Gary, Flowers, and an Adventure

I introduced Gary the other night.  He is a worker in the Fitness Center here at the hotel. I speak with him every time I work out, but before tonight we have only spoken for a total of 5 minutes.  His English is good and he is very charismatic.  He is 25 and graduated from the University of Guangzhou in 2008 with a degree in Physical Education.  I think this guy would make a great teacher.  After my run tonight I spoke with him again and asked him how he was...he told me not so good and his eyes kind of welled up. He then shared this story...he has a girlfriend for five years and he asked her to marry him last night.  Her mother will not let her daughter marry Gary...not because Gary is a bad guy or because Gary doesn't love her enough.  The reason, Gary does not have a house.  He works hard, makes a living, but is not rich.  He lives 40 minutes (by bus) from the hotel and rents a room there because it is cheaper.  Not only did the mother deny his request, but she also introduced her daughter to another man.  Talk about salt in the wound.  I was moved with the passion that this young man had for his girlfriend and how he would bear his soul to someone he did not know very well.  But it seemed easy to talk with him.  I gave him some of my famous 10 cent advise, that is the value including the Chinese exchange rate, and when I opened my mouth to tell him I would pray for him I caught myself...and said as compassionately as I could, which isn't much for those who know me, that I would be thinking of him a lot....he was so thankful for the talk...he shook my hand twice and followed me out of the room to say thank you again. This is turning into a bit of a struggle for me...but getting Bo and Nicole home is the priority right now!

Someone refresh my memory about teething....a lot of drool, some crankiness (particularly at bed time), runny nose, some runny poo...can I get a diagnosis?

We enjoyed a beautiful day today.  Nicole was feeling better, not great.  It was also a bit adventurous.  We started the morning at 10 and part of the group headed into the subway system to go to the new Guangzhou arena, the Flower Plaza Park, and the largest shopping mall in China.  With Bo attached to me with the little carrying thing, we headed out.  The arena and park were very nice...all built and designed for the Opening and Closing ceremonies for the 2010 Asian Special Olympics.  I have included some pictures (the picture of all the people was a group that came and ooohhed and aaaahhed over the babies after we took a group picture) of the flower park and the arena and huge television tower behind the arena.  It was very neat and peaceful  We enjoyed a sunny day that got to about 60.

Following our walk around the park we went to a very large shopping mall.  There we a lot of stores, very pricey.  We found a department store with some reasonably priced baby clothes and bought a couple of outfits....Jackson and Gunner, I hate to tell you this, but we are bringing more pink home....something we are all going to have to get used to.  The group split up at the mall and we told the guide that we would just get a taxi home from the mall.  How hard could that be..he said that all we had to do was raise our hand? So, we finished shopping a little late and were in a hurry to get back so that we could meet the laundry guy who was coming to our room. We headed outside, walked down the street a bit, and began to start hailing cabs....and they just kept passing by.  Mostly, they were full but a couple passed by and I'm not sure why.  So you can imagine the two crazy Americans with a Chinese baby attached out in the street trying to wave down cabs...and failing every time.  It was like fishing...if we didn't get a cab after a minute or so we'd move to another spot.

After failing 20+ times to hail a cab we decided to head back to the subway station to try our luck there.  I was a bit unsure, but had to play it like I knew exactly what to do for Nicole.  Now, I know she is going to be reading this confession and I will not tell her, rather I will let her read it whenever she checks her email and see how she responds.  Anyway, I walked right up to the machined where you buy the tokens and bravely stated, "That's where we need to go right there.  This should be easy. All we have to do is transfer one time." Honestly, at that point, I had no idea how I was going to know how to get on the train that was going the direction we wanted...I knew we needed the Yellow Line and that we needed to end up at Taojin Station, but at that moment I had a 50-50 shot of choosing the correct direction....in my mind the worst thing that could happen was we would go the wrong way, eventually figure it out, and then head back on the other train. To make matters trickier, the stations was LOADED with people..shoulder to shoulder everywhere we walked.  At times Nicole hung onto my shirt to stay with me but if we slowed down or stopped we'd be swallowed by the crowd. 

We headed down the stairs and I immediately began looking everywhere for clues to which train would be the right one for us...this is where all of those years of my dad telling me to "Pay attention" paid off.  He did a great job of teaching me how to figure things out.  I remember the times we would travel to Chicago and get lost on the El and he would always talk me through how he was finding his way...he did the same when we got lost driving too. Anyway, when we got to the trains I looked, and of course everything is in Chinese, but I figured there had to be some context clues somewhere.  Anyway, I looked above the trains and saw the path the trains were taking and figured which one I needed to make the transfer from the Yellow to the Red.  It was one stop away....when we got out, finding the correct Red Line train was another story...the signs were not just for the Red Line, but there appeared to be an A, B, C, D, and E Red Line as well, or something to that effect because all I saw was Chinese and then the letters,. who knew what they were saying....AAAHHHHH.  So I just kept walking...didn't turn, just followed the  path and figured I would run into a train eventually.  To make a short story long, again, we made it to the station we needed but there were two different exits...and I have to give credit to Nicole for finding the map on the wall and discovering that we needed exit A...and it worked.  So, we weren't lost in China, but it was a bit uneasy for awhile.  Thanks dad for teaching me to pay attention, to think with common sense, and to stay rational and to always show confidence no matter how unsure you might be....it was fun but I gotta tell you I wasn't completely sure that we did the right thing until I saw the hotel. 

Day ended very well with exercise and my favorite Chinese restaurant....Pizza Hut!  The pepperoni pizza tasted so good!  And then Bo puked on me, again...darn teething.

Good night to all (still weird to think it good morning where you are).  Tomorrow we do our work with the American Consulate and at some point we have to swear an oath, not sure what that is all about...anyway, an important day but one I think we can get through OK.  In between we do some shopping at a Jade and Pearl market and we might eat dinner on a riverboat cruise tomorrow night, if we feel up to it.

God, thank you for restoring Nicole's health and for keeping me healthy.  Help Bo to get rid of her little aches and pains quickly.  Be with the people of China and I pray that there will be salvation brought to the great people of this country. Work in a mighty way in and around these people, and their government.  Get us home. Comfort our friends who hurt and our boys who miss their parents.