We’ve been in China for 10 weeks now and have met a bunch of amazing, smart and kind people.  Kirsty – one of the teachers at the girls’ school – is one of them.  She’s been in Beijing for 15 years, has a beautiful Chinese daughter, and is one of those super smart confident women who make everything sound so matter-of-fact and easy (like, for example, speaking Chinese).  We went to her house for a dinner party tonight and met even more great people: a couple from New York City traveling through China for a few weeks with their 9-year-old Chinese daughter, and an American woman from Florida who last fall moved herself and her three Chinese daughters to a small town in Henan Province to run the foster home program of an orphanage there.  Our stories are all so different.  But so similar.  We had a great time with these folks tonight… wonderful food, great company… not to mention the fact that Kirsty lives in a real live hutong in a to-die-for neighborhood, in the best apartment I’ve seen so far… with a French deli a block away.  Hello.  I told Art I know exactly where we are living the next time he moves us to China.

On the way to Kirstys...

Yes.

See how lovely... tucked away sweetness in one of the worlds biggest cities...

Loft style...

A popular look everywhere...

Here we all are, minus Steve the other dad, and plus a couple of French kids from next door.