Still waking up too early! About 3:45 this morning. Julia, tired from her good
Friday, slept until 7:00. We spent
a quiet morning in the apartment:
it has a wide curved window that brings a big circle of the world into our
room, so we could see clearly that it was windy, overcast, and foggy
outside. Not inviting! An hour of Playmobil (Mama is a
saint), an art project, and some reading with a background sound track of the
Cubs (the internet is a strange and beautiful thing; if only the damned Cubs
would actually win!)
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| This is the living room - and a concentrating girl! |
Actually, I
know accessing the Cubs affected my sense of time this morning: I had been up so long, it was gray
outside, and I was listening to a night baseball game—it must be about
bedtime! I finally broke the
spell, and we ventured out. It was
not as cold as it had looked, which was encouraging. While walking toward the bus, we shopped in the two bakeries
that are right in our ‘community’—looking for prospective birthday cakes! We got to watch a baker frost a cake on
a turntable with a huge pile of whipped cream frosting—Julia immediately knew
that was the cake for her!
Another successful and easy bus ride downtown; we are going
to enjoy this form of travel. I
had to watch sharply for the stop because I didn’t know its name—that is the
downside of bus travel, since I can’t read the signs. Something to finesse!
We headed away from the bus stop (at Carrefoure, the grocery where I
shopped yesterday) toward May 4 Square. Suddenly I thought, will I ever find this spot again? Even knowing it is in close proximity
to the City Hall courtyard didn’t make me feel entirely sure. I jotted down the largest landmark I
could see in hopes that would mean something if need be. There are at least 60 million banks in
Qingdao! All with Chinese lions out front. And many many hotels.
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| A bank lion! |
Despite it all, we found the City Hall square with the
beautiful red Chinese characters—I don’t know what they say.
The greensward is enormous and
attractive, covered with low lights which must mean the whole green is aglow at
night; we will have to check it out.
At the other end from the enormous city building is the enormous red
sculpture that marks the May 4 event of revolution. There too is also another of the large flower covered
structures (a rainbow) that are part of the city’s decorations. Today there were many large red
balloons as well, dancing in the considerable wind.
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| The May 4 sculpture |
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| The rainbow - COVERED in flowers! |
Before heading out for a walk on the seaside boardwalk, we
went to lunch at The Diner, where we expected and indeed found familiar western
food. Julia of course went
straight for the hamburger, fries and shake—she was a happy girl, as the photos
prove. I could have had the
breakfast buffet, which came highly recommended, but decided to try to hold the
line with eggs. My Caesar salad
was good, though, as was the first beer I have had in 10 days!
The seaside walk, beginning with the May 4 commemorative
sculpture, was really fun. Lots of
people out, despite the overcast sky and the strong wind, and a festive
feeling. At the foot of the
sculpture is a Kite Flying park, where serious flyers send up enormous kites
unbelievably high in the sky (one was so small up in the air, it was
startling—how DID the flyer get it that high?!) as well as kites for sale for spontaneous flying. A vendor helped Julia fly a two-handed
kite for a bit, one of those that dives and buzzes.
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| Such fun! |
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| There were just so many of them! |
And another vendor offered small battery operated cars for
driving—one of Julia’s life dreams! She drove until she had had her fill, and then got to park it, like a
real driver. Life is good.
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| A very happy girl! |
We walked, and looked, and took a lot of scenery
photos—boats out in the harbor, the skyline, tiny turtles for sale on the
boardwalk, kites and people, flags and many types of rental vehicles (including small raft boats—we have plans to return!). Qingdao is the location of the Chinese Olympic Sailing Training Center, right there in the harbor. The Olympic rings are visible in several ways. We spotted the ‘dome balloon’ of the roof
of the school from this walk, as well.
And then, the coup de grace, a tiny amusement park. I started immediately into presenting
this as a fun place to celebrate her birthday (this has been on her mind a
lot!)—riding all the rides, many times, renting bikes and other vehicles, definitely renting a rubber raft boat!, and flying kites as well. Julia really enjoyed the planning and
was satisfied with the plan as meeting her level of expectations for a ‘golden’
birthday.
Here are a few of those photos:
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| One of the great boats at the amusement park |
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| Olympic flags! |
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| The Olympic Rings |
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| A panda kite! |
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| Tiny, tiny turtles for sale |
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| The waterfront |
From the boardwalk we entered into Marina City shopping
mall, beginning at H & M.
Julia carefully checked through the entire merchandise in the children’s
section, deciding at last on a polka-dotted red sunhat—she swears she will wear
it faithfully! With her pink
balloon, uniform jacket, and dotted hat, she made a charming picture in the
wide spaces of the mall.
There’s
an indoor ice rink in here, lots of glass and transparent elevators, a
McDonald’s and Starbuck’s, Zara and H & M—could be anywhere in the world,
in truth! Contrast with the photo
of “Growful Pharmacy” which is 50 steps from our apartment, in the row of
little shops at the edge of our community.
We made it back to the bus stop with only one small
detour—me carrying Julia on my back.
It really would be a good idea
for me to purchase a stroller—if only I could get on at yard sale prices! We would be able to cover more ground
with a more willing and cheerful child.
I really like to walk when I am traveling—I know it’s been a good day of
tourism if my feet are tired at night!
That is not Julia’s position,
however. Julia loves the bus.
She asked 35 times ‘is this our stop?’ so she has still got some anxiety
issues! But she loved standing, and she was able to stand on a bit of a step
and hang by the strap, which made her day. We are very familiar with this route now, which goes under an
enormous interstate spider web, with at least 3 levels crisscrossing. It has a great visual feel! Capped with thousands—truly thousands—of window boxes of pink geraniums hanging from the
edge of each lane. Really
attractive. It’s a family joke
already that we have gotten to this part of the route.
The Chinese are very comfortable with a more direct stare
than Americans typically advocate.
Julia gets quite a few stares, which is kind of funny; I thought that
would be my role. I assume it is
either the birthmark or her alliance to me. She doesn’t seem to notice though. While on the bus, hanging from the strap, at head level with
the adults in the aisle, Julia was face to face with a pair having a conversation. She turned her head
to me and whispered, “Someone is standing in front of me speaking Chinese”—her
stated wish on April 18. That’s why we’re here, in a nutshell, because she
wanted that experience. It’s nice
to get a wish fulfilled.
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