weekend update-

Saturday night here---we have had a fun/interesting weekend and there is still one day left!
Friday night there was a bus that went bar hopping and all the "veterans" were showing all the "newbies" the cool bars that are frequently visited by ISB teachers. i had an away volleyball game so riley and i didn't start on the bus....but we met up with the bus at the first bar. The first bar is now referred to as "Riley's favorite bar in the whole entire world!" It swas called the Drum and Bell Bar. It is located right next to the Famous Bell Tower where the guy from Minneapolis was stabbed right when the Olympics started. It was pretty somber realizing where we were at first......hard to believe that only happened a little over a month ago.
The bar itself was very cool-i didn't ccheck it out like riley-i just sat and talked on the couches on the roof..i will have riley give a description of the rest of the bar. Then we were off to another little joint where there was a little dancefloor. Looks like a lot of the teachers (especially the single ones) go out dancing quite a bit so it was very entertaining to watch! We then hopped on a bus----with a few coolers full of beer...and headed to another location to check out a few other spots. After about a 10 minute ride we unloaded and headed off to another bar. About 12 people diverted from the bar scene and popped into a local Chinese restaurant where we ate likeKINGS o the top of the building. It was very entertaining....a few people spoke a little Chinese and ordered a bunch of stuff for us. EAting out is always interesting for me b/c i haven't mastered chopstix yet. I was HUNGRY too....so after i "accidently' dropped one of my chopstix on the floor i had to revert to using a little tea-like spoon they give you. It was a much faster way of getting food to my mouth! i do need to practice using the darn things though----i get a good grip and take a few bites....then when i pick up the chopstix again to go at it ---i can't get the same grip back and i end up with floppy stix! Oh well-it is usually worth a good laugh!
We had to geet home by 11:30 b/c our babysitter had an early morning church trip-and that was ok with us.....
Today was interesting. We got up this morning and Riley took Kieran to soccer. He got a little soccer uniform with shin guards and everything! we didn't get a picture this weeke but we will next week. He seemed to have a great time! I headed off to another part of Beijing in a taxi to pick up our plane tickets home to MN for christmas. What an experience ! Luckily---the taxi driver knew where the building was....although he didn't act like he was so sure. So he drops me off at the Gateway Building where United supposedly has their office. Well--all the lady told me was Gateway building Tower A #18. It is a 40+ story building and when you walk in it is MASSIVE And you have to go up 2 escalators just to get to the receptionist. Well since there was nothing else besides #18 on my e mail....i went to the 18th floor----which is under construction and there are not even any offices there! So i went back to the lobby and tried to ask them where #18 was......no clue what i was saying. so they tried to get someone on the phone who spoke english---she told me "not here" so i thought i was in the wrong place. So i proceded to go outside and check out a few of the other buildings in the area. But i was clearly in the right building (HUGE GATEWAY SIGNE ON THE TOP OF BOTH TOWERS) and i know i was in tower A b/c i saw signs......well to make a long story short---i started tgoing to every floor, popping out of the elevator to see the signs of the offices there....i made it to floor 12 and ran into some random guy who i said "english" to. he spoke English and took me back to the receptionist to see where United's Office. Suprisingly it still took nearly 10 minutes for them to figure out that it was on the 15th floor! (so i was only 3 floors away!)
so once i got there--all was good. The lady first issued me tickets leaving 2 days later than what we had originallyplanned, glad i saw that. Then she tried to give me two tickets for kieran and none for kellan....finally the third time was a charm and we got it taken care of. I think most of the time you can have your tickets delivered or get e tickets but b/c we have an "infant" with us we had to pick our paper tickets up.....our next flight home in the summer we will be able to do everything electronically.

well-i have typed a novel...sorry for that. we will have lots more to tell tomorrow as it is our first true trip to the wall. i hope the weather holds out.....and it is a clear day. Until next time.....
Love
Laurie and Family