Sweaty Soccer Sunday

Author: Hannah
Location: Beijing
I woke up with a smile this morning because I finally got some sleep! Most of us slept through the entire night and woke up at 6am! I'd say that's a success. We all got ready and prepared ourselves for the day, made breakfast, then headed over to the Baby Home. This was only our second time there, but already I feel like we've known these kids forever. Their smiles bring life to us and when we can make them laugh, our day improves by a mile. Jojo and Fu Quan saw us through the window when we arrived and pointed at us with a huge smile, ready to play. Jojo wanted to constantly be held, which resulted in many aching arms because we didn't want to put him down either. The two boys also were very interested in the strollers today. Jeremy pushed and carried Fu Quan around in the stroller outside for ehhh I would say a good hour. He loved every second of it. The babies were also so cute as always. Although they cannot speak, when they smile, it says so much more. After staying at the Baby Home for a few hours, we headed over to the soccer field with a few of the Group Home kids. It was game time. We split up into teams, and needless to say, those boys schooled us. The heat was incredibly hard to handle, along with the numerous bugs surrounding our field. After a long, fun game, we got on the bus and headed back home. Aidan and I learned a lot about Eric and Louis, who also played soccer with us. After we got back to our place, Sophie and Jordan prepared quesadillas for lunch. We showered off the hot weather, enjoyed our meal, then headed right back out and made our way to the Olympic sights. First, we went to the Water Cube, where Michael Phelps owned, and then we went to the Bird's Nest. The Water Cube was beautiful and Zoe made some beautiful videos of random things. We experienced lots of pictures today. We were basically the only Americans there, so the Chinese really enjoyed our presence. Andy and Aidan would ask to get pictures with numerous people, but when it came to Catherine, Zoe, and I, the Chinese came to us. Our blonde and curly hair is something that isn't seen too much, so they asked us all individually for numerous photo shoots. After a while of this, Sophie and Jeremy started to feel left out. But no need to worry, we made up for this. Camera in hand, Sophie asked an American if her "brother" Jeremy could take a picture of them together. The best part was when this man started to speak back to her in Chinese and she had no idea what he was saying. This was probably the funniest part of our day. We took videos and pictures for proof. On the way home, we read through a Chinese phrase book where we learned new things to try out. Aidan found his favorite one, and tried it out in the local store. Pretty hilarious. Dinner was amazing, yet again, and we even had donkey tonight! After dinner, we had a great Lifeworks forum where we learned many new things about each other. After a few more rounds of ping pong on the dining room table, we'll all be ready for bed.
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