The kids made me promise before we left Beijing that they could get their hair braided in Thailand. These ladies on Patong Beach made a deal for both kids for 1,000 baht so it was a no-brainer to do it there. Apparently, they are carrying on an interesting conversation in Thai about some kind of magic that allows women who are plain in the day to become amazingly beautiful at night. (I thought that was called makeup.)
Now here’s an idea whose time has come… put people inside a giant beach ball and let them float on the water. It actually is a lot of fun as even standing is a major challenge, let alone attempting cartwheels as I did. In this clip, you can also see Salomae and Blysse making a go at it. Salomae managed to stand fairly well, but neither of them went quite as crazy as me.
The downside? The overpowering stench of stinky socks and nearly passing out as my antics caused me to use up my air faster than normal.
In preparation for the May holiday, the kids at Ellie and Blysse’s school put on a show for the parents. In this clip, Ellie and the one other foreign kid in her class (Russian dad and Chinese mom) are dressed in pink (Ellie is the one in the lighter shade of pink) and lead the first graders as they march out onto the pitch. Not bad marching for six year olds!
I like the moment when all the kids (except Ellie and the other girl) whip up a snappy salute to the flag as it’s raised. Although the video doesn’t quite seem to capture it, I was pretty impressed at the time (if impressed is the right word) although it also sent a chill down my spine. I somehow just can’t imagine this in the US! Mind you, these kids are all wearing the “honglingjin”, or red neckerchief, which indicates that they’ve been pegged as potential future leaders of China, or at least future bureaucrats, so they are a proud lot to begin with.
For the last part of the opening ceremony, Ellie and the class run through the exercise program that they all learn early on that seems to be based on martial arts.
After a stream of seemingly endless speeches, there were some demonstrations and some games, in which the parents got to participate. My favorite was a game where the child and the parent have a balloon tie around their ankle and they have to try to stomp on the others’ balloons and pop them. Blysse and Salomae were quickly eliminated.
Ellie and I did better, although her balloon leaked all the air out by itself. :- ( I had a lot of fun with the the remaining squealing little girls, who seemed a little intimidated by Ellie’s laowai dad.
