The weather is cooling off and that has opened up opportunities we haven’t had before to do things together. On Sunday morning we left the house early and Shirley and I rode the bus together to church. By the time we got there it was a little warm, but the ride was actually much easier on Mom than the typical taxi ride. After church we all went together to McDonalds for lunch. The picture isn’t great, but does prove we are there. My challenge with the food was not that we were in China, but that we were at McDonalds. The hamburger didn’t begin to compare to In ‘n Out, but the boys love their hamburgers and Chicken McNuggets. The restaurant was really crowded and incredibly noisy. J.D. said it was a light day.
We finished our lunches before Josiah and went outside to get a little cool next to the ice rink in the mall. Corban came out and joined us and began a game of ‘Simon Says’. We began playing and immediately began to attract a crowd. It feels really strange to be so visible, but I’ll do things for my grandsons I wouldn’t do for anyone else. The celebrity experience continued as we strolled through the mall after lunch. A Chinese couple wanted to get pictures of their daughter with Josiah. They needed a faster camera. This happens to Corban and Josiah all the time, and they’ve never really gotten used to it. I can’t blame them.
The family often gets ice cream at McDonalds and we wanted to treat them, so we started that direction and then changed our mind and went to a new frozen yogurt store that Jenny had wanted to try. I’m not an ice cream fan, but everyone else said that it was really good. The yogurt was self-serve and they had 10 different flavors, with 30 different toppings. It was a very good end to a Sunday outing.
On Monday morning we went to the immigration office. We left the house a little after 9A and the buses were all way too crowded for Shirley. We thought of getting a taxi, but when we asked Flight how far away the office was we found out that it was close enough to walk. Shirley adopted the Chinese style and carried an umbrella to keep the sun off. The immigration office was not very crowded and very organized. We scanned our passports at a self-service machine and then picked up a number that would show us our assignment to an immigration officer. We had a short wait and then went to the counter. Flight had all of our paperwork together and about 30 minutes later we were able to pay for our extended visas. We won’t be able to pick up our passports until Tuesday, but now we could relax and finalize our travel plans.
The next thing to do was to pick up train tickets. You can only get them 10 days ahead of your trip, so on Thursday Flight and I went to the ticket office. Flight works for J.D. and has been an incredible help to us from the day we arrived. We got on the bus and we eventually worked our way to a standing position in the back of the bus. I had been wondering why people seemed to congregate in the back of the bus and Flight explained. It is simply a matter of increasing the odds of getting a seat. In the middle of the bus there might be 15 people standing and only 16 seats available. In the back of the bus there might be 10 people standing and 25 seats available. Shortly after we worked out the math we came to a stop and the person sitting next to where I was standing got up. I got to sit and Flight gave me a big smile.
The ticket process was really simple as long as you could speak Chinese and since I had Flight along there was no problem. We have first class soft seats on the inner-city express from Qingdao to Beijing. I’m really looking forward to the trip.
I’ve also included some pictures of a birthday celebration we had in the office. All of the birthday boys got noodles to eat because they symbolize long life. The menu was incredibly varied. We had a whole fish, noodles, rice, tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, and hash browns. For dessert Shirley had made a chocolate cake and I had picked up ice cream. This was the first time some of the office staff had ever had cake and ice cream. We put candles on a cake and then sing happy birthday and the honored guest blows out the candles. The process is a little more elaborate here. The candles are a mini-fireworks display that is really hard to describe. It looks like a flower and the inside is lighted. It sparks for a while and then it opens up and each of the pedals of the flower has a candle on it. The candles are all rotating around the center while music plays. The three birthday boys blew out the candles and everyone enjoyed the cake and ice cream.
On Thursday night we also went to the mall and ate at Subway. Shirley and I went grocery shopping after dinner and then walked home. I was exhausted by the time we got back and worked from the apartment on Friday. When I look back it is easy to see why I was so tired. It has been a very full week and a very good one. It has been nice to slow down a little today. We watched the movie “Invictus” today. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It is an incredible picture of what visionary leadership looks like.
