Final push to Winter Holiday
December arrived and serious cold kicked in.
Friday the first we made it back to Kehelat Shabbat. It was a special Shabbat as two members were getting married the next day – so family members came from out of China. I ended up sitting next to a man who had lived in China for decades but was in visiting from New York. At the end of the meal we made the connection that Judy Rossman, my mother’s friend from birth, had been his mentor at Community College of Philadelphia over thirty years prior. He was excited to hear about her and reminisce- such a small world!
The next day Morton had another Pingpong tournament and after was going to Beijing’s first BBYO event – where they were going bowling.
Dan and I decided to go out hiking around the wall. Our driver had the day off so I decided to drive myself – finally putting that Chinese driver’s license to use. Although it is nice to sit in the back of our van and let someone else drive, it was nice to have more control, get a better view, and get a better sense of Beijing’s layout. Once we got where we were going, we struggled finding the actual path but we hiked, got plenty of fresh air, and then went out for a lovely lunch at the base of the mountain.
After lunch we hurried home, to get dressed and then headed downtown to an Indian restaurant for the birthday party of my tennis instructor, Ganish. Was a fun party, though I was asked at last minute to give a speech – which is not my favorite thing. Dan was also asked to give a speech- possibly his favorite thing (just teasing him – but he is more comfortable with it).
The next evening we planned to go downtown to see an exhibit our friend organized and we had missed the opening. We were to meet our friends and then grab a quick dinner. I extended an invitation to another friend who owns the space the exhibit was in. She replied that she was sick but had organized a dinner for us in her entertaining space. She is the same person who had organized Celia’s graduation dinner (probably the best meal I have ever eaten). This meal was also – no quick grabbing dinner – but lovely.
That week was full of school/work, me frantically trying to figure out plans for going to the Philippines, doing a little artwork, playing some tennis,
Frisbee and volleyball, and my teaching Milo a video game(I tried to attach video but isn’t working).
Chanukah started and we lit the candles. Saturday evening Daniel was invited to light a candle at the Israeli ambassador’s apartment. Was a lovely event and was interesting to see where the Israeli ambassador lives after seeing the U.S. ambassador’s large, stately, walled off residence. The Israeli ambassador lives in a small apartment building with each floor housing different Israeli diplomats and the building feeling more like a kibbutz with kids running from floor to floor. Was lovely. (Sadly forgot to take a picture)
Afterwards we ran out to join the school’s faculty/staff party. We had to get there for Dan to say a few words, then to pick all the names for all the giveaways, and lastly to read a story with Longlong (the school dragon mascot).
Starting that weekend and continuing the entire following week brought unusual amounts of snow – nothing to even compete with New York’s recent mild winters, but apparently plenty to panic about since Beijing isn’t used to the snow. Public schools had three days off! ISB was forced to close for a day. Snow days aren’t what they used to be though as the kids did online schooling! – what a terrible repercussion of Covid!
We had a super fun tennis birthday celebration for my friend Irma with a Russian lunch to follow. (Trying to celebrate all currently offending countries)
Friday night we had our second annual Chanukah blowout party. Was super fun, bringing a new dreidel winner – who (gasp!) isn’t even Jewish!
Saturday night, our Sunday morning as we were rushing around getting ready to get on a plane to the Philippines, I received photos from Celia who was at Dan’s family annual Chanukah party in Boston. Wish we could have been there – but so nice Celia’s friend Cody was able to join her.
And lastly a picture Celia sent me.
