June 23, 2009

This morning Helen came over to eat breakfast and play with Yihui and Zoe while Bob and I went off to Beijing University Veterinary School for me to give a lecture.  The girls were thrilled to “get rid of the parents” and play with Helen.  They needed some down time to just relax and be at the hotel too.

We spoke to the Dean, Dr. Lin and another faculty Eddie and found out one of my friends from Europe that I teach at AO with was in Beijing teaching a course.  Allasandro and I spoke on the phone but unfortunately our schedules didn’t work out to meet while here.  The lecture went fine and then Tina and Eddie insisted on driving us back to our hotel.  The University is in the far North west corner of Beijing so the trip can take an hour with traffic.  

We were happy to find Helen still alive and well.  We took her to lunch and then Helen went off on her own.  Both Yihui and Zoe adore her!  We then took a taxi to the International Veterinary Clinic in Chaoyang district.  The Doctors asked if I would consult on 3 patients which I did.  Zoe & Yihui both love animals and enjoyed seeing all the hospital pets.  The Doctors and staff were so nice to them & they each picked out a dog toy that could easily be a child stuffed toy!  We all took a picture together.  

We headed back to the hotel and Zoe convinced me that they wanted to play at the Chinese Children’s store play area again.  It was Yihui’s turn to choose the activity so they went into what looks like a padded jungle gym.  After a full hour of running around & sweating I got them to leave.  We picked up 2 Barbie princess coloring books to help pass the down time in the hotel.  It was difficult to peel them away from the new books to go to dinner.