The Olympics of drama and driving.

This is a sneak peak at the Beijing Olympic Diving Stadium. The opening ceremony one, the Bird's Nest Stadium, really is a sight to behold but the picture I took of it was so faint due to the smog/fog in the air that this is the best one I can show. This picture was made possible by the fact that our driver stopped our bus in the middle of the expressway so that we could actually snap the photo. We didn't ask him to do this. He took it upon himself. Cars were whipping past us left and right and honking and he was unflappable. We were expecting a rear-end collision but, miraculously, this did not happen.

Chinese people have nerves of steel. Our guide told us there are sixteen million people living in Beijing and ten million bicycles. We see a lot of buses and automobiles and I don't know who is teaching whom to drive but these driving instructors should lose their jobs. Then again, this is a communist country so I don't think it's going to happen. This is a free-for-all and our driver, Xin, will be getting a generous tip after he delivers us safely to the airport, today. I can only imagine the looks on first-time parents' faces when they show up here with a car seat for their children. Forget it. Ha!

Yesterday was the last full sightseeing day and it was a whopper. I got to give Jack a time out in the silk factory because he kept rubbing his (snotty) face in the comforters and then actually tried to crawl onto one an lie there with his dirty shoes. We were also taken to a tea house for a tea ceremony and are now experts on tea tasting. Slurping is encouraged. The louder you slurp the better the tea...needless to say Jack took to slurping like a fish to water. I don't know how I will be able to de-slurpify him when we get home. This looks like it's going to stick.

Before that, we sort of saw the Summer Palace through the crowd. The heat and humidity were unbearable and made all the more taxing because junior wouldn't stop complaining "dramatically" and wouldn't carry a thing. It doesn't help when the seven and ten year olds traveling with us are quiet in their suffering and actually carry their own water bottles and fans. I was Jack's sherpa-mom/mood slave. We had so far to walk and I was losing it. I didn't know how to make him stop whinning, short of having a huge blow-out argument with him in the street (I've had plenty of mini ones so far.) So I turned things around and told him that I suddenly felt really dizzy (I kind of did) and that if I were to faint, he needed to grab my purse right away and hold onto it because our passports were in there and we wouldn't be able to fly to Guangzhou. That sobered him up quick and he instantly stopped complaining and stood close to me until we got to the dragon boat. I still had to carry his fan and his water so it was only a partial victory. I'm not proud but that did the trick and I was in survival mode. Besides, who is he to get all dramatic on me? I invented drama. I am the drama queen and believe me, my husband and father will confirm this.

Signing off in Beijing. Next stop, Guangzhou.

Isabelle,
Gold medal Drama Queen