Today is the 7th day of the 7th month in the lunar calendar, and as such is the Chinese Valentine’s Day (乞巧节, qi3 qiao3 jie2). There’s a couple different myths that surround the origins of the day, and I can’t be bothered to repeat them here. For me, the significance of today is that it’s the one (lunar) year anniversary of the beginning of possibly the largest change in my life yet. It’s the anniversary of when things all started to take off with Maggie.
As this is a bit of a special day for the two of us, and we are 10,000 km away from each other – the focus of today’s post is none other than my rather bendy fiancee.
While I’ve been away in Canada, Maggie’s been enduring rather grueling 10-hour-a-day lessons to get her Yoga Instructor Certification in Beijing.
She chose the Beijing school opposed to going to some school in Dalian because of the Beijing school’s reputation with other yoga instructors she’s met in her time working at the yoga studio.
Maggie seems to have got the rep in her class as being the serious one, which doesn’t really surprise me, as when she sets her mind to something little else gets much attention. The classes finished the other day, and as such the school has taken photos of some of their best students (alright, I don’t know that "best" bit for certain, but whatever).
Click the pic to see the full-sized version
So, Mags heads back to Dalian the day after tomorrow and I’m left without my return visit to the Great Wall. We had planned to meet up in Beijing upon my return on the 14th, but the class was too full for her to stay on for an extra two weeks (like I said, the serious one).
I’m now going to be scrambling to find myself a way back to Dalian that doesn’t involve me having to get a hotel in Beijing for a night or two. If anyone knows about buying domestic flights direct from the airport upon arrival, or about a cheap (non-taxi) way of getting from Beijing airport to Beijing train station, please get in touch.
