China Day 604 More school and Sculpture Park

The kid's teacher has taken to wearing a camera
around her neck at their school. Several times a
day she sends me pics via email.  I am not certain
what was happening in this photo, but it looks
like Ava is at the front of the classroom.  Proud Mimi :)

Yesterday it was a soccer ball, today I came back from lunch
to see Eli and some boys playing basketball.  Just as I walked
up he and sunk a three pointer!  The kids were very impressed;
they think all American boys are good basketball players, lol.
 They kept feeding Eli the ball and he made five of the next six
 shots from all over the court.  At the end of the school day Eli
told me how much he was enjoying being in school, and all
of his new friends.  I told him that I saw him on the basketball
court that afternoon (he didn't see me).  He said, "Mimi, I
never got to be the cool kid in school before and it feels
so good.  I am having so much fun!"  My first thought was
Eli, you have always been a cool kid.  I told him these kids
will go home and fret about having the right tennis shoes
and playing the right video games just to be cool, and none
of that stuff means a thing.  I went on to say that he will have
seen and done things here in China that those 'cool' kids can't
even imagine and can only dream about.  He's hiked the
Great Wall of China!  He saw panda bears in China!
He's going to ride on a bullet train and slide down a
mountain on a luge!  His life will be so much richer
because of these experiences- a shiny pair of tennis
shoes means SQUAT in the big scheme of things.
He said, "Thanks, Mimi."

Take a good look.  Coolest 10 year old boy.  EVER.
(another photo from his teacher, because she sees it, too)

Ava was playing some sort of bean bag game with a group
of kids...all I could hear was squeals and laughter as I
watched this girl ZING one bean bag after another!

And her teacher shared this photo with me because she
also sees that Ava is one cool kid.  I love this kid so much. <3

When I opened this photo in my email, I instantly had tears.
I am so proud of all of these kids in their ability to see
far beyond their physical differences and language barriers
and cultural differences and they simply are FRIENDS to
each other.  I mean, really, look at those smiles?
We should all take a lesson in acceptance.  So beautiful.

We have lots more touring scheduled the rest
of the week, so I decided to take a couple of
hours after school to visit Beijing International
Sculpture Park which is in my very own neighborhood.

The park is filled with sculptures from all over the world.
Eli had fun with this one; it is called "Wind."
Clearly, he was blown away ;-)

We moved a table to get a better view of this one.  It
is called "Camel" and is made of layers of glass and bronze.
It may not look much like a camel from this view...

But yep, it's a camel.  This one's for you, Ness.

This one is "Philosopher Dancing."

Of course Eli had to point out ever naked woman statue he saw!

Like the majority of parks and green spaces in Beijing, there is
always an exercise park.  They were built for the retirees, as
folks are forced in to retirement at age 55 to make room in
the job market for the next generation.  They almost always
have ping pong tables or badminton courts, too.  The kids
had to try out every piece of equipment there was. Stephanie
walked around taking pics of more sculptures while I rested
my knee on a park bench and watched the kids play in
and among the old folks. Ava was quite impressed by
an elderly man's twenty pull ups on the high bar.

Awwww, momma and baby <3

I snapped pics of nearly every statue we passed
as the kids either had to strike a pose or find a
way to climb on them.  Mountain goats, I tell you.

I love this one of an old Tibetan.

While the kids had a ball climbing and playing
on the statues, they were filthy from the
polluted air.  They went straight to the shower
and their clothes went straight to the washtub
the minute we got home!

This one is Stephanie and I's favorite.  It is
called "Mirror of Nature" and you cannot
appreciate how beautiful it is until you walk
around it and see it from every angle.

My warrior princess :)

The kids were so funny trying to recreate the poses of statues :)

And then there's Eli, re-enacting "The Embrace"
His shorts are blurry because he was wiggling
around and really getting in to it, lol :D

Nearly every statue was an open invitation for
them to jump on, experience and explore.
We talked about the materials used, and why
some statues had the names they were given.

 

We only got through half the park.  The sun was setting and
dinner was waiting on us at home.

This was three books stacked on each other, all layers of glass.
This was my favorite, as both of these kids have a book in their
hands almost all the time.  They love to read, and this photo
suits them perfectly.  It makes me happy that they love books
as much as all five of my kids did.  When we traveled, each
kid got to bring a backpack of stuff to keep them occupied and
entertained.  They all packed books- lots and lots of books.
I am glad to see the next generation doing the same.
I know they love their technology, too, but they can get
along just fine without it, and that makes this Mimi happy.

Okay, maybe I lied.
This one is my favorite <3

G'nite, y'all!