Mom in Beijing

Mom came to visit last week. It was a short trip, but we packed in a lot and had a great time! I sure was exhausted when she left...

Here's a quick look at what we did each day (Mom this is to help you remember when you show people pictures)

Thursday, Oct. 13th- pick up from airport. Eat dinner at Fatburger. We decided to ease her into Chinese food slowly!

Friday, Oct. 14th- Summer Palace, dumplings for lunch, trip to Carrefour so Mom could see where I shop (and also help carry all the heavy stuff, since I have to walk for all my shopping), dinner at our BBQ restaurant.

Saturday, Oct. 15th- local wet markets for grocery shopping, Laitai flower market, lunch at Kro's nest (pizza) and then a trip to the hutongs. Dinner at home because we were so tired.

Sunday, Oct. 16th- Day of rest! We went to church then had a relaxing afternoon at home. We took CoCo on a long walk, played some games, and cooked in.

Monday, Oct 17th- Great Wall hike, lunch at Subway (looking back we really didn't eat too much Chinese food), and hot pot for dinner. We tried out the hot pot thats a 2 minute walk from our house for the first time. The broth used to cook the vegetables there is tomato soup. It was delicious. I have a feeling we'll be back many times this winter.

Tuesday, Oct 18th- Silk Market, this was a little overwhelming for Mom. It was a pretty crowded day and the vendors can get pretty grabby. We had lunch at a German bakery close to my work since I still had to teach kindergarten in the afternoon. Dinner was what I like to call Chinese tacos, they call it spring pancakes here. Basically you order a bunch of different Chinese dishes and wrap them up in a soft taco shell. It's close to our house and one of our favorites. I think it was the first restaurant we ate at when we moved here.

Wednesday, Oct. 19th- Tienanmen Square and Forbidden City. It was still pretty busy, but we had a good time. Lunch was a fast food hotpot at the mall close to my work. We got to try a larger variety of vegetables since they were all moving by on a conveyor belt. The broth was also more traditional. I still enjoyed it. Mom came to watch me teach kindergarten after that took a few pictures I will have to post sometime. We spent the rest of the afternoon packing and hanging out. We ordered Papa John's before taking her down to the airport.

I had a great time and was so glad Mom got to come visit. Here's a few pictures off of my camera. The rest are on hers and I will have to post them later.

Arriving at the airport. It was a long flight!

Not a great picture of us, but as soon as we got off the subway on our way home from the airport we hopped into a little metal rickshaw for the rest of the ride home.

Dinner at Fatburger

Summer Palace. A whole group of women pulled us over to take pictures with them one by one.

Boat ride at the Summer Palace.