October

Next week we’ll celebrate China’s big 60th birthday party, which means a vacation, this time an epic 8 day vacation is just around the corner. This year National Day happens to coincide with Mid Autumn festival, and mooncakes are once again appearing in stores. I’m sure next week we’ll be given mooncakes at work so we haven’t bought any yet, and although I’ve been tempted by the Hagen Daaz ice cream mooncakes, they’re a bit too expensive for our relatively frugal tastes.

National Day is going to be a huge event in Beijing this year, with celebrations to rival the Olympics even. China is pulling no stops, especially with the planned parade to show off China’s military. Last week fighter jets flew over Beijing for the first time ever and my students, especially the boys, could not contain their excitement and rushed over to the windows in the middle of the lesson to get a peek at the action. My husband and I had, at the beginning of the year, naiively assumed that we would be able to go and watch the parade, but it has become increasingly apparent that no parade watching will be happening for us. The whole area around the parade will be closed off to traffic, pedestrian and otherwise. I don’t know who exactly will get invites to view the ceremonies, but it won’t be us. Despite being in Beijing, we’ll be watching it on TV like everyone else!

We are staying in Beijing this holiday though. While 8 days off in a row would otherwise be a perfect time to get out and do some traveling, this time we’re just going to sit tight. Baby #2 is due in late Nov./early Dec. so this will be our last holiday with only one child, but I think Wang Yao and I are both too exhausted to muster up much enthusiasm for a trip, not to mention, we need to watch our finances to prepare for the upcoming, rather expensive birth of Kid Two. October will also mean Kid One’s second birthday! I can’t believe our little guy is already almost two. We don’t have any big birthday plans, since we don’t have family here and Dylan is still pretty oblivious to the whole birthday thing to be honest.

With my son’s birthday also comes the inevitable arrival of cooler weather to Beijing. While October should be a pleasant month, not too hot and not too cool, the deep cold starts to set in quickly, and by the time Kid Two is born in December it should be well freezing, although the coldest months are January and February (last year our only snow happened in February, after Spring Festival. My parents and my little brother will be coming to China sometime around December 15th and I’m caught between hoping that it is unseasonably warm so that we might get out a bit, and sadistically hoping my Southern family gets to experience the delights of a Beijing winter!

On that note, I wish everyone out there in China-land (those who have managed to find a way to read wordpress anyhow) a happy National Day, and Happy Mid-Autumn Festival and many mooncakes to anyone, in China or not, who happens to enjoy those things.