We always knew she had a dramatic flair...

For the past 2 months, Alice has been involved in play practice at her school.  Monday, Tuesday and Friday afternoons she stayed after school.  We are so fortunate in that there is now a bus (a NEW bus complete with the school logo on it!) for the kids with activities.  No longer does our driver have to make the extra trips into town to get her (a 2-hour round trip).

It took some getting used to, but now I kind of like that buses here look like caterpillars with antennae on the front.  Those review mirrors situated as they are allow for some pretty narrow passages.

But, back to Alice. 

 This weekend, the play "Backstage" was presented.  Alice played an "aging ingenue.  Oh, she was full of drama!  Self-centered.  Haughty. Clueless.  She spent quite awhile on the stage floor, in a series of dramatic faints.  Alice said it was quite the trick, learning to faint and fall without bruising important body parts.

(And I'm in the market for a nice pocket-sized camera as my camera is not up to the job!)

Alice didn't care for her "snazzy" dress.  The sleeves were itchy, and she had to wear hoops under the skirt. But it certainly added to her style!   And just for posterity's sake, that is her dad's arm as he handed her flowers.  Let it be noted.

 One of the really fun parts of the play was the age of most of the performers.  Tianjin Int. School does two plays a year, and because of the popularity of volleyball, most high schoolers opt to play on the volleyball team and do the spring play.  Since Alice has little experience, she decided to try out for this play, even though it would be mostly middle-school students (there ended up being one other high school student--Alice's best friend).  The middle school kids were SO cute!  And did a great job!   It's always a challenge learning lines and perfecting delivery, and when English isn't even your native language it can be daunting.  Sometimes it was a little hard to understand some of the Korean kids' lines.  But more often, the accent made it even better.

 For the Friday night performance, several friends from TEDA drove in with us.  And several of the Kennedy Center teachers that we know from church braved crossing the town by subway, bus and taxi.  They were smart--they brought along a couple of the Taiwanese youth from church who could help along the way. So Alice had quite the fan club in attendance. She had a great time, made a lot of friends, and got to let that dramatic self flow free.  

Way to go, Alice!

Girls' Camp in China

We experienced a new "first" this weekend--Girls' Camp in China!  Our church has a commitment to holding an annual camp experience for our young women, ages 12 to 18.  It can vary in length of time depending on the local circumstances, but is usually 4 or 5 days in length.  In nature and away from all electronic media, it is easier to connect with other girls and feel close to Heavenly Father.

Our girls' camp experiences have been in Iowa, with heat, humidity and tornado threats, as well as canoeing, swimming, and fairly tame hiking.

Things are a bit different here.

For one thing, the only "wildlife" we encountered was a teddy bear poodle with a collar and leash that wandered over to see what was happening.  And of course it didn't take long for Alice to be cuddling it.

 Some things were the same:  a night-time campfire with roasted hotdogs and s'mores.  Somebody paid big time for those items at the import stores!  

 This was an overnight camp and was held at the Goose and Duck Ranch in the mountains north of Beijing.  About the only way to get Alice there was with the driver, and Kevin and I decided to go along.  One thing very different--we had cabins!  With heat, running water, western toilets!!!, and almost-soft beds.  Wow!  (Did I mention the western toilets?!?)

We were comfy!  So, no mosquitoes.  No sleeping bags.  No tents.

 And the place was really cute.  But then, the fee was about the same as a fairly nice hotel.  

There's one thing that doesn't change, no matter where the camp is held:

sleeping chaos in the girls' quarters.

 I've been wanting to show the types of brooms used everywhere here.  Bamboo. Just tied together.

It doesn't seem very efficient to me.

 Yet it seems to get the job done.  At least as much as it needs to be done.

 The hike was also a bit different.

We started out in a parking lot, then got to ride gondolas up the mountain side.

 That silver snaky thing on the ground is a slide.  You ride the gondola up, hike around, then ride a tiny cart down the mountain--kind of like a luge run except no ice.  We were looking forward to that, but unfortunately, it began to rain and we ended up riding the gondola back down (with rain dripping in our faces)! Then came the real hike--the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall.

 A brisk day, in the 40's (another difference from our typical summer camps), and

the fall foliage was wonderful.  The misty morning made everything surreal.

Just to show how steep some sections are!

 And when we got to the end of the reconstructed portion, we kept on.  Hidden in the trees on each side are the two sides of the wall.  Bushes and trees have grown up between the stones.  Occasionally, an intact stone stuck up to trip people.

 The girls held up their yellow (poncho) flag to commit to virtue as Young Women all over the world have done over the past couple of years.  I, unfortunately, was in the wrong spot to record this picture as Alice is behind a bush.  In my defense, there were others also taking this picture, and I was on a sharp ledge with nowhere else to move to, except over the edge.  Sorry Alice!  Maybe if the official picture is published in the Church News, you'll be visible. 

We were lucky the rain held off, and only began in earnest the last part of our descent.

Back at camp, hot chili and hot chocolate was wonderful as we all needed a quick warm up.

Then crafts, and a service project of fleece blankets for an orphanage,

supper, testimony meeting, and off to home.

Another successful Girls Camp as the Beijing girls (and one Tianjin girl) bonded and had a great time.

My thanks to great leaders with the vision to carry this off.

Flowers and things...

One of the things I was first attracted to in this apartment was the huge balcony area.  Do I call it a patio if it isn't on the ground floor? Yet it is tile and has a patio "feel".  I can't really call it a deck (as I typically would call an outside congregating area) as it isn't made out of lumber or something that looks it.  So it has taken me awhile to get comfortable with what to call it, and I'm sticking with "patio".  

Over the summer, from my first visit to the plant store in April, I've been planting, nurturing, pruning, digging up dead plants (a succession of petunias just have not liked ANYTHING I did), replanting, and watering, watering, watering. (And hoping someone was remembering to water while I was gone for six weeks--and yes, there were some dead things when I got back.  The miracle was that some were alive.)  

Two weeks ago, we got our first tomato, and there are several more on the two plants.  Within the next couple of days I'll be picking the green ones and letting them ripen indoors as we are scheduled to commence freezing temperatures.   (By the way, there is a small bird next to the planter that sought refuge on our patio.)

 I've brought in the lemon tree (covered with blossoms and a few small lemons!), the peppermint,

the basil, a geranium, and a lavender plant.  Oh, the fragrances!  

 But our apartment just isn't large enough for the coleus plants.

 And apparently, whatever I've done that the petunias did not like, the coleus plants DID like.

(That's just one plant in that pot)

Not too bad for my first year of container gardening in China!

Now I can hardly wait for next spring to use what I've learned this year.