Our view

Just a quick update to say Hi! Skype is not working so far. We can see the other just can't hear each other. It may be a gov't control thing.
Jet lag is getting better, last night I crashed really early and we were all up at 2 am. I hope by tomorrow we are on schedule, or we could be sleeping at dinner:-).

The sun came up and was beautiful shining on the buildings. The smog seemed light today, it was cold but clear. Here are a few pics of our view from our room.

Shopping

Went to carrefour, a store much like walmart. It's a two story building, it sells clothes, household goods and food. It's big and colorful, decorated for Chinese new year. Nate fell asleep as soon as we entered the building. Every person we passed looked at him and smiled, he was still in his coat and hat and he was rock'n a pair of sunglasses. I think people found his glasses humorous.

It was so much fun just looking at all the products in the store. Recognizing the shape and color of items but not able to read the Chinese writing on them. Very popular items had both US and Chinese on them like Tide, Evian, coke and Cadbury. One strange thing was the raw meat was out in bins, people were touching and inspecting pieces then throwing it back in. That would never fly in the US!(pic 3)

Going sightseeing tomorrow, learning to make dumplings, eating our creations for lunch, go to the summer palace, visit a hutong--an old village, then peking duck for dinner. Lots of outside stuff tomorrow, pray we stay warm!
Here are a few pictures of our trip to the store.