how the other half lives

We just returned from a 9-year-old's birthday party...and now we know how the other half lives! Amanda was invited to the birthday party for one of her classmates, to be held today, Sunday afternoon. We did not know what to expect, as the party was held at a hotel pool (thankfully, the hotel is a very short walk from our home). So we went to drop her off and intended to meet Gene's coworker for another attempt at buying a soft mattress/bed topper. Turns out the whole family was invited to the party so we completed our errand (still no mattress, but we'll keep looking!) and went back to the party. When we returned, Amanda was swimming with a bunch of kids from school and we had the chance to hob-knob with the parents, sip champagne, eat desserts from the buffet and enjoy the breeze from the 3rd floor roof-top pool deck area. All the people were very nice--we met families from Spain, the UK, Canada, the US and lots of areas of China. Many people offered to help us get settled in Xiamen and wrote their numbers in my little notebook, since I don't have a cell phone yet! We met the general manager of the hotel who offered to help Gene obtain some soft mattresses from his source, the local expat golf-outing organizer, the French pastry chef of the hotel and many parents from our international school. Not sure we can keep up with the Joneses (the Changs?) as far as parties go, but we sure enjoyed ourselves and were very glad for the invitation. Perhaps I should keep secret that my big 4-0 lands on the next big Chinese holiday--the 60th anniversary of the Communist party!