Waterpark Birthday Party
It's summertime and we are headed to the waterpark! Woohoo! We'd celebrate the death of winter but this is Beijing, and that nice, spring breeze was gone in a week. These days it's scorching hot and dry outside, so even though we might want to enjoy a day out at the park, we'd also like to stay comfortable. Luckily, there's a waterpark fifteen minutes away from where we live. But we didn't think of going there until our friends invited us!
Okay, technically, they invited Allegra (but she didn't know how to get there so Paolo and I had to tag along). Moses is turning two years old and he and Allegra were born the same year. They met during playgroup. Meanwhile, I met Moses' mom, Hannah, at Pilates class and Moses' dad, Marcus, works at the same company as Paolo. It's a tiny expat world here.
Tuanjiehu Waterpark
We got lost looking for the waterpark! The waterpark is in the middle of Tuanjiehu Park and it took us half an hour to find the entrance. Entrance to Tuanjiehu Park is free, but the waterpark costs about 25 kuai per person. The Ryders covered the guests' entrance so all we had to do was sign-up at the gate.Paolo and I were afraid we'd have to carry Allegra the entire party. She takes her time when it's a new place, and really, we'd take our time too if it wasn't considered weird for grown-ups. It's a hit-or-miss with her, sometimes she's warmed up and ready to socialize, other times we have to encourage her to explore.This time, the jungle gym did the work for us.
She took one look at the steps and the slide, let go of her dad's hand, and never looked back.
We are so proud of our brave little girl. She was shivering from the cold water, but was determined as ever to climb those steps and go down that slide. She almost fell twice while walking in the water. Made us so nervous!
We saw some of the other kids from playgroup there too!
It was a really nice, low-key party by one of the gazebos in the waterpark.
The back of the waterpark was a great little spot to put our blankets on, and good thing it rained earlier today. The park wasn't crowded and it kind of turned into a private pool party.
Braving Beijing Together
The Ryders are amazing at throwing parties! They're always so warm and filled with good energy and are excellent cooks. We appreciate them so much especially because it can get lonely for foreigners here in Beijing. There's the language barrier and the culture shock; it helps a lot when you've got friends who are experiencing the same. Our first winter here was crazy miserable. It was freezing cold and the air was terrible, and I hadn't had any sleep because Allegra was barely four months old. We spent Christmas Day at Marcus and Hannah's, and it was just so nice to be around other people dealing with the same things.Hannah and I are part of a little group of mothers here who volunteer to organize playgroups for our kids. We have two kinds: age-based and area-based playgroups. I organize the one for Allegra's age group and we meet once a week at the Canadian International School on Jianguomen. Meanwhile, Hannah runs a song and rhymes group on the weekend called Safari Song Time at a bookstore in Sanlitun. It's a multilingual, multicultural group and everyone is welcome to join.
Part of our legacy
I think part of our role as mothers is to get our children ready to become global citizens. While Paolo and I speak English (and sarcasm!) at home, we want our child to grow up knowing Philippine history and culture. Even though she will probably learn German in school (and a bunch of Arabic expressions from me), we've already discussed the possibility of sending her to the Philippines for the summer.
We want Allegra to grow up being proud that she's Filipino. And we want to help her be the best that she can be. She's already incredibly adventurous, so the years ahead will definitely be exciting. In the meantime, we will enjoy watching her grow up alongside other children in a foreign land.China is a difficult place to raise her, so we're heading out of here sooner than later. Got any tips for me on raising a family on the fly?