WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Hi everybody!

Great news! We got an update and two photos from Ann last last night. Now remember, when we sleep, they play, and vice-versa. In other words, with the twelve hour difference, they are experiencing their day in China while we are sleeping. I know, it is a little confusing but I guarantee you’ll get the hang of it by the time they get home!

So, without any further delay, here is Ann’s report:

March 31 … Beijing

The flight over was very long, quite cramped for the taller among us, and pretty uneventful. It was the first flight for a few kids. What a way to be initiated: On a day-long trek to the other side of the world!

We arrived at Beijing International where we were met by Beijing interpreters, “Andy” and “Jenny” and HuiJua, who accompanied us for most of our trip in ’02. After check-in and a fine meal of “real” Chinese, all have turned in—wiped out and eager to rest up for the Great Wall tomorrow and Beijing Opera tomorrow night.

We are already trying to scope out places here where we can rehearse with the kids to prepare for our first performances which we’ll do soon after we head to Qufu this weekend. Thanks to all who attended the preview last Saturday. We’ve really benefited from your feedback. It’ll be quite a show once we polish and de-kink it!

And so the adventure begins—or continues. There’s so much to be learned and discovered and that’ll be happening 24/7 for the next 27 days.

Stay tuned.

Ms. L.

Cool, huh? We’ll try to put correspondence from the Journey East gang in colored boxes (above) to help you differentiate between the important stuff and our ramblings.

As it was in 2002, these reports will be a day behind. When they refer to “tomorrow,” that is actually “today” for us. So, by the time you read this, they’ll have visited the Great Wall and Beijing Opera. Can you imagine standing on the Great Wall? Wow!

Don’t forget to use the Interesting Links to find out more about these places. Study these links carefully so you’ll be able to understand what your child is talking about when they get home!

Okay, one more thing. We’ll post any news we get as we get it. That means that more news can be added throughout the day and night. So don’t assume that one visit to the site means that’s all for today. On the other hand, we may not get news every day. We might get two or three updates in one day. But we might also go two or more days without any news at all.

One thing for sure, we’ll try to get “something” up here every day, if nothing more than to say we haven’t any new news to share.

And please, if you have anything you wish to share with anyone (a phone call, photos, e-mail, etc.) please send it and we’ll post it for all to enjoy.

We are all one big family going through this together, anxious for any news at all.

That’s it for now. Until the next time . . .