Birthday in Tienanmen Square

Yesterday I turned 25, and it just so happened to be the one day of this week that we would take all the children out for a day in Beijing. We went to Tienanmen Square, then to a massive park that was built 800 years ago by an emperor, then to a museum that was equally impressive in size. I thoroughly enjoyed the day, between the kids, my wife and friends, and the sightseeing.

It started out cloudy, then rained. But not until we were on the far side of the massive park, with about half a mile to walk back to the buses. Then, as I predicted, it cleared up as soon as we reached the museum, and it was partially sunny when we got back to the school. Indeed, my sense of Murphy's Law was in fine form on my 25th birthday.

Here are a few photos from yesterday.

This baby was wandering all over the place in the square. She was so cute and animated, and the group of firefighters so stoic, but one saw her fall over and bent to pick her up.

The woman in the picture above was playing a song that a Bring Me Hope translator informed me was entitled, "Mother is the best person in the world." I don't think she knew "Happy birthday." She also told me she wanted her picture to "go all over the world" (in Chinese).

The museum was full of cool historical items, but, unfortunately, each lengthy paragraph of Chinese description would be followed with one or two English words. It was not, therefore, the most enlightening experience, even though it was neat to see all the artifacts.

And here is a picture of my second translator and I, wearing sleeves on our heads. Good times.