On Saturday, Mike & I took six of my Korean students with us on our trip to the botanical gardens in the Northwest corner of Beijing. All the Korean students at BCCSC were supposed to arrange a homestay for themselves, but these six didn't. They're the homebody types, and were more interested in enjoying the peace and quiet with all the other students gone :)

I woke up that morning to a torrential downpour! Arrggghhhh! The forecast hadn’t mentioned that! Oh well...me, I’m up for anything in any kind of weather, but I wasn’t sure about the students, hmmmm..

Anyway, Mike & I met the kids at the South Gate of the school and hope the day would turn around :) The trip started off with a problem...the driver didn’t know how to get there. So, with my subway line map, my broken Chinese, and the students’ Chinese (better than mine, but they’re still learning, lol), we headed out. Also, we had an instructor from a university in British Columbia tag along with us, since the botanical garden was a place he has wanted to visit & he would be leaving the next day to return to Canada. His last name happens to be Kirkpatrick, lol!

After maybe an hour, we arrived at the same restaurant Mike & I went to the weekend before for Korean BBQ, wheeee! Kimchi! I didn’t eat my usual four bowls...only two this time, hehe
It was a yummy dinner :)



When we were all finished our lunch, we headed with our driver to Xiangshan, and lucky for us the rain vanished. The five boys headed out exploring on their own and Maynard (from BC) went his own way. Mike, Elaine (the only girl) and me, we went wherever together. Elaine’s fun and just about the nicest person I’ve ever me;, I tell her she’s extra special since we share a name.



The landscape at Xiangshan is so nice & peaceful. I’ve heard it’s usually busy, but we chose a great day to go. Not too many people, so we really got to enjoy the flowers, trees, ponds & mountains. I, of course, took many pictures! Nature! :>



We all met up after a couple of hours to head to Wudaokou so the kids could go for a bit of shopping before heading back to the school. Maynard left us at this point to get back to BCCSC :) We were all pretty tired from all the walking, so the students only bought a few DVD’s, then we piled into taxis for the long ride back. They’re not the shopping addicts that we had the previous weekend :)

Mike & I plan on going back to the gardens next year, since we didn’t have time to trek up the mountainside or visit the Wofosi Temple (also called the Temple of the Sleeping Buddha). Too much to see with seven tag-alongs and me having to be in charge & responsible, lol!

You can see more pictures at my gigantic Flickr site! Dad bought me a pro account with practically unlimited photos & sets, so I’ve been adding pictures like crazy. Almost every picture I’ve taken in China from the beginning to now is there. Before, I could only use 20 MB in bandwidth a month, so I was really limited. Wheeeee, flicka baby!