A Relaxing Day

It was an early morning again today.  I managed to get up at 6:15 with Ryan and as a reward for myself I had a nap with him this afternoon.  For the morning we practiced letters and numbers in our kindergarten, cleaned, listened to music and the kids played with dinkies.  I thought about baking some tea biscuits but that idea evaporated after the two hour nap. 

On Friday night when Manon, our babysitter, came to Eastern Venice I went out to meet her at the gate.  Her mother, Claire, had come along to meet up with someone who wanted to buy tickets for a barbeque.  Claire and a few other ladies run a website called Welcome To Shenyang that helps expats connect and find goods and services around the city.  It has been very helpful to me.  Anyway, as we were walking a lady approached with a baby stroller and she was the one Claire was looking for.  It turns out she moved here three months ago from Germany.  Her name is Celine, her husband works for BMW and she has a nine-month-old baby girl named Caroline.  We exchanged phone numbers and said we would get together sometime.  Well, this morning Celine called and invited me over for coffee.  It ended up being after four o'clock before our schedules coincided but the kids and I headed over to her apartment which is near the kindergarten in Eastern Venice.  We sat and chatted while she fed Caroline her cereal and the boys played around.  Afterward we all went outside and the boys played with their new squirt guns while we talked.  She enjoys swimming and since her husband checked out the pool here at the apartment compound and gave it a thumbs down (surprise surprise) she wants to find somewhere else to go, as do I.  We are hopefully going to go on a weekend when we can leave the kids with the dads and find a place to swim and maybe do some shopping.  I have been wanting to check out the Wu'ai Market but really don't want to take the kids there.  I hope we can do it soon, she is really friendly and I think we would have fun together.

So, I don't have much else for today.  I think I may be having another massage tomorrow but I can't quite remember if we agreed to start on Wednesday or Saturday.  I guess I'll find out if she shows up at 10am.  After that we may go check out a kindergarten at another apartment complex.  It's a place that at least one other expat takes her kids to and she said you don't have to take the kids everyday at a certain time, just when you want to drop them off.  I would like to go find out details.

I hope everyone is doing well and again, feel free to drop me a note if you enjoy reading the blog.  It's nice to know who is out there in the blogosphere.