A Good Worker

It is such a nice Friday afternoon that I decide to walk home from work. Two and a half hours later I arrive home tired and hungry. It is 8pm. Aidan is noticeably excited, not so much because I made it home but because he could show me his latest lego creation. Yang's dad had bought him a pirate ship earlier in the day and Aidan has worked tirelessly on it for seven hours. He would spend two more on it before calling it a night. He was especially proud because the packaging said the pirate ship was for "9 and over".

Aidan works on many things in a similar manner. He is now learning how to write Chinese characters and he will go to his desk in his room and just start writing them without being asked. Same for the math homework his teachers assign. BTW, some of the math problems would be considered Algebra in American schools. Aidan gets the equivalent of 12 + x = 15, what is x?.

There are many small, seemingly unconnected steps that led me to Beijing, none of which have anything to do with Algebra. Some would call it fate. Some would call it something else. I just know that if any of those small steps had gone in another direction, I would not be here. One of those small steps was during a job nine years ago interview -- my first job interview in 10 years -- where I said "I'm not very smart but I work really hard" which turned out to be exactly what cinched the job for me. Aidan, as it turns out, has inherited my ability to work hard and diligently. In addition, he got Yang's brains and he got from somewhere --- mars maybe -- an amazing ability to assemble stuff. This, for sure, I know he didn't get from me. How do I know this? Well, see, I have this bicycle lock and this locks folds into itself and attaches to the bike easy storage when riding. The problem is the folding bit. I've broken a sweat trying to get this lock to fold just right. A 1/4inch off and it won't fit onto the bike. I ride my bike several times a week and I've been struggling with it for months. Months. Finally, just this week, I realized that all I need to do is turn the lock "just so" at the end of the fold to get it into proper position. It even has a diagram of how to do this on the lock.

I should have just asked Aidan.

That's the end of today's story, but some bonus pictures.

Aidan and Lydia at their school's Olympic day. Notice the name of the restaurant in this pic.