Angel from Bethesda

The other day Drake and I ventured out to find my favorite book store.  I wanted to add to our Chinese collection.  To my dismay it was closed down and bricked up.  There usually is a guard at the entrance of each street and many parking lots.  So I asked the guard for that hutong (a type of small street) where the store went.  Luckily there was a sign in Chinese explaining their new location.  He gave me basic instructions (all in Chinese of course) and an hour and a half later I found my way to the general location. 

Up until this day the weather had been beautiful, but on this day it was blustery!  At the end I asked four different people who kept sending me in a circle around this one particular building.  The last lady was one I couldn't understand at all.  Then I heard this voice, "Do you need help?"  "YES!"  Here was this Chinese guy who spoke my language!  I showed him my torn scrap of paper with the address and he plugged it into his phone, then escorted me in another circle the other direction.  We ended up finding the book store across the street from where we had met and started our circle!  It is just so fitting for Beijing! 

So this guy who gave up part of his lunch time to help me is actually an American from Bethesda!!!!!  He has been working here for about a year and loves teaching.  Since our meeting we have hired him to be a tutor for the boys.  He is very much into making the boys feel comfortable and wanting them to like Chinese.  For their first time meeting we all went to a trampoline park to have fun and practice Chinese.  Needless to say I think the boys are going to enjoy working with him.

Playing number games with our new tutor.  Now tell me the boys don't enjoy learning Chinese!