Beijing - Orphanage Visit

This morning we (as in all the clients over here for the conference) left the hotel on two buses at 8am  to visit a local orphanage called Shepard's Field.  It was about an hour bus trip just outside of Beijing, but it wasn't bad at all.  This orphanage isn't one of those terrible government run orphanages - it is fully funded by donations and houses special needs children.  (www.chinaorphans.org - check out the website)  It was so hard to see all those beautiful little babies that have no one.  Like I said, it was a pretty nice place, and it is run by an American Christian family, so all the staff was wonderful, but it was still hard to see.  Surprisingly, a lot of the children there were little boys.  Most of the orphans in China are girls, but these were special needs little boys.  Anyways,  we all got a tour of the place and then got to play with the toddlers, then the babies. 

I got pretty attached to one of the little boys...as soon as I squatted down to say hi to him, he grinned really big and ran over to me with his arms out.  It was so cute...I picked him up and was with him most of the time we were there :)   A different little guy REALLY liked my watch - haha - of course I had to let him wear it!!  It was pretty hard to leave the babies, too.  Three of them are getting adopted this week, so that was great to hear! :)

On the way home from the orphanage, we got stuck in a traffic jam, and then got stopped at a police check point.  It literally took probably half an hour, and we were already running late because no one wanted to leave the orphanage. 

We made it back to the hotel, switched people on the buses (TOTAL CHAOS) and one group left again to visit one of the companies we are invested in.  I, however, got to take some of the females (trophy wives who didn't want to visit the company) shopping!  And of course we went to the biggest knock-off shopping market in Beijing, the Silk Market.  I absolutely LOVE that place!   I spent quite a bit of time there last year when I was here.  I bought a couple of hand-bags, some watches (of course) and some Ray Ban Sunglasses...I'm sure I'll be making another trip back. 

Surprisingly, I actually saw a lot of Olympic athletes there this afternoon.  The entire US Men's Water Polo team was there, and let me tell you, they were HOT!  They were all dressed the same and completely stuck out - a bunch of tall, muscular, blonde-headed guys amongst the tiny Asians.  I talked to a couple of them and they tried to convince me to come watch one of there matches, but I doubt I will.  The French soccer coaches were there, all trying to negotiate on an iPod...I told them to just start walking away and the price would drop, which they did, and I was right.  They thought it was pretty funny.  I also saw some Italian Olympians, but I didn't talk to them, so I'm not sure what sport they were competing in. 

One of the investors who is attending our conference flew in on Monday from Singapore, and he had the entire US Swim team on his flight.  Michael Phelps and a few others were in first class with him, the rest of the US team was in business class, and the entire Canadian swim team was in COACH...haha... pretty funny.  They had been training down in Singapore, and once they saw the sky and pollution in Beijing, most of them immediately put on there little face masks and groaned. The air here has been pretty bad.  It was nice the first day we got here (Sunday) but was terrible yesterday.  It is a little better today, but I would be upset, too, if I was an Olympic athlete and had to compete in this crap!  It literally hurts my throat to just walk around outside in it for half an hour!

After the shopping experience at the Silk Market (and let me tell you, it IS an experience!) I came back to the hotel and worked for a little bit – got a lot of organizing and my regular work to catch up on.  We had a big dinner for all the guests this evening in the ball room here at the hotel.  It was supposed to start a 7pm, and at 7:10, I think there were like 10 people there (supposed to be 100).  So it didn't quite go as planned - everyone was REALLY late and I was freaking out - but it all worked out and turned out good.  I thought the food was terrible - I literally couldn't even pronounce half of it (again), but all of the other rich people here like that kind of stuff, so whatever.  I picked around at it a little bit and just ate the dessert! :)

So it's off to bed now.  I am so tired - I just go go go all day and never sit down!  I always have my day planned out in my head and think I'm going to have plenty of time for everything, but every day is hectic and there's never enough time for anything!!  The joys of organizing a conference in foreign country…   

I’m off to the Great Wall tomorrow... :)

-TK