Beijing - take two

Now marks the end of a full day in Beijing. After the obligatory
pan-Asian/quasi-English buffet breakfast, we joined the rest of the
CAWLI families on a Forbidden City/Tian An Men Square tour. Given the
heavy fog last night, a few families were stuck in Narita and didn't
make it to the hotel until well after midnight this morning. To help
them get a wee more sleep and betting on better weather tomorrow,
we're going to walk the Great Wall tomorrow instead and then head
straight to the airport for Nanchang and Mister Darcy.

My parents went shopping with Tim today, while Dave and I enjoyed
wandering the vast spaces of the Square and theemperor's historic
compound. People talk about DC buildings being larger than life, but
there is truly no comparison - particularly not with all the new
buildings around our hotel. It feels like a newer, bigger Chicago or
mid-town Manhattan.

After an MSGed laden lunch at a restaurant complete with
concubine-attired waitresses (as Tom Siestsema, the Washington Post
food critic, says, "beware of costumed waitstaff. It's always a bad
sign"), I went back to the hotel to see if I could add at least a
couple hours to the 90 minutes of shut eye I managed last night.
Better Half Dave went off with some of our group for a rickshaw drive
of the Hotung district and a spot of cultural tourism. It was only
later that I found out that Dave's driver kept stopping and had to
push Dave because of an alleged flat tire. Uh huh.

Better Half Dave is now fast asleep. As many of you know, he is a
strong believer in something he calls the "sleep bank" (as in, "I need
to sleep in, Laurelle, to make a deposit to the sleep bank, or, "Once
we have Darcy, I'll be in good shape because I will make a withdrawal
from the sleep bank"). I am dubious, so I'll keep you posted on how
Dave's sleep strategy works out.

-- Laurelle

(I can't imagine that anyone wanted to see pictures of me and Dave -
replete with humidity-induced bad hair - at the Forbidden City or
pictures taken by Dave of the back of the rickshaw driver's head. We
promise you some once we get Darcy).