Beijing

We’re in Beijing! And Mom, if you’re reading this, we’re OK!

We went out for a walk this morning and it was quite uneventful for a while until Leo introduced himself to us as a student of English. He said he wanted to practice his English so we began to talk to him and his teacher Sunny. He said that he was traveling to Chicago next week and began to walk with us. He was very friendly, found out that we are in the country to adopt and said that his professor can write Katie’s name in calligraphy for us. Their office was very close to our hotel. Is this starting to sound a little fishy. Well we walked to their office building with them and were hesitant about going up to their second floor. Some things convinced us that we wouldn’t be mugged so we went up. When we walked into their office the walls were covered with beautiful paintings. I’m not sure that they really are going to Chicago or that he is really an English student but after a little bit of bargaining, where I spent too much, we bought a calligraphy of Katie’s name. Their “professor” wrote it out for us. As it was drying they continued to try to get us to buy more pictures and even tried to get us to exchange a couple of five dollar bills that were in bad condition. She assured me that they were real. I just told her that the bills would be fine to use in Chicago.

Interestingly, after we took a long time leaving the building, Sunny and Leo came out. I think they were on their way to find their next customers.

Tomorrow we fly to Yinchuan!