14
Location: Beijing
Today, we were all supposed to be woken up by myself, however, that did not happen, and we got a few more minutes of sleep :). Dew Drops was on schedule for that morning, and it was another adorable morning full of our favorites.
Roundabout was holding a community event for child burn victims, so where we went in the afternoon, to spend time with these children with varying extents in their abilities. We got to the community center about thirty minutes after yet another wonderful ride from our driver, Buddy. Loads of children and other organizations were already there doin their thang, so we quickly set up three empty tables of coloring, Legos, and puzzles, in that order. SO many adorable children immediately came up and started playing with us! Evan, Colleen, and I even heard one of the many tragic stories of one of the little girls there. It was such a raw and emotional story that I’m sure none of us will forget. While at the center, we made so many new friends and got to hear about their stories too. After a nice quick and hectic group photo, the children left, and we helped clean up.
We changed afternoon/night plans and decided to go to the Beihai Lake District, where Colleen and Evan had been before, and were SO excited to take us there. The five of us were all pretty mad at Mom and Dad, (how we refer to Evan and Colleen respectively) because they wouldn’t give us our phones. We were all excited too, we rode the Beijing metro for the first time, because that’s how most people get around in Beijing, so we were truly traveling local style, so that was super cool. Riding the metro was nice, and so easy to use, I think we were all impressed. The five of us even grabbed the straps of either Mom or Dad’s backpack to stick together in the crowds.
As soon as we got out of the metro, we immediately noticed the low hanging smog. We only walked around for a little bit before the five of us decided where to eat for dinner. The very top balcony of one particular restaurant was the one we collectively chose. I’m not joking when I say that like ten seconds after we ordered our food, we saw the clouds brewin’ a storm. We stayed and took MANY pictures before the raging storm came in. We moved down one level for a little bit but then decided to roll out like Optimus Prime for some reason. Out in the rain, we tried to keep all of our belongings dry, but after a while, we just embraced it. For a while there it seemed like we were running around with no particular purpose. Running through the very crowded, dirty, and flooded streets, all while getting completely soaked was such a free experience. After quite a bit of running, we decided to head home. While in the rain, we sang songs with the theme of rain, at the top of our lungs, and with lots of souls (actually just me because no one else can do it), we all got back on the metro, cold and soaking wet. There were also some very bad squatting contests (because Mollie was so good there was no competition). Once we got back to Beijing, we needed a taxi home, so we HAD to ride in these little box motorcycle things because they looked so cool. When we got home though we were all really tired and soaking wet, so went to bed after showers. We also Face Timed Maddie’s mom because it was her birthday. So I guess that’s it, that’s a long, but great day for ya!
Bye, bye Felicia,
Olivia Newsome (always needs to be reminded to use their inside voice, high score holder on the quizoid app, and session one enthusiast)