Well, we have enjoyed another week in China. Now I know what each of you kids meant, when you were younger and at home, when you would say "we are going to hang out." Well, mother and I just "hung out" this week.
This week, I decided to make some tomato basil soup. After reading the recipe, I had to purchase a blender. I go to Carrefour. I buy it. About $25.00. I look for basil. Well, I'm not exactly sure what fresh basil looks like. I ask someone. Well, they can't speak English. Finally I find someone who speaks a little English. I ask them, "where is the fresh basil?" Well, they have never heard of basil. I explain it to her. She says "oh yes, it's rigtht over here." Great! I follow her. She brings me some broccoli. I say "thank you" and when she leaves, I put the broccoli back. I ask another person, No luck. I go to the dried herb section. No dried basil. I go home with no basil. I get on the internet. I find a picture of fresh basil. I also find the spelling of fresh basil in Chinese. (well at least it says in English that it is in Chinese) Now, I know I can get some fresh basil. I go to an outdoor fruit and vegetable market. I show the lady the picture and the Chinese spelling of basil. She looks puzzled. I go to another stand. He looks, and shakes his head. Finially I find a guy who speaks a little English. He reads the Chinese spelling. He says, "this is a very old vegetable, but they quit growing it many years ago. I say, "where can I buy it?" He says, "no where, it is not available." Well, I look on the internet and it says that it is grown in China. I keep asking. No luck. In the evening, I go to an Italian restaurant for dinner. My pasta comes with some basil on it. I know they still grow basil, or they had an over supply left over from 100 + years ago. I ask the waiter about fresh basil. He has never heard ot it. Well, I know that somebody has, because it is on my pasta. A young man comes over to our table who speaks English. I show him the picture of basil that I took from the internet. I also show him the Chinese name for basil. He says that he has never heard of it. I give him a sample of the basil from my pasta, and say to him," please ask the chef where I can get some of this basil?" He takes the picture, the Chinese spelling and the basil from my plate and goes to the chef. He returns, "the chef says they import it from Korea." "Can I buy some" I ask. "I'll ask," he says. "The chef says he has none, but he can get some tomorrow when his shipment comes" I ask, "how much." "Ten yuan." A buck sixty. "OK, I'll take it." The next day I get my fresh basil. I sure do hope that my tomato basil soup was worth all of what I went through. I could have purchase an entire pan of tomato basil soup for three dollars. Well, we'll see. I hope that the basil stays frest in the refrigerator for about three weeks, until we get back
from Hong Kong.
We went to Beijing on Friday. Had a great day. I purchase more items to see what I can import when I return home. I buy a lot more stuff and sent it back to America. It will arrive in about two months. We leave for Hong Kong on Wednesday for BYU training. Then the girls come to China.
A few days ago mother and I had gone to TGIF for dinner. I had to park my vehicle a little bit away. Only cars were allowed in the TGIF parking lot. After dinner, I leave mother at TGIF and I go to get the three wheeler. I try to cut through the parking lot on the three wheeler, but some guy comes out of his stall and says, "no way." About that time, here comes some guy on his bicycle, cutting through parked cars. He doesn't see me but I see him. He turns one way, and I turn the other. Otherwise it would not have been a pretty site. Well, the poor guy that tells me no way is now distracted by a near disaster. He begins to cuss the guy on the bike. I make a run for it. He yells something, but I don't understand. I know I can out run him. I make it to where mother is. He catches us with me. He tells me something in Chinese, and points to the street. Mother gets in the bike and off we go to the street. I wave good bye to the ole boy that is cussing me and away we go.
On the way home, I step on my foot brake to stop. The brake doesn't work. Lucky I have two hand brakes. They are a little slow, but we get stopped. I drive home slowly. I call a guy that speaks English and tell him the foot brake problem. He calls the motorcycle shop and tells the guy the problem. He says he will come to our hotel this evening and fix it. I meet him at the hotel along with the guy who speaks English. Thay talk and smoke three or four cigarettes. Finially he says it too cold to work outside. I ask the hotel clerk if I can bring the three wheeler into the lobby where it is warm, so we can work on it. He laughs. I take it that means yes. I drive the three wheeler into the lobby. This guy comes unglued. However, lucky for me he can't speak English. The guy who speaks English gets himself lost, so there is no there to tell me that I can't come inside to work. We proceed to work. The desk clerk gets on the phone with someone. I motion for the motorcycle repairman to work fast, this warm spot may not last. He finishes in short order. He then brings his bike inside to do some work. Now the desk clerk goes nuts. Well, I figure he is already mad, what's a little bit madder? I again motion for him to hustle. He does. Well, when he leaves, he has to go down a sidewalk ramp to get onto the parking entrance. He sees some guy from the hotel coming who is not happy. He makes a run for it and goes down the cement stairs instead of the ramp. His bike falls over and ends up at the bottom. He gets up, picks up his bike and he makes a run for it. Meanwhile, I go down the ramp, park my bike,and go back into the hotel lobby. I tell the two mad guys to have a nice day and I head up to my room. Well, all is well. Both of our bikes work better and we were warm while they were being repaired. I think the two old geezers that were mad will get over it.
