We have started "home school", please God help me. Since real school started yesterday, and the kids won't be able to go until September 5th, we decided to, after almost seven (7!!!) weeks of holiday, that it was time for some structure, some organization - a plan and most importantly, routine. We need to really start the day earlier, not just lounge around in pj's until lunch, and most importantly; get the kids in bed at a decent hour so that we (read I) can get a quiet moment and adult time.
We have a white board and everything.
Day one went fine, we did some reading, some writing, some math and played YATZY and I realized Marcus is way ahead his math work book and we need to find him some more challenging stuff.
Day two, today, was field trip day. As we are mere kilometers away from the Drottningholms Palace and The Chinese Pavilion it would be stupid not to pay our royal family a visit. Not that they were home of course but we did get a nice walk and some culture. The Chinese pavilion was actually a present to Queen Lovisa Ulrica on her birthday in 1753 from her husband, King Adolf Fredrik. A nicely sized palace full of Chinese art and artifacts. A very nice birthday present, I'd say. I wouldn't mind come Thursday when it is my birthday...
Anyway....we happened to arrive at the same time as a Chinese group with real Chinese people armed with cameras. I had put the kids to work, we were sitting down on a bench and they were to draw a picture of either the palace or of anything else they chose to put in their school work diary. Suddenly the other visitors changed their focus, their lenses no longer pointed at the pavilion but at the kids, working away on their art. They started discretely but slowly worked their way over until they were right next to us and then asked (!) if it was ok to take a picture. Ok, sure, if that makes your day, why not? I doubt they will be put on obscure websites and I know from experience that this is only the beginning.
In our neighborhood in 1997, on Xin Zhong Street and around Sanlitun, locals were pretty used to foreigners and didn't stare that much. But as soon as we ventured out anywhere else in the city, especially big tourist attractions like Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City or the Summer Palace, we were immediately the focus of attention. People approached us, pointed at us, laughing at us and more often than not; took pictures of us. Of course, most people at tourist attractions were in fact tourists. Chinese tourists from other city's and provinces where waigouren, da bitsu (big nose), white devils - you choose! - are few and far between. No wonder they wanted to take our picture and show all the other people in their village or city inhabited by a million people or so. It got tiresome after a while, actually a bit annoying but what to do? You cannot change a nation that it is not polite, in our culture, to do so. Easiest was just to live with it.
Which is what we will tell our kids once we arrive; just live with it and say cheese.
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