Sunday, June 3 - Elinor's Birthday!

Happy Birthday Elinor Catherine Irene!! 15 years old today.  We send you lots of love, and a photo of the sea glass that we collected for you on a beach in Qingdao today.  I learned that Qingdao means Blue Island—I like that.  And we note that this sea glass comes from the Pacific Ocean—woo woo!  We are so used to collecting sea glass from Swans Island, the Atlantic Ocean.  This is the same and yet different.  And, for you with our love, a heart shaped rock.  xxoo

A heart-shaped rock and sea glass

We started out at about 11, after a skype chat with the folks at home.  We are creating our own plan today, attempting to read the bus map (in Chinese, don’t you know) and figure out how to get to the beach.  We rode the familiar 314 downtown, switched to the 208, and internally cheered as the bus turned onto Hong Kong Lu, heading past the Book City and MyKal, places I want to get to, and then turning right as I expected.  I could tell by the air that the sea was close, and then we turned right, totally surprising me (maybe a Sunday schedule?).  So we got off at the next stop, and managed to find out about where we were from a waiting passenger.  Started toward the sea, in a foggy morning with a bit of a cool breeze, and I was thinking, ‘will this turn out to be a good plan?’  Immediately we came upon the entry to a garden, one that seemed especially attractive.  In we went, to find right away a ‘playground’ which was composed of the exercise equipment the government put in parks for citizens—old people—to exercise.  There’s fun to be had even so; Julia loves the leg exercisers, which can function like a swing.  And, there were monkey bars—hurrah! At last!  Julia whipped up and down the bars a couple of times, to the amazement of a 4-year-old and her father, who immediately needed to make the attempt.  We had a good, ordinary time for a half hour, and finally started out of the playground, to the path, which went steeply uphill.  Needless to say, a scooterer saw that as a great down slope! So she ran to the top and scootered down several times until dragged away by me.  We followed the path around, and voila, there was the sea! Down some 200 or 300 feet.  It was reached from an actual playground! A plethora of wonders (with much the same equipment as the grownups’ area)! Where there was, also, a ping pong table.

We started down the staircase—the government has thought of everything at some point!—to the rocks which look so much like the sea edge in Maine, the one we are familiar with.  We are marveling that we are standing in the Pacific Ocean.  The world feels enormous today.  We clamored around the rocks, waded in tide pools, watched out for the incoming tide, and beachcombed with earnestness.  Sea glass was our reward; lots of green sea glass.  It was a tiny beach, with some devoted beachgoers.  They’ve come with pup tents and grills, for an afternoon picnic.  Not much bathing going on.  Later, we’ll see quite a few fishermen, fishing from the boardwalk high above the sea.  We toasted Elinor as we did this thing which we love so much to do in Maine.  It was a nice unplanned celebration.

A look down at the beach from the playground

Julia on the long, stone steps

The large rock at the beach really did make it feel like our familiar Swans Island beaches

Here is Julia at the Pacific Ocean!

We found some sand, but it was mostly a rocky beach

One last view as we headed back up the hill

Down the boardwalk, as planned, we finally went.  It was pretty foggy; the view was definitely restricted.  The boardwalk is very nice, well kept, with landscaping and decorative borders, and lined with nice looking apartment towers.  There were the ‘best’ of an era ago, overtowered by the newest best, which are all steel and glass, but despite that look like fabulous places to live. Great view, balconies everywhere.  We are in the neighborhood of the Intercontinental Hotel, where the buffet restaurant is, a pretty fancy place.

Walking along the boardwalk and talking English to his tiny child was an American we chatted up.  Nathan and his wife have been in Qingdao for 4 years, and have just signed on for another 2 years of teaching at a (rival) international high school.  I am fascinated by the ex-pat idea.  This family has stayed a long time, didn’t know any Chinese when they got here, and have had 2 children while here.  Wow.  What’s the draw?  He mentioned the close international community, which I‘ve heard of from other people.  He asked me straight out if I ‘go to church’ and invited me to the Sunday service of this group.  The thing is, do I want to live in China for multiple years in order to hang out with other international people?  Do these ex-pats get connected to the Chinese community?  Actually, as I have mentioned, no Chinese students are permitted to enroll in the international schools, so that link to the Chinese is not available.  But, any number of them re-up, as they say in the army, so something is working for them.  Now, if it were an opportunity to live in Paris for 4 years, that I could understand!

We reached Darling Pier, which ends with the lighthouse, and is lined with many, many flags and tiny modern windmills.  It was picturesque; there was a restaurant way down near the lighthouse, and the Yacht Club on the other end, with the Qingdao Sailing Museum in the next building, and a high-end mall next to that.  The Chinese use every ounce of space!

A pretty sign for the upcoming Darling Pier

Julia on Darling Pier

We were very close Marina City mall at this point, where we planned to shop and eat.  Our Japanese friend recommended two Japanese clothing stores in the mall, and she also suggested a nice quality chain dumpling restaurant which we could manage because the menu comes with pictures (in fact, I came with English as well.  Not the wait staff though, so we still had some order challenges!).  The mall and outdoor courtyards (where the fountains are that children play in) were packed with happy consumers.  Even though it wasn’t a bright sunny day, it was warm enough and people were out in force.

A traditional looking image from our walk

Before eating, we tried to rent a kind of sleek golf cart that can be driven around the boardwalk.  A few days ago, Julia rented the round vehicle (see photo; defies description) which she had had her eye on for 3 weeks.  She is slowly chipping away at all those items we were saving for the birthday celebration!  We ran into stiff translation difficulties at the rental booth, however.  Even though I know the gist of what is being said to me, I can’t move the conversation beyond that initial piece of information:  i.e.:  ok, so the car can be rented for 400 yuan for some long period of time; is there a lesser time and smaller sum for renting as well?  Couldn’t get that question on the table.  As I watched a father lay down his 400 yuan, I was shocked—that’s a pretty good chunk of money for a middle class Chinese family.  My aides would be appalled at spending that kind of money for mere frivolous entertainment!  This mama said no, anyway.  So, we turned to the rubber boats instead.  For 20 yuan, Julia got to drive a boat around a big inflatable pond; she was happy, and can’t wait to do it again on Friday with friends, so that she can enjoy the bumper boat element of the ride!

Julia negotiating getting into her boat

And happily driving away!

The dumplings proved to be just what Julia wanted—chicken for her, veggie for me, and a bowl of sticky rice that Julia devoured, with soy sauce.  The restaurant was clean and pleasant looking, with reasonable prices and tasty food, and the ubiquitous friendly service.  The Chinese are big big big on service!  Someone brought the steamer baskets from the kitchen, handed them to someone else, who brought them to the person tending our table.  This restaurant included a gratuity in the total bill; that’s the first time we’ve encountered a tip in China. 

Reached home at 6 pm—7 hours of adventure in the city!  We had the great good fortune to have two skypes in the evening—thank you for keeping in touch with us!  Julia loves seeing her friends’ faces, even when she isn’t particularly articulate!  And of course we loved singing Happy Birthday to an Elinor who obligingly got up at 8 am on a birthday Sunday morning—love knows no greater sacrifice!  ‘Happy Birthday, and may all your dreams come true, darling! xoxox

Happy Birthday, Elinor! We love you <3