Sunday

We started the day with Rachel telling me she did not feel well.  She complained of a headache and had a fever.  She said she "ached all over".  I was afraid we were spending the day in the hotel.  I went down to get her some congee (which is essentially soupy, overcooked rice) and came back to her completely dressed and "feeling better".  She asked me to fix her hair, and we went out to meet our group.  I think she did not want to miss out on anything today, and its likely she didn't feel well due to the shots she had yesterday.  We went to a few places (I posted pics and info on them).  When we got back from the hotel, she told me she did not want to go get lunch.  We had some cup-o-noodles in our room that she had gotten yesterday, so she ate that and I had a granola bar.  After she ate her noodles, she laid down and took a 3 hour nap.  I had to practically DRAG her out of bed at 4pm!  I laid down, too.  I slept about 20 minutes and the hotel housekeeping "manager" rang the door bell asking if we were happy with how are room was cleaned.  I laid back down for a little while, but didn't really sleep after that.  Tonight we are going out with our group for a group supper.  We really have a great group.  Two families and 2 dads traveling alone.  All of the kids are delightful.  Rachel took several pictures of Mandye (the 10 yr old), they clearly have hit it off.  They were talking with each other and Mandye kind of wanted to sit by Rachel in the bus, I think.  But she sat by her little sister.  I hope they can sit together at supper tonight so they can visit more.  I think both like having someone who can talk Chinese with them!  I can relate to that feeling as I'm happy to see other American adults that I can talk to!  You don't realize how much you miss that until you have virtually no one around you who you can carry on a conversation with!  I noticed while in Beijing that I was having a hard time putting sentences together b/c I was always wondering if I was talking slow enough.  And I was always searching for the "easiest word to translate".  It was quite disturbing the few times I noticed I couldn't hardly talk!  I even did it with Keith when we would skype.  But, its better now.  Rachel has gotten very good about telling me "mommy, I don't know English" which means she does not understand what I am asking her.  Before she would say "yes" to everything.  So, I'd give her a choice and she would say "yes"...yes, what? Which one?  She couldn't understand.  Communication wise we are doing much better.  She is very smart.  I have found communication improves every day.  She works really hard to find the right word and if she is completely stumped she will say "computer" so we can use google translate.  She is also very brave to try to pronounce different words.  I'm not always very good to understand, but eventually we figure it out!

It was rainy today, but nothing too serious, just some sprinkles.  I'm not really an umbrella kind of girl, but Rachel wanted to make sure we had umbrellas, so we borrowed some from the hotel.  At any hit of a raindrop, she would put the umbrella up.  Needless to say, its not a great hair day for me! :-)