Day 12

In Beijing for two nights with the Laterza family.  They have been wonderful hosts--Great Wall today!! Along with the Pearl Market and Chinese Acrobats.  And tomorrow--flying home after the day's activities.  I still can't upload pictures, but have plenty to put up after getting home!

I'm so glad we are doing the tourist things in Beijing after being in Changchun.  Beijing is still China, of course, but it's much different than Changchun, which is not a tourist center at all.  Changchun is completely an interior Chinese city.

Will probably not post again until I get home, and then have a lot of catch-up to do.

I did get Day 12 written and will go ahead and get it up here:

Day 12

Wednesday--At 10:00 Andrew took me on his motorbike to meet Carolyn at the bus stop. In order to get there from her school, she must cross a busy road on an overhead bridge, then walk back across the busy road. There is no gate from her campus to the bus stop even though the two are only a few hundred yards apart. China!

She and I took the city bus several stops in, then got off at the light rail, or Chingway, the subway/elevated system. We took this much further to the other side of town, to--Wal-Mart!!!  My dad will be so happy. It was both similar to and yet very different from an American Wal-Mart. Who would think you could get Great Value brand dried seaweed?  I did find some imported Ocean Spray juice, which tasted great.  I got Andrew some shelving for his kitchen and some other things for his house.  We took a taxi home because of our many packages. 

Andrew was busy today with preparations for the camp he is in charge of, so I just stayed in his apartment and worked on mending some things that needed it. We went to Carolyn's for supper. She and Andrew are friends, and she had a nice supper for us using Turkish spices she got while traveling.  I enjoyed being at her little studio apartment very much.

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