Saturday, September 23, 2006
I’m Back!
One very short week in the USA and I am now back in Beijing. I had a wonderful time catching up with family and friends, playing tennis and doing chores around the house that had been waiting for 4 weeks.
I tried not to switch time zones, so I pulled Navy time: 8 hours up, 4 hours in the rack, 8 hours up and 4 in the rack. Since construction is still going on in the house, my 4-hour nap during the daylight hours did not really materialize. Anyway, jet lag has been much easier with that schedule. I have only had a 2-hour drowsy stint on a colleague’s couch so far.
Saturday, September 23, 2006 was a beautiful, hot, smoky day in Beijing so we opted for a day excursion to the Beijing Botanical Gardens and Wofo Temple outside and northwest of Beijing. The place is huge and on a scale unimaginable. We found a nice creek with a plank walkway that meandered up the mountainside to the December 9th Memorial. We have no idea what December 9th memorialized because that was all that was written in English. We had a hard time deciphering the tree tags, but we did have a good time walking amid the (we think) sequoia, poplar, ginko, various pine and willow trees. We also found an amazing rose garden.
The evening was spent having the first Beijing cookout with colleagues: chicken, burgers, beans and franks, homemade applesauce and finished with S’Mores on the griddle. The night sky was clear, and there were no bugs. A great Saturday night to cap off a week of travel.
I tried not to switch time zones, so I pulled Navy time: 8 hours up, 4 hours in the rack, 8 hours up and 4 in the rack. Since construction is still going on in the house, my 4-hour nap during the daylight hours did not really materialize. Anyway, jet lag has been much easier with that schedule. I have only had a 2-hour drowsy stint on a colleague’s couch so far.
Saturday, September 23, 2006 was a beautiful, hot, smoky day in Beijing so we opted for a day excursion to the Beijing Botanical Gardens and Wofo Temple outside and northwest of Beijing. The place is huge and on a scale unimaginable. We found a nice creek with a plank walkway that meandered up the mountainside to the December 9th Memorial. We have no idea what December 9th memorialized because that was all that was written in English. We had a hard time deciphering the tree tags, but we did have a good time walking amid the (we think) sequoia, poplar, ginko, various pine and willow trees. We also found an amazing rose garden.
The evening was spent having the first Beijing cookout with colleagues: chicken, burgers, beans and franks, homemade applesauce and finished with S’Mores on the griddle. The night sky was clear, and there were no bugs. A great Saturday night to cap off a week of travel.
