Do you have any Parsley?- Dad

Dear Everyone: We have had a couple of fun days in China: Yesterday, I went to the copy place. The owner was there with his family. I told them my name, then I had them repeat it to me. They repeated it. I asked them their name. They told me. I couldn't repeat it. I gave each of them English names. I gave the father, the name of "David." As in David Rogers. (you know, Ashley's David) I gave the younger daughter the name of "Amber", as in my Amber. I gave the older daughter the name of "Emily" as in Ryan's Emily--Cardon Ferrell. I gave the mother the name of "Annamarie", as in Katie's mother. I wrote their names of a small piece of card stock, and they pinned their names on their shirt. About that time, here comes the grandma. She saw what was going on, and she yelled something and took off. I guess she liked her chinese name. I was going to name her Matilda. As in, "we'll all sing Matilda." I'll give grandma her English name the next time I see her.
Yesterday I also went to the market. It is called Carefour. It is three stories and each floor is about the size of Sams Club. I want to buy some items so I can cook some hamburger soup. I actually find an american food section. It is about 8 feet long. We'll at least it is an American section. I actually see some things I recognize. I find three cans of Progresso soup. Some canned corn, beets, beans, and some tomato paste. No parsley or soup base. I have been told of a real American market that may have it, I will go their tomorro hopefully. Anyway, I look everywhere in the store for parsley. None to be found. There are Chinese workers yelling all the time to get people to come to their department to buy something. I see that yelling works for them, so I think, Well, maybe it will work for me. When one of them stops yelling, I yell, "Does anyone here speak English?" Total silence. Everyone looks at me with disbelief. I think to myself, what's the big deal, everyone else is yelling. Well anyway, a lady comes up to me and smiles. I say to her, "Do you speak English? She says, "a little." That's good enough for me. I say, "I'm looking to buy some parsley. She says, "parsley?" I say, "yes Parsley." It's obvious that she doesn't know what parsley is. But she is smart. She pulls out her cell phone, and says to me, "spell it." I spell it. She puts the letters into her cell phone, or whatever it is that she is using. The cell phone then gives her the Chinese spelling. She looks at me and says,"oh parsley." I say, "yea parsey!" She goes over to one of the workers and says something to her. The worker shakes her head. I figure she doesn't have any. The lady says to me, "is is a tea?" I say, "close. but not cigar." She says "what?" I say, "no it's not a tea." Well, anyway she says the store doesn't have it. So, I go to look for some hamburger. On the way to the beef section, I pass some water tanks with fish and other smimming things in them. I see one tank that has frogs. They are about 8 inches long. One of them had no legs. I guess the last guy ordered frog legs.
Anyway, I go to the beef section. It really smells gross. I see something that looks like hamburger, but it is not in a cooler. It smells like it has been out on the display shelf for days. I decide not to buy any. I am only a few items short for my hamburger soup. I decide that I will make hamburger soup without any hamburger. Or, I might go to McDonalds and buy a couple of quarter pounders, without cheese and cut up the hamburger to go into my hamburger soup,: (minus the parsley and the soup base) Hey, this is China.
In our apartment we do not have an oven, or a cook top, to cook on. Is all we have is a hot plate. there is no place to light a fire, so I figure the hot plate will do. I plug it in and turn it on. When I turn it on, I can't get it to heat up.. I work on it for a while. Finally I call the maid in and show her it doesn't work. She pulls out a pot, puts some water in it, puts it on top of the hot plate, and all of the sudden it works. I say, "How did you do that?" She doesn't know what I say, but I thank her. Finally I realize that it will not work unless there is something sitting on the hot plate. Now it works fine.
This morning we went to church. It was 5:00 P. M. Saturday evening your time. There were 29 of us there. It was a great meeting. Our friends the Jones' spoke. I said the opening prayer, mom said the closing prayer. I blessed the Sacrament and the Deacon (actually the teacher) passed the Sacrament. We came home and now mother is napping.
A couple of days ago, I told our Branch President that some times the guard wouldn't let our taxi past the guard gate and into the Campus. When that happens we have to walk about 2 or 3 blocks to our apartment. Our Branch President said, "you need one of these cards. He pulls a card out of his wallet which has some Chinese symbols on it with an official government stamp of it. He says, just show the guard the card, and he will wave you through. I say to him, "how do you get one of those cards?" I offer him $100.00 for his. He tells me to go the foreign affairs office and they can arrange with the Government to get us one. I go to the Foreign Affairs office. When I get there, there are all of these red lights that go on. There must be 50 of them. I think to myself, this must be the place that foreigners go to have an affair. Well, I go in. I'm not sure what I will find. I tell the lady that I am a teacher at Nankai University, and I would like to get one of those official looking cards that allows the guard to salute you and welcome you through his gate. She says huh? I tell her again. She says she will talk to some body and see what she can do. A couple of hours later, I get a phone call from the Foreign Affairs office. they say, I am in luck. they have one card left, and if I come over, they will issue it to me. I go get my card. It works great. The taxi driver pulls up to the gate,, the guard tells the taxi driver to turn around, and that he cannot drive through his gate. I say to the taxi driver, "hold on" I show the guard my card, he salutes me like I own the place and waves us through. This is slick. Mother's prayers are answered. Everyone else coming by car to the university, has to stop outside the gate, and walk to where they are going. They now look at us like I am the University President. Life is good here in Tianjin. Well anyway I hope you all have a good night's rest. It is 1:15 A. M. your time, Sunday morning. You will soon be getting up and going to church. Have a great day, and don't forget to call or skype us. I love you all. Dad