So hot. So humid and hot. Real humid. Ugh
It's really hot and humid in Suzhou. I vaguely remember hot and humid in the US. Yes, it is as bad in IA, NE, and PA sometimes, but the level of comfort *inside* is better. Waiting for the elevator in my building in the morning is like standing outside, but with no breeze. My kitchen has no AC, so it is often 95F (35C)in there. Who wants to cook? Not me; time to go out again for dinner :)
GP and I went out last night with a coworker / friend from our Israel facility. A very nice, Ukranian and his lovely wife went with us for German food. I thought it was a good choice, but hadn't realized that 80% of the menu is pork. And this guy doesn't eat pork. Or onions. Unfortunately for him, saying "no onions" doesn't prevent the large amount of chopped onion greens from landing on the potatoes. We had a good time anyway.
Ok, some of the US trip. GP and I had a great time and I'll never spend the time to describe it all well. I will start with big THANKS to John and Denise for feeding us, gathering our mail and letting us relax with them for awhile. Continued thanks to Horst for the great BBQ and fun time. I'm sorry that we didn't get to see any of our other, many east coast friends :( Next time! I swear :)
Ok, ok, I'll write some chronological detail. (NOTE: I'm going to start using more big words in my blog so GP can continue expanding her English vocabulary.)
July 6: woke up at a comfortable time for a change. Usually it's an early flight: get up at 4am, drive to airport 4 hours before the flight, etc. This time it was a 1pm flight, we were packed, the drive was good, the wait was ok. So nice :)
The flight to Chicago was pretty good. I think we probably slept a little. For the second trip in a row, GP got to set next to one of the great unwashed, so that wasn't so nice, but overall it was good. Immigration was easy and the bags showed up very fast. Then flew to Philly with no problem. Got the car, drove to Willow Grove, yada yada yada. In three-weeks-back review, I'd say the highlight was going to Giant for some late-night groceries and GP getting excited about 9 for a $1 Ramen noodles.
The first two days we did a little shopping, a lot of sleeping (early) and a lot of TV watching. A lot of TV because we slept from 5 or 5:30pm until 12 or 1am. Then watched TV for 4 or 5 hours :p Jet lag is a pain.
We saw Horst, we saw John and family, we bought stuff. We went to K&S so GP could see headquarters and I could pilfer the lab for things to send to China. Then Tuesday was something and Wednesday we flew to Chicago again.
We arrived late in Chicago, got the car and started driving. I was pretty awake, so we ended up halfway across IL before stopping for the night. At least I didn't have to do Chicago traffic in the morning. The Best Western in DeKalb was . . cheap. If it hadn't been cheap, I might have complained about the wet carpet and the general crappiness. Luckily, it was cheap.
We stopped at the Amana Colonies for lunch and it was good. Also hit the first welcome center into Iowa and saw lots and lots of corn in the fields. It was a neat experience for GP to see so much road with so few cars. So many fields with so few people. So many cars not honking and staying in their lanes.
Arrived in Des Moines Thursday afternoon and dropped in on KBF and family. For GP, this was the height of the entire trip - seeing Joshua face-to-face. (Un)fortunately, he is two years older than her maximum kidnapping age, so she didn't try to snatch and run with him :) We had dinner before my planned conference call (ugh, conference calls during vacation) and scheduled a post-call drink with Scot. Luck was with me as the call was cancelled (no, they didn't tell me, just no one else dialed in), so we went for one drink with Scot. A short one (very sorry, Scot) as GP and I were so, so tired. Good to see you Scot, sorry it wasn't a longer visit. Steve, et al, sorry very much we missed you. Now it's your turn to visit us :)
Friday morning we drove to Ames, walked around ISU campus a little, bought a new ISU t-shirt for me (yippee!) and had lunch at Hickory Park. I need that every 2 or 3 years. Then west on Hwy 30 and down I-29 to Omaha. We missed the casino turn off the first time, so stopped in the Old Market for a drink and a little shopping. GP found a very pretty red sweater, so it was a fortuitous diversion. Finally, out to the casino to meet Mom & Dad, have dinner (so yummy) and win some money. GP had some beginner's luck and did well.
Saturday we slept in and then drove west and North to find Dan's farm. I saw the immediate relatives (all 14 of them) and some aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven't seen in 5 to 15 years. It was very fun and GP loved the attention from all the nieces. She is quite popular with the blue-eyed children. Big thanks to Dan, Mom, Natalie, Jodi and everyone else who put so much time and work into the picnic. It was a lot of fun.
