Hi Chris,  Yesterday we spent the day in Beijing.  We walked around the
Forbidden City for 5 hours.  It was a huge place!  It was beautiful.  If
anyone saw the movie, "The Last Emperor,"  this is the place that the movie
was filmed (on location).  Then we explored Tiananmen Square.  We were
certainly a novelty.  Several times, people would run up ahead of us and
then pose for a picture as we approached behind them.  Their friend or
relative would take the photo just as we approached so that we would be in
the picture.  The first time, I noticed two men doing this and I kept trying
to get out of the way.  They kept running ahead and then I noticed that they
were purposefully trying to get us in the photo.  Some people were just very
nice, and came up to us directly and through sign language with the camera,
asked if they could have a photo with us.  We did feel a bit like a
spectacle, though.

At one point, I was sitting with Lucy waiting for Lynne and Marlene to
return from a gift shop, when I noticed a little girl staring at me.  She
appeared to be about nine years old.  I smiled at her and waved.  She
grinned and waved back.  Over a period of about 20 minutes I kept catching
her staring at me and we would exchange smiles.  Finally, I went over to her
and offered her an American flag sticker.  She said, "Thank you!!"  in
English with great expression.  I went back to where I was resting across
the courtyard from her.  A few minutes later, her father came to ask
(through sign language) if he could take a photo of us together.  We each
took photos and then said good-bye.  What a nice memory of her smiling face.

Later in the afternoon, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe.  I enjoyed chicken
fajitas and a margarita.  But my stomach did not enjoy it so much today.  I
had to excuse myself from my first period class to race to the bathroom.
When I returned I apologized for leaving and explained that we had eaten
American Food yesterday and that my stomach does not like American food
anymore.  I told them I might not be able to go home because my stomach now
prefers Chinese food.  They thought this was very funny.

We had our second tai chi class today.  The instructor made me come up at
one point to model the moves.  I really enjoy the class.  The instructor
does not speak much English, so much of the communication is through
modeling and gesturing.

I think it is so funny that your mom wrote the joke about the Hokey Pokey
because we had just taught this song/dance to our students day before
yesterday.  I read the joke to Marlene, Lynne and Lucy and it had them going
at first.  Marlene was thinking we had done such a great tribute to him,
teaching his song in China.  When I got to the punchline, everyone laughed
hard.  It was perfect timing!  We are debating whether to tell the joke to
our students because I'm sure it will be difficult for some of them to
understand at first.  If we decide to give it a go, I'll let you know how it
goes over.  Then you can tell your mom that she contributed to our
curriculum in China!!

I'll go for now.

Bye!!  Love,  Sally