Updates:
Soon after my last update we had “Back to School Night”. The middle school one started with the middle school orchestra playing. They were amazing. By far the best middle school orchestra I’ve ever heard – and they were just two weeks into school – so very few practices.
A couple days later a parent named Melody invited me to join in a group she organized to go to the Forbidden City. Melody and her business partner, Claire, had started a company that provides the ever increasing number of extremely affluent Beijingers with activities to entertain then and fill their time. We were going to an art exhibit in the Forbidden City and Melody and Claire had organized an amazing array of experts to lead the tour: there was the leading Forbidden City expert on their antiquities, there was the lead curator for the biggest art fair in Beijing, there was an artist who had one of a few contemporary piece that were included in the show … of course they all spoke in Mandarin – well above my one year old level of Mandarin. But Melody either translated or had Rose, a lovely woman who works for her, walk around with me and give me the gist of what was being discussed. The old paintings were stunning and it was interesting to learn that every person who has owned these works would add their personal stamp and often add a few lines of a story to the scroll. I had never noticed before but some of the scrolls had tons of stamps – some owners had stamped the pieces right in the middle! Kind of cool to have this history of where the piece has been right on it – but the idea of past owners of a Michaelangelo, stamping their name in the middle of his piece is pretty crazy from a Western perspective.
After the art tour I started talking to Claire. She was explaining how Chinese parents only want to send their kids to really famous schools they have heard of: Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and she has been holding meetings introducing parents to fantastic small liberal arts colleges in the U.S. – as she went to one. Ends up she went to Carleton College – my Alma mater. Such a small world! As we laughed about this crazy small world meeting, we strolled over to The Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where, on the roof, our group had drinks and an amazing multi course dinner – where the chef came out and discussed his inspiration for each course. Quite a night!
The walls in our house are all cement – so hanging artwork is a major challenge. I want to have some flexibility in hanging artwork, so I decided to get picture hanging trim. That arrived two Fridays ago – so I am starting to get work on the walls. I am still figuring out the proper hooks to use so the artwork hands flat on the wall – but I’m excited to be reunited with some artwork I haven’t seen in over a year! When the hanging is a worked out a little better I’ll post some pictures – but it was nice to get some work up on the walls before we had a school leadership party to kick off the Chinese October Holiday.
My kids had off the weekend – Wednesday this week for the holiday. We can’t leave Beijing without risking getting stuck out of the city -if where ever one visits has one case – your return to Beijing will be delayed – possibly for a long time. But we had lots of little adventures.
We went out to dinner – and this was a tofu dish we were served! Sprinkles on fried, eggy tofu. So strange! (but funny)
I heard there was a driving range behind our local supermarket. I couldn’t believe it- but Dan and Morton checked it out and had a great time.
Another day we wandered around a traditional Chinese neighborhood with small wandering streets, called a Hutong- most of these neighborhoods have been replaced in the last twenty years with big green wide streets and large apartment buildings. We found a vegan restaurant for lunch. They had this tofu duck on the menu. So crazy!
And then Celia found some candied tiny crab apples to eat along the route. The weather was ideal -and we had a lovely time.
Last day off from school, Morton and I were invited to join a family volleyball game. It was a fun way to get to know some new families.
Since the kids have been back in school – and over this past weekend, I went to the big Beijing Picasso show – which was a bit odd with some copies – but there were some lovely pieces and I enjoyed getting to know a couple women I went with.
And went shopping at a furniture store that I wanted to buy everything – there were so many beautiful things and for similar prices as IKEA. I wish I had a bigger home in New York – I’d buy everything!