead singer had a tongue ring. Ewe! My personal favorite song they played was “Sweet Home Alabama”.

As the party went on, we ate, (they had roasted a whole pig just for the party) played darts, (the Marines apparantly LOVE to play darts) and eventually got into a conga line! I was named official photographer, and I was really glad that I had my camera when ALL THE MARINES DUMPED WATER ON MR. RIVA’S HEAD!!! It was really funny!

Well that’s about all from me!! I’ll probably be back for more of my view of Jensie’s Adventures here in China !!! CYA!!! 

Maddy: It was okay. I mostly played with my friends. We played darts pool or billiards and foosball. Yeah, food was okay too.

Mia: I danced at the Marine ball, and then I played pool with my hands. And then we went outside and I got a drink, and it was fun. I didn’t eat anything except some of a hot-dog. And Gaby boo’ed me (and scared me!) There were a lot of people there, like 100!  That’s it! Bye!!

Jensen: I really liked listening to a story a marine told us. I played pool and darts. I danced, laughed, and ate a hot dog. I watched other people dance to. I drank three bottles of Sprite and listened to music. I played with my friends too. Later at home we watched LOST. I really had a great time. There was games too.   

We got up and got massages. “This is the life!” This was mom’s 5th massage but my first. We were laying down full-body massage. They even pop your fingers. It was 90 minutes long. My cousins were all in school. It’s their last full day of classes.

For lunch we went to the Mexican resteraunt. The owner talked to us for a while. They moved here from New York 4 months ago, just to open restaurants here in China. They have this one and another one downtown.

In the evening we watched Lost. (Episodes 1-3). They have the whole first season on DVDs. It was so good, I think I’m addicted. Little Italy for Dinner as Mac and cheese. Aunt Carolyn made milkshakes at home. Yum! Bye!!!

Today I slept in and relaxed. Later I watched TV, played on neopets, ate, and hung out. You know, another relaxing day.

We went to Maddie’s school party around lunch time and dad did some cool magic tricks. I ate, showed dad around, and played on the playground. We said bye after the party and then left.

Later we went to a U.S. studies party. The school is an International school, and they don’t teach US History there. So they teach it at the clubhouse once a month for the Americans. They had the U.S. Ambassador to China there. They had a small party afterwards with lots of snacks.

I helped make dinner with the Ayi. We made Jiaozi, and I learned how to make them have the right shape. At home I might make it! I had four helpings of pasta and twelve cups of water!   That’s is for today - Zai Jian!!

Today we slept in a little more longer than usual. All the moms went shopping so me and dad went for a bike ride, and went up to the shopping center for lunch.  We went to a toy store and I bought some Legos to use to build a house for my Fuzzies. We went to a Mexican restaurant, and they had the best chicken tenders I have ever had! A little shopping for snacks and we headed back.

Mom bought lots of stuff for everybody back home. Dresses, and purses, and post-cards, and more. She had the best roast beef she’s had in China, at the Holiday Inn Lido, which is one of the places the shuttle stops, and is right by all the shopping.

The big thing today was going to Li Qun Restaurant. Li Qun is a famous restaurant with some of the best Peking Duck in the city. The Li family has many special menu items but the Duck is famous. Thirteen of us went there for dinner, and we had tons of food. We had 3 whole Peking Ducks, and about 10 other dishes. We had beer and soda and tea, and couldn’t even come close to finishing the food.

Li Qun is in the middle of a very old hutong. It is old scary slums, with narrow alleys. Men on tricycle’s want to give us a ride, by we told them we were “bu le”, not tired.  The place looks really scary and dirty on the outside, and the inside is not very big. There were maybe 20 other people in there, at about 4 other tables. You sit next to strangers, wherever there is space. There is one big room in the back, and we got that one. It barely held us all. This place has many famous people come there. They have pictures of Ambassadors, movie stars, and famous people. I think maybe Mr. Riva told them we were famous people to get the special room. Now they have pictures of us!

The bathrooms on the way back were so gross you couldn’t sit on the seats! EEWWWWWW!!!