I don't remember Sunday much - just relaxing at the parent's, IIRC. Monday was a little shopping and repacking. Tuesday was GP's birthday and she spent it sleeping in the Ford Freestyle (who came up with this thing) while I drove across Iowa and Illinois. We found the Candlewood across from O'Hare airport (it looked questionable for awhile, then the neighborhood got better again) and had a nice birthday dinner at the recommended restaurant.
Wednesday morning we got on the plane for Shanghai and found it (pleasantly suprising) only 60% full. Unusual, but appreciated. The flight was good (thank you Benadryl) and we made it to Pudong in good time. Immigration took less than 5 minutes (usually 30-60 minutes) and we got the bags and found my car.
Of course, as we drove back to Suzhou and home, I was already checking and responding to email . . .
I'll get the photos up sometime. I promise. ;)
GP and I went out last night with a coworker / friend from our Israel facility. A very nice, Ukranian and his lovely wife went with us for German food. I thought it was a good choice, but hadn't realized that 80% of the menu is pork. And this guy doesn't eat pork. Or onions. Unfortunately for him, saying "no onions" doesn't prevent the large amount of chopped onion greens from landing on the potatoes. We had a good time anyway.
Ok, some of the US trip. GP and I had a great time and I'll never spend the time to describe it all well. I will start with big THANKS to John and Denise for feeding us, gathering our mail and letting us relax with them for awhile. Continued thanks to Horst for the great BBQ and fun time. I'm sorry that we didn't get to see any of our other, many east coast friends :( Next time! I swear :)
Ok, ok, I'll write some chronological detail. (NOTE: I'm going to start using more big words in my blog so GP can continue expanding her English vocabulary.)
July 6: woke up at a comfortable time for a change. Usually it's an early flight: get up at 4am, drive to airport 4 hours before the flight, etc. This time it was a 1pm flight, we were packed, the drive was good, the wait was ok. So nice :)
The flight to Chicago was pretty good. I think we probably slept a little. For the second trip in a row, GP got to set next to one of the great unwashed, so that wasn't so nice, but overall it was good. Immigration was easy and the bags showed up very fast. Then flew to Philly with no problem. Got the car, drove to Willow Grove, yada yada yada. In three-weeks-back review, I'd say the highlight was going to Giant for some late-night groceries and GP getting excited about 9 for a $1 Ramen noodles.
The first two days we did a little shopping, a lot of sleeping (early) and a lot of TV watching. A lot of TV because we slept from 5 or 5:30pm until 12 or 1am. Then watched TV for 4 or 5 hours :p Jet lag is a pain.
We saw Horst, we saw John and family, we bought stuff. We went to K&S so GP could see headquarters and I could pilfer the lab for things to send to China. Then Tuesday was something and Wednesday we flew to Chicago again.
We arrived late in Chicago, got the car and started driving. I was pretty awake, so we ended up halfway across IL before stopping for the night. At least I didn't have to do Chicago traffic in the morning. The Best Western in DeKalb was . . cheap. If it hadn't been cheap, I might have complained about the wet carpet and the general crappiness. Luckily, it was cheap.
We stopped at the Amana Colonies for lunch and it was good. Also hit the first welcome center into Iowa and saw lots and lots of corn in the fields. It was a neat experience for GP to see so much road with so few cars. So many fields with so few people. So many cars not honking and staying in their lanes.
Arrived in Des Moines Thursday afternoon and dropped in on KBF and family. For GP, this was the height of the entire trip - seeing Joshua face-to-face. (Un)fortunately, he is two years older than her maximum kidnapping age, so she didn't try to snatch and run with him :) We had dinner before my planned conference call (ugh, conference calls during vacation) and scheduled a post-call drink with Scot. Luck was with me as the call was cancelled (no, they didn't tell me, just no one else dialed in), so we went for one drink with Scot. A short one (very sorry, Scot) as GP and I were so, so tired. Good to see you Scot, sorry it wasn't a longer visit. Steve, et al, sorry very much we missed you. Now it's your turn to visit us :)
Friday morning we drove to Ames, walked around ISU campus a little, bought a new ISU t-shirt for me (yippee!) and had lunch at Hickory Park. I need that every 2 or 3 years. Then west on Hwy 30 and down I-29 to Omaha. We missed the casino turn off the first time, so stopped in the Old Market for a drink and a little shopping. GP found a very pretty red sweater, so it was a fortuitous diversion. Finally, out to the casino to meet Mom & Dad, have dinner (so yummy) and win some money. GP had some beginner's luck and did well.
Saturday we slept in and then drove west and North to find Dan's farm. I saw the immediate relatives (all 14 of them) and some aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven't seen in 5 to 15 years. It was very fun and GP loved the attention from all the nieces. She is quite popular with the blue-eyed children. Big thanks to Dan, Mom