Calmer Days, Bad Colds Waft In

After the hectic CAFL schedule over the weekend, both Bill and I have ended up with a coughing cold.  This was the first weekday of Golden Week here in China.  Golden Week, is sort of line our 4th of July and Thanksgiving all rolled into one.  Businesses close, schools close and every Chinese person heads on holiday....it seems to Beijing!  The streets are teeming, more crowds than I have ever seen in my life.  The crowd moved like a liquid, slipping past obstructions enmass; sinuously streaming down the hutongs toward a larger open plaza. Many Chinese are carrying flags and wearing a heart shaped flag on their cheeks.  Knick-knack sellers are crammed into the tiniest of corners with their wares spread out on the ground before them.  The crowds are orderly and slow moving.  If you were in a hurry, forget it, you needed to get started 30 minutes earlier!    The shopping street near us, Wangfujing, was heaving as well.

The cold front came in, but not the one I was hoping for weather wise.  Both Bill and I have gotten nasty colds with fits of gut wracking coughing.  Bill's seems to be subsiding as mine is kicking into high gear.

We had to change rooms as our Beijing extension took effect and the room we got faces south which means that it is hotter than our other one.  We lost our "drinking water spout" and now have to adopt brushing teeth with bottled water.

We took the day very easy and I tried to keep hydrated and kept to a diet of soups.  Bill was happy for the relaxing day as well because it was a break from the hectic CAFL schedule the 2 previous days.