We went to a restaurant called Hanks. Sounded American enough. We go in . Some guy sitting at the counter says hi to us, in English. That is an encouraging sign. I walk up to the guy and ask him, "is the food any good here?. He says, "ya, it's great, I am Hank." I think as fast as I can to come up with a good come back. I say, "I heard the food here was wonderful, that's why we came here today." I ask, "what is your speciality?" He reviews the menu. Mother orders a bar b que sandwich, and I order salmon. I must say, Hank was right. It was pretty good. I give the place about a 5 if we were in America, mother gave it a four. However, for China I am not so picky. For China, I give it about a 7. On a cold hungry day, I would move Hank to an 8. When we ate at Sizzler in Beijing, and it was very good. (for China) In America, I wouldn't eat at Sizzler, but, I'm in China and I am not quite so hard to please. I give Sizzler here in China a good solid 8. Two weeks ago, I ate at Tylers Koran restaurant, and that place wouldn't make the top ten. Yikes, it was awful. As I was leaving the place, I wanted to tell all the Koreans there, to go to Sizzler next time. They could try real food. Mother insisted that I contain myself.
Today as we were leaving our Church Meetings, we could hear this dog barking. Well, that's nothing new for this area. Dogs always bark, but no one seems to mind. Well, this poor ole pooch must have been bothering some young boys who were outside playing. One of the boys yelled something at the dog in Chinese. The ole mutt barked even louder. As we turned the corner, we could see this pooch inside of a fensed yard. He looked like a bear. Even I didn't want to confront him/her. Well, about that time one of these young boys, picked up a large piece of broken concrete that was laying on the side of the road, and clocked that dog as hard as he could with the concrete. This dog absolutely went into orbit. The old boy/girl tried to jump the fense several times. Greatfully, he/she failed. I hope the ole pooch doesn't think it was me who threw the concrete, or even more, I hope the rock ruined his short term memory.
Mother and I each had to prepare a presentation to give to the 80 or so BYU China Teachers, while we are in Hong Kong. We completed our presentations, so now we can relax until we present them.
This past week we went to dinner twice with a few of our Oral English students. We had a good time with them. They are very smart kids. The first group of three girls, we took to Papa Johns Pizza. The three girls, Seattle, Fione and Helen X (English names)
are three of the top Junior Students here at Nankai. They were a lot of fun.
The next evening we took Saloon and Crystal to an Italian restaurant. I think that Saloon is the Junior Class President. It was good food and a very enjoyable evening also. They are two top students also. We really enjoy taking our students out. We have taken several of our students out over the months. We love and enjoy them all.
I have sent several large boxes of items home, via China Postal Service. They tell me it takes about two months to arrive in America. I hope they all arrive. I've got another couple of boxes of items to send home this week. I'm sure when we return from Hong Kong and SouthWest China in two weeks, we have have a few more boxes of stuff to send home. Well, we will have fun going through the stuff when we return, and we will home some really spoiled grand children. Well, not spoiled, just overly missed and loved.
Since the first of the year, a couple of new families have moved into our little branch. It is great to have new friends move in. The fellow in the branch that played the piano, moved back to America. This lady that moved in, plays beautifully. It seems that we are always cared for.
Well, while in Beijing this week i was walking down the street, and some guy stopped me and wanted to sell me some more genjine Rolex Watches. He asks me, how many I want. I say none. He keeps hounding me. The last time I purchased genuine Rolex watches, I bought them for 5 for about $12.00. I knew that I didn't need any more genuine Rolex watches. He keeps walking along side of me. I walk across the street to hail a cab. He follows me. He asks how many I want. I say none. He says, make me an offer. I say, OK. ten for 100 yuan for ten. (about twelve dollars and fifty cents). He says, OK. I couldn't believe it. About a buck twenty each. I check to see if all of these genuine Roles watch are working. They are. I buy them and he leaves. What he didn't know, was that I would have paid him 100 yuan just to leave me alone. Well, I hail a cab, and go home with ten more watches. Mother asks me what I am going to do with all these watches. I tell her that when I get home and I am teaching the High Priests group, I will give everyone a genuine Rolex watch who answers a question for me. I think all of the High Priests would like to wear a genuine Rolex watch.
Well, I am heading for the pearl factory to see what I can't live without. I see several street people heading for me. They all remember me from last time, when I gave them each ten yuan. I tell you, they should sign up to run a marathon. They dropped their canes, and walkers and headed right for me. Well, this time I am not so generous. This could become very expensive and they all have a good memory with a lot of friends and relatives. I meat mother back at the pearl factory where she is guarding all of my newly purchased precious cargo. I pack it up and I head off for the toy store to see what the grand kids can't live with out. I am really loaded down. My cargo is so heavy, I am walking with a limp. The street people see me again. they know I can't go fast and they swarm me. They are all saying the same thing in Chinese. i can't go through them and I can't go around them. Where's mother when I need her. I hold me own, I finially make it through the croud and to the toy store. What a relief. However, I know that when I leave the toy store, they will all be waiting for me again. I leave the toy store. Some guy asks me if I want to buy some watches. I tell him I already have some. He says, "best deal just for you." I figure what is good for him is good for me. I ask him how much. He says 180 yuan each. About $22.00 (I just bought some for $1.20 each.) I tell him, I will make him a great deal. I pull out my watches. I say, I will sell you these for 100 yuan each/ ($12.00) He laughs. I laugh. That's the last I see of him.
Yesterday, I received a phone call from our Branch President. He said a new family was moving into the branch and needed help cleaning their newly rented apratment. I went with him. We spent 5 hours cleaning. Real nice people. He had a stroke about 5 months ago and is here from America for treatment. I am happy to help.
Well, that's about it. Nothing to exciting this week. I hope you all have a great day today. It is your Sabbeth. I love you all.
Dad
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