Eric's Beijing Diary

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Just got back yesterday from a leadership retreat at Beidaihe. I had debated about going. I wasn't in the mood to spend a bunch of money on a trip, especially a trip to Beidaihe on National day. During the early days of New China (Communist China, in other words), Beidaihe was the vacation place for national leaders. So everyone in China has the idea that this is one place they must see. Consequently, it is very crowded on holidays. I didn't look forward to it. In the end, though, I didn't really feel right about not going either, and I am glad I agreed to go. We found a cheap hotel, and the church kicked in some money, so in the end it only cost 150 RMB for each person. That's about as close to free as one could expect something like this to be.

The English Fellowship at Haidian Church has been going for a couple years now, and the volunteer group is developing into a strong organization. It is good to see so many people from various countries working together for one purpose.

One couple who are both involved in the volunteer group had brought their little boy along with them. They both studied English in University, and speak pretty well, as do most university students who really apply themselves to learning language. When they got married, they made a decision to only speak English to their child. It's quite interesting. The kid is a native speaker of English even though his parents are not native speakers. He speaks Chinese of course (as any kid would who grew up in China), but never to his parents. To his parents he always speaks English, because they won't accept anything else. I am sure it must be a bit of a challenge for them to keep up this discipline, but I think it will pay off. His English is really quite good. Once in awhile, you can hear him doing literal translations from Chinese--sorta like when Josh was little and he would say something like, "I forgot because."

We were divided into groups and each group was assigned to prepare one meal. Mostly Chinese food of course, but the last night, some BSF folks from Canada came up with a menu that had more of a western flavor--complete with chocolate pudding. It was really nice.