What does a 9 (almost 10) year old American boy do in Beijing?

This guy deserves a blog post all to himself!

He turns 10 this month. I don't think he has struggled any more than any of us in this relocation, I just think he is the most verbal about it. He is a "grass is always greener on the other side" guy. When he's in school he wishes he were out. When he is in China he wishes he were in the USA. Nevertheless, one may ask:

What does a 9 (almost 10) year old American boy do in Beijing?

He plays ping pong with the locals!

The hardest part for him has been not having friends in our building. He is so used to having many buddies who will come out to play at a moments notice.

He goes to Cub Scouts!

For those of you who have been worried about him, he does have friends! Last Saturday he went to his first cub scout activity. Don't feel too bad for him! In two weeks he gets to hike The Great Wall on his next scout activity.

He rock climbs!

The same Saturday as the cub scout activity he was invited to a birthday party by a boy at church. He and this boy clicked since day 1. They went to an indoor rock climbing place and had a blast!

I guess I am glad that I was not there to see him jump from the top.

He gets his haircut!

If you saw our building you would be very surprised to know that we have a full-fledge "salon" on our third floor! They do hair and nails and massages and some other type of things that puff up your lips and unwrinkle your eyes. I even saw a picture of boob lifts and cellulite squeezing. I have no idea what goes on at this place because I don't read Russian. Yes, Russian.

Anyhow, I took Dayton there for his haircut. The guy spoke a little English so his hair turned out great! He even got it washed, which our local Great Clips never did. I paid 30 kuai ($4.50) for his haircut. Oh, and there is no tipping in China. The funny thing was both guys there tried to talk me out of cutting off his sideburns. They told me, "in China a boy is ugly with no sideburns". Sorry guys, we are not yet Chinese. So off went the sideburns.

Will I be getting a massage there anytime soon? Well, the convenience is tempting since there would be no foul taxi driver to belittle me. But, we shall see how brave I really am.

He chills with his dog!

When we get really, really bored we re-watch an episode or two of "Ugly Betty" which we bought on DVD.

He also rides the bus to school an hour each way .

He also crosses a busy street walking home from the bus stop.

He is learning Chinese at school.

He has befriended even the toughest boys in fourth grade.

He will soon be building robots and running after school.

And he does all of this with a smile on his face ~

when he's not complaining.