Day 211: Chill Day at The Bivou — Clay Tile Cats with Kiran and Tina
In a year or so when we’re frantically managing work / school / life / etc back in the US I hope we’ll remember days like today.
We had no alarm set for this morning. We all started to stir around 7:30 and I went out for a jog. My “workout” was more of a run / walk combo because of the bumpy and slippery rock paths around our hotel — but it was nice to move my body a bit and see more of the village.
We had a leisurely breakfast around 9am. The “hot breakfast” was French Toast. The kids were loving the yogurt with fresh honey.
We found an Atlas in the little “library” in the cafe.
It rained pretty hard outside as we did school again in the lobby cafe. It’s a cozy and relaxing setup. The staff of 3 or 4 women at the Bivou are so nice — they are totally cool with us squatting there and sometimes would hover to watch the kids do their school work.
I’ve recently made a few minor changes to James’s school routine. Instead of having him write a “welcome message” I write up a more extensive welcome and set of questions for him to answer. Margaret also got a math book for Willa but the first 20% or so is too easy for her so we’re working through that. I’ve added some science to our daily program — SciShow Kids videos on YouTube and interactive Tiny Bop Apps — which he seems to like. And this morning I found a beginner coding app recommended by Common Sense media. He worked on one back in Africa called Coding Safari and this new one is similar but with race cars. Today he brought Hop on Pop down from the kids loft library at the Bivou and read through the whole thing. Making progress!
After school we had lunch in the cafe — the kids shared a salami pizza and Margaret and I shared the delicious Naxi pork noodles again.
We had to get outside for a bit so we borrowed hotel umbrellas and went for a walk in the rain. It’s a cute little village split by a little river. There are also 5 food wide canals running along the path, so you walk over a little bridge to get into each storefront, restaurant or hotel. Margaret bought a poncho and also spotted a skirt which she went back to buy with Qiao later in the afternoon.
Kiran, Qiao and Kiran’s friend Tina came over to the hotel around 3:30. The kids played up in the loft, chased the two hotel cats and then made clay tile cats. The hotel staff organized this project, providing all the materials to make cats that sit on a roof of a house and keep the evil spirits away.
The hotel owner was the primary instructor. The kids were fully engaged in the project, especially and surprisingly James who sat there at the table for almost two hours molding his little creature that (as he pointed out) looked more like a pig than a cat.
Jay came by around 5:30 and had a pillow fight with the kids up in the loft.
We were all going to have dinner at the cafe but when we mentioned this to the staff they said they had only one cook and there were too many reservations so they couldn’t seat us right away.
Jay had to be back at the Studio by 8pm so we said our goodbyes and they headed home. It was really so fun to spend time with the Browns — they made it absolutely worth taking this off-the-beaten-path stop in Lijiang.
During her shopping excursion Margaret had seen a little coffee shop serving western food so we walked the 5 minutes down the cobble stones for pizza, pasta and a chicken sandwich. We were the only people in the place besides the cook and another store employee talking on his phone, neither of whom spoke a word of English.
We were back at the hotel packing up and bathing the kids around 8pm when a birthday cake was delivered by the hotel owner.
Tomorrow is Margaret’s 40th!
It was a delicious vanilla, strawberry and mango cake the hotel had picked up from a local pastisserie. The kids were stoked for some sweets before bed. Margaret and I finished the bottle of white wine we had added to the mini fridge two nights before.
It was a fun start of a big birthday celebration, to be continued tomorrow in Shanghai!