We went up to Pinnacle, the nearby shopping center, to work on the plans for Tibet. We met Aunt Carolyn and Sandee on the way, and we all went to “Knock-Knock” a restaurant with all kinds of food. Mom had a big Chef Salad, Dad had Malaysian Curry, Aunt Carolyn had a Steak Sandwich, and Sandee had something called DomBinBin - a korean hotpot dish. I had noodles and butter. Then a little shopping, and back to the house for a quiet day. We made a lot of plans for the upcoming week.

My cousin’s Hamster CoCo died today. We’re not sure why. We had a small funeral for her in the back yard.

We watched a movie and Melissa worked on a project for school. The TV here has 45 channels, and many of the shows are in English and with Chinese subtitles. Cartoon Network is here in English. They have Discovery Channel, and two channels that are just Fashion all day. We had hotdogs, and hamburgers for dinner, and the cousins had bowtie pasta with butter. We had chocolate ice-cream bars for dessert. I just finished watching Home Alone, and want to finish getting caught up on this blog before going to bed.

The moquitos here are bad. Yesterday we bought an electric tennis racket fly-swatter that acts like a bug zapper. We don’t know where they are coming from, but we have to kill a bunch before we go to bed each night. Aunt Carolyn is killing them outside. Mom got eaten up by mosquitos and has dozens of bites. Dad and I don’t have many bites so far, but I do have a few. We’re the lucky ones. 

I think tomorrow is a shopping day downtown and will probably be another long one. I’m going to bed now - Zai Jian.

Today we went to Church at the clubhouse. It’s a “Private Party” and no Chinese people are allowed to come. Church is a small room, with maybe 100 people. They used to have it in people’s homes until they were able to use the clubhouse. The priest is a teacher at the University. The service is pretty much the same as at home.

Today was also the Ballet recitals for Mia and Melissa. It was a big dance event, with many different groups. Mia is in her first year of ballet and was really cute as a black swan. Mom calls her a “Chocolate Swan” . Melissa has been doing it for years and is REALLY good. She was in three different parts. I couldn’t believe how good she was in the Swan Lake song.

After that we went to Lauren Ainslee’s house for her first communion party. Party, party, party — we are just party animals.  Lots of good food. We played DDR and some games before we had to go. On the way home we stopped at a DVD store and got some movies to watch. Then it was back to the house to help Maddy finish her project that is due tomorrow.

Another crazy long day! Today was Eva’s birthday party! We were invited to go to the “Tulip-Merry Water World” a HUGE new indoor water park nearby. They had so many types of pools. They had a wave pool, massage pool, spa, slides, water guns, river boat, and more. We spent hours there, and they had a Chinese buffet lunch which I didn’t like. Guess what I ate? Yep Mi Fan, sticky rice. We took lots of pictures so you can see what a neat place this was. We opened a couple of Evas presents, but we cut that short so we could go back to swimming.

We also went to a big Chinese festival, the Dragon Boat Festival. They have been setting things up at the clubhouse for two days, and Uncle Tom had two VIP table invitations for the party. The development here has a REALLY big party, and everything is free. We went at 6:00 pm and had lots to eat. They had pizza, burgers, hotdogs, meat on a stick, strange looking sausage bites that looked like tots. They had ice-cream, beer, coke, drinks, and lots more. They had some bounce-houses and crafts bazaars. I got free rub-on tattoos, and my name done in chinese painting letters. They had a guy who made animals out of grass.(I got a green bird). They also had two ladies who made animals out of clay, (I got a perched-up bird!) They had lots of shows on stage, including dancing, some local singers, a magic show, and the main show was a band called Red Zebra, which played older American songs. People were dancing, and just having a good time. I stayed up late, until the whole thing ended around midnight. Boy, I was tired.

A pretty quiet day finally!  Mom wanted to go shopping with Aunt Carolyn and her friends, so I went to school with Maddy again. Not much to tell about. We got to watch the 5th grade show, which is a big show where they show their talents. That was pretty much it. I did get to play tetherball and go on the “gravitator” during recess.

Mom and dad went shopping and dad brought home some pictures of the fabric market.

For dinner it was another crazy chinese menu, this time Pizza from Little Italy (they have Domino’s but we thought we’d try this one.) Of course, I ate rice again. We made cards for Eva, and I worked a long time on mine, but the colors bled through. I tried to fix it for a while, but finally just made a new one. I think she’ll like it for her birthday tomorrow. We got invited to her b’day party at a new water park in the area - an INSIDE water park.