Sunday Visitor

I think this was the best night that I have slept in awhile..........Must be that massage from Saturday night.

Sunday was very nice day. The weather was good and could see a little of the blue sky. We had to scurry around to get ready for church before the cleaning ladies came to clean the apartment usually before 9am.

We went to church at the British Embassy as usual. At the mass we got more information on why they moved the service from the Canadian Embassy. It turns out that two years ago a bunch of North Koreans stormed the embassy to gain political asylum. It took Canada several months to resolve the issue. In the meantime, the priest got a text message noting that mass was canceled indefinitely. He was worried about what he could have done to offend the Canadian government.


After mass we walked to Landao Shopping Center (Blue Island). It was a nice 6-story store. We picked up some house things and a Beijing Olympics phone jewelry piece. We then walked quite a ways to Morel's our favorite Belgian beer place. We had a good pepper steak and of course some good beer.

We cabbed it home because we were getting tired of walking all day. We stayed at the house to get some things done. AF called to say she would be getting back into Beijing at 5pm. We asked her if she would mind taking a taxi by herself to the apartment since we had a dinner planned with a surprise visitor from the states. BF had to talk with her coach to make sure that it was ok. AF had no problem and is really finding her way around this city even with the language barrier. I think the best trick we learned was using the Pizza Hut (Bi Shen Ke) as the place to have taxis take us. They all seem to know where the first Pizza Hut in China is located.

I found out last week that a ski buddy and old co-worker from Citibank days was traveling to China with his wife. We arranged to have dinner with them Sunday night. We went to their hotel, He Qiao Ritz (not Ritz Carlton) to meet them and have dinner. It was great to see GD and in Beijing of all places. It had been awhile since we had skied together since we could not make the Telluride trip last winter (does not look like I will be making the next trip either). The hotel was off the beaten path a little bit and was not too easy to find. It looks like a very new hotel that is still working out the kinks. There were not many people in the lobby. The dinner in the hotel was mostly western food. The most eventful thing that happened was when the power went out in the entire hotel towards the end of the meal. Halogen lights and candles came out next.



We left dinner at about 9pm and headed back to the apartment. It was good to see AF again. The apartment has a very strange smell right now coming out of the toilets. I think the sewage system in this city is a big problem. Tha bathrooms always seem to smell wherever you go. The bathrooms of our brand new building at work always smell. It is not from lack of cleaning either. It seems there is always someone cleaning the bathrooms when you want to go, including the cleaning ladies.