Victory over Spring

Spring has been a little slow in coming to Beijing and with today’s weather around 50 degrees we just declared victory. Spring is here whether or not Spring thinks so. To celebrate, Yang played tennis outside this morning and had another winning match. Recently Yang became champion of the taitai tennis league which translates to the “wives tennis league”. It is the name a bunch of foreign woman, mostly here with their expat husbands, gave to the league. The funny thing is I don’t think they would call themselves the “wives tennis league” back home, but here it’s kind of cute.

After lunch we loaded the kids up on the bikes and peddled to the 798 art district. 798 has gotten more touristy in recent years but not in a way that tourists will notice. It is still a great place to spend an afternoon moving from gallery to gallery and finding something that connects. If art is fundamentally about communication, then 798 delivers. But with the kids, especially Elisa, we have to move a bit slower and visit less galleries. In one square they had two depictions of Jesus on the cross which Aidan in particular found intriguing. I found ladder going up (or down) and the blue “man at work” sign interesting.

We wandered a bit more until an ice cream freezer came within view. Elisa grabbed Yang’s hand and took her straight there and the four of them had ice cream (i sampled from each).

We then biked home, stopping on the sidewalk front of Jenny Lou’s to buy some xinjiang jewelry. Or at least jewelry sold by xinjiang people. The jewelry is not expensive unless you are a foreigner and don’t know any better which is why I suppose they set up shop on this sidewalk. I put my knees on the sidewalk and negotiated two bracelets for 30 kuai (about $4.5). Negotiated means I said a price and they took my money, which means I paid too much. We also got Lydia a pair of earrings for 10 kuai which she will use to make a necklace.

And with that and with Easter Sunday tomorrow, victory over spring is declared.