Nadia slept until 6:30 today which was great. I woke up in pain and knew I had finally caught up on sleep because the horribly hard bed actually bothered me. We headed down to breakfast and then came back to the room to relax a bit. Nadia said, “Mom, can we do some school?” And you know that I was ready and had packed some stuff so her and I got to work.
We had plans to meet our friends Kiki and Jing and their daughter Chengyue for lunch at Da Dong restaurant near our hotel so we bundled up and headed over there. For those who haven’t read our blog a long time here is a little information. When we lived in Beijing for the month of March 2008 we met Kiki because she was the tutor they sent over from the language school. Mike took his classes on site, but since Nadia was so young Kiki came to our apartment every day. We became good friends and have stayed in touch these last 3 years. Their daughter has the exact birthday as Amelie which I find amazing. She is totally adorable!
Da Dong is one of the very famous restaurants in Beijing for having Peking Duck. We had read online that their menu is the size of the encyclopedia Britannica and they were not joking! Mike looked through it and the first thing he said was, “A menu shouldn’t have a table of contents.” I told Kiki that I would like the duck and that we trusted them to select anything else. The food was really amazing. We started with bamboo and sweet and sour pork. Then we had traditional Beijing Chestnut soup – this was my favorite thing after the duck. Then they brought out an eggplant dish which was wonderful and I have no idea what it was seasoned with. Our last side item was a corn and mustard fried rice – light and delicious. The chef came out to cut the duck table side and we were given little plates with all the items for building your pancakes. Jing told us that you dip the duck skin in the sugar and it was a very interesting flavor combination. Nadia decided to dip her cucumbers in the sugar instead.
After the main meal we were served a soup that was sort of like chocolate and topped with sesame seeds. Along with that was a large plate of fruit on dry ice. Then came the traditional Beijing snacks for dessert. This was an assortment of little desserts. Some were good and a couple were just odd tasting. Whew! Can you believe all that food? It took almost 3 hours for this lunch.
At the start of our lunch Nadia was very shy from just waking up and Chengyue was a little nervous too. Kiki said that she was not used to hearing them speak English and she was looking at them very confused and wanting to be held. After a while both girls warmed up and the fun began. Chengyue said to me “Aiyi” (auntie) and she would point at something or another or show me a photo on her mom’s itouch. And her parents told her that Nadia was her “meguaren jie jie” or American big sister. So she was calling Nadia “jie jie” and by the end of the day she was saying “Nadi Nadi!!”
The restaurant had a bunch of koi fish that the girls went to look at several times during the meal and they were holding hands as they walked along. Then they did some dancing for us at the end of the meal which was so funny because Chengyue was trying to imitate everything that Nadia was doing. We all came back to our hotel so the girls could play a little and we could visit some more. It is a sweet and special blessing from God that we got to see our friends and the girls got to spend some time together.
Mike and I have talked since the visit about how today was a little glimpse into what our life will be like in less than 2 days. Watching Chengyue try to imitate everything Nadia did and seeing the 2 of them dancing around and holding hands was so sweet. Back at the hotel Nadia wanted me to put several things up because “they were not baby things, we don’t want her to choke.” She is going to be such a good big sister.
After Kiki and Jing left we all had a nap and then headed up the hall for the happy hour food on our floor. We weren’t really hungry so their appetizers were pefect and Nadia gobbled up some spring rolls. Nadia and I headed back to the room and Mike went out to take some photos while I started packing. We are being picked up early in the morning to head to Yinchuan. Beijing has been wonderful and helped us get well rested, but we are ready to move on and meet Amelie!