A Day at the Museum by Baxter

First, we went shopping for snow boots and snow gloves.  It actually looked like an American store on the inside, but it looks like a Chinese store from the outside.  The store had Chinese writing on it but you couldn't tell what was inside.  There were barely any windows and the doorway has big plastic pieces hanging behind the doors to stop the wind.  I will try to get a picture of that later.

After we got our boots and gloves, we found a cool toy.  We saw a couple of Chinese ladies playing it and our driver, Mr. Jia, taught us how to play it.  You try to kick it as many times as possible. My dad told me it is called hackeysack in America.  We got two of them and played with Mr. Jia while my mom was checking out.  I have gotten as high as 4 kicks so far.

Chinese version of hackeysack

Then we went to McDonalds to have some lunch.  I got a cheeseburger.  Deacon got chicken nuggets.  We also got a big batch of french fries.  Sometimes it tastes good to have food like back in America.  It was exactly like back in America except the lady didn't understand our order and people stared at us, especially the lady at the coffee place.  She just kind of looked at us.  No smile.  There were more kids staring at us than grownups.

Sometimes you just gotta eat something familiar

Then we went to the Science and Technology Museum.  We got to see lots of cool stuff.  My favorite was the spinner where I sat on a seat and spun myself around.  I played a basketball game with a chinese boy where we raced basketballs down three different tracks.  We couldn't talk to each other, but he knew a little English - - yes, no, ok and his name started with a C or a K, but I don't remember his full name.

Science and Technology Museum

Playing is international

We spent a lot of time in the Hall of Mirrors - it was maze that was really tricky.

Which one is real and which one is a reflection?

We also saw a movie about the ocean, but it was in Chinese, and I didn't like it so much.  The movie was projected on the ceiling of the very top of the museum.  It was a ball so the movie screen was curved.  You had to lean really far back in the seat to see it and my tummy felt weird.

We left when the museum closed and drove back to the hotel and went to have dinner at the hotel restaurant.  And I met a new friend.  His name was Gary.  He has two sisters.  They are identical twins.  And Gary and I exchanged information about each other.   He is eight years old and in the same grade as me.  His birthday is August 29th and mine is November 9th.  It was fun to talk to an unknown kid and it helped that he knew some English.  He is learning it in school.  His mom kept wanting to take pictures of us.

 It was his mother's birthday.  And today is Deacon's birthday!

Birthday boy at the Science and Technology Museum