Chinese holiday

It's that time of year....time for another Chinese holiday. Not that I'm complaining, I love the way Asia (and a few other countries I believe) celebrate holidays -- week(s) at a time! Don't get me wrong, I love our American holidays, but one day at a time just doesn't seem long enough! Anyway, this week the Chinese are celebrating their National Holiday. It was on October 1, 1954 (I think that's the right year) that Chairman Mao declared the creation of the People's Republic of China. So every year on October 1, the people of China take a week long holiday to celebrate this historic occassion. What does that mean for foreigners like me? It means we "get out of dodge"!! With 1/3rd of the world's population taking a week long vacation this is NOT the place you want to be. Everything pretty much shuts down and organized chaos reigns. Just to give you an example, last year they picked up 40 tons of trash in Tiannamen Square EACH DAY of the holiday week! That's a lot of people and a lot of trash!!! To avoid all that rubbish (as everyone here says), my daughters and I are heading off to Thailand for a week. My sweet hubby has to stay behind as this is his holiday to be on call at the plant. Despite his absence, we are very excited about going...we will spend 3 days at the beach in Phuket, 2 days in the northern city of Chiang Mai, and 3 days at an elephant orphanage in the jungle of northern Thailand (yes, I will be picking up elephant dung as part of my vacation!!). I will look forward to getting back with you when I return and life in China has calmed down from all the holiday excitement. Oh, and if you can say a prayer for us during the week, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and we'll talk again soon......