We are at Invincible Ramen which may be the best ramen house in Beijing. It’s a small place and without fanfare. Up a flight of stairs, no English signs or menus, simply tables on a wood floor. We are in the back section, a table for six including the Allio Beijing five and the ubiquitous mother in law. Having placed our order I take Elisa out to explore the restaurant. We look at the fish of course and the sushi chef. Then Elisa notices balloons lying in a corner so I give her one only to be told a minute later that the balloons are “taken” or so said a middle age woman on behalf of the too well behaved children with her party. So we smile and put the balloon down (later, typically, it dawns on me what the appropriate response would be).

We head back to the our table where Yang calls my attention to a drawing Aidan has made. On it is a globe with arrows showing that it is spinning.  The globe is earth and it has land masses drawn on it. Aidan has labeled one of these China and the other America. Towards the edge of the sheet on either side is the sun and the mood. Aidan then explains his drawing that the earth spins and that when the sun shines on china during the day it is nighttime in america and after the earth spins around then it is daytime in america and nighttime in china.  I ask how long does it take to make one complete spin. He says 24 hours. I asked where he learned this and he says he just knows this. School? No, he just knows. Uh huh I tell him.

Meanwhile Lydia is getting busy with her own piece of paper. She draws the sun and earth and moon and shows that the earth is rotating around the sun and the moon around the earth. I did not ask her how long does it take for the earth to rotate around the sun and was stuck thinking that Galileo must be smiling somewhere.

Our food arrived. The ramen was as good as ever. Lydia and Aidan ate salmon sushi. While waiting for the last dish Yang took Elisa out for a walk around the restaurant. Elisa returned with a smile. And a balloon.