Americans at the Toy Store

This morning, Ryan, Nick and I went to a big plastic toy market across the city near the Temple of Heaven to try to figure out how much the Halloween decorations and prizes we would give out would cost. We went to one building and found a bunch of cheap toys that we want to give out as prizes and for the little ones' goody bags. We went to an adjacent market and found a stall where a woman was selling tons of decorations. I have never seen a store packed so heavily with stuff before than in China (ok, maybe with the exception of that one store on Seaside's boardwalk). We found tons of decorations and costumes and some more potential prizes. We have a big list going of what we want to get... What EF will let us get will be for another day!

We came back to the school's neighborhood and had lunch at a noodle shop that is ran by a parent of one of the student's in one of my high flyer classes. She gave us some yummy cucumber on the house and helped me order something without any meat in it with Nick's translation for the both of us.

We came back to school and everyone was in a twitter because we received an e-mail about a special team building day that all the EF Beijing Kids and Teens Schools are suppose to go to on Wednesday. Instead of it just being a one day event, we are now getting buses somewhere on a mountain with a person-made seashore and staying in a hotel. The pictures of the hotel look pretty. All the customer relation staff were warning us to bring warm clothes!

The weather was so much better today. The skies were blue and everyone outside looked just so much more happy. What an evening of rain can do here is pretty remarkable!