Olivis Hui Day Two Beijing

OK....Well..... Up at 5 AM; breakfast at about 6:30. Tried to make the video camera work.... still can't view the blog (it just won't open here.... I can add posts etc, but it will not open.... interesting) So, I have no idea if anyone is seeing anything. If you do see this, shoot me an e-mail on my school account.

At any rate, a big day. We met Dennis and Lina, loaded the bus (there are 30 of us at last count) and departed for Tiananmen Square. This is located right outside the gate to the Forbidden City. We had a great lecture from Dennis regarding the square then we walked through the FC. History under out feet.... amazing. Lina is terrific. What an amazing smile. I think she is happy all the time. It will be fun to be with her full time starting tomorrow. She is very experienced at this sort of thing.

After the walk through the Forbidden City we loaded the bus and went to a great restaurant for lunch.... DUCK! Wonderful. The walls were full of pictures of all of the famous people who have eaten at this restaurant. A who's who of the famous. Now they have had us... they can close the place because how could they do better? After lunch we visited CHI's Beijing offices for an orientation meeting. Lina said that we are leaving the hotel at 6:00 AM to catch an 8:15 AM flight to Lanzhou. We arrive in Lanzhou at 10:30 then have about an hour ride to the city and our hotel. We are scheduled to meet Hui at 2:30 PM. She should be there by now as Lina said that she talked to the director earlier in the week and he said that they were leaving for Lanzhou early Saturday morning. We know she must be scared but hopefully excited to meet us. We are scared and excited to start this new chapter in our lives. Emily has been terrific. She is going to make Hui's transition much easier, we think. So..... that's tomorrow....

After the orientation we reboarded the bus and drove to the Great Wall. WOW. 'Nuff said.

We drove past the Olympic stadium on the way back to the hotel. They will have to push hard to make it in time for the games a year from now.... but... I guess labor and unions are not an issue here. Beautiful new buildings right next to squalid poverty.

There are people everywhere. Multiply New York City by five and you just about have it. Our eyes burn from the smog. We are looking forward to moving on to Lanzhou tomorrow. We hope the internet works there. The good news is that Emily got MacDonald’s for dinner tonight. Barb just went to bed about 7. We are close behind. As we go to bed you are all waking up and hopefully reading this. Keep us in your thoughts!