Emily Visits Josh in Hangzhou, China!
When my daughter realized during Thanksgiving that her brother wouldn't be able to come home for semester break this year, I couldn't help but feel the disappointment in her voice. Though apparently they chat and message each other more often than he chats and messages with the rest of the family, she seemed to really miss not getting to physically see him, so I decided that the best Christmas present for them would be to fly Emily to Hangzhou to visit Joshua and experience a small taste of the culture he's been living in for the last 1 ½ years. Her introduction to solo air travel - international, at that! - went smoothly, which was pretty much how I'd convinced myself it would go, given that her younger brother could do it a year prior.
Josh and Emily at the Aquarium
Once they met up at the airport, I was able to rest assured that my babies (yes, I still think of them that way even though they're 19 and 20!) were together. San Antonio mornings corresponded to evenings in China, so mornings as I ate breakfast and got ready for work were the perfect time to have a daily text check in. They filled me in on the activities they had done that day and shared pictures of where they had visited. Emily's trip was for more days than mine in October had been, and they didn't have to take the time like he and I did during our visit with a "detour" to get a replacement for the reading glasses I had lost at the train station the day I arrived, so they got to do more things together. A few excursions were of typical tourist sites like the historic Bund waterfront area and the top observation deck of the Pearl tower in nearby Shanghai, but a lot were just normal activities that a pair of young adult brother and sister might decide spontaneously they wanted to randomly explore in a city, like another cat cafe, restaurants, malls, the zoo, and the aquarium. I had hoped they would have a good visit resulting in memories of good times together, but despite my optimism, I heard after she came home that there were plenty of arguments also. Siblings will be siblings, I guess. All I can hope for is that even their fights will serve to strengthen their bond with each other, right? She did bring home a cool souvenir that she had bought at one of the temples they visited, so I figure that's a good sign that she felt like there was something about the trip she wanted to remember!
The Bund District
Shanghai city skyline as viewed from across the river from the Bund riverfront district
Visiting the Cat Cafe
The Oriental Pearl tower in Shanghai
Pandas at the Zoo
Enjoying a desert
Emily bought a souvenir
January Practice Topics with Cevey Pediatrics
(click on each topic to learn more)
We've updated our appointments policy at Cevey Pediatrics. It is our intention to provide your children the best care possible at all times and to accommodate as many requests as is realistic and feasible. It is within this context that we ask you to take a few moments to review our new policy below:
Cevey Pediatrics Appointments Policy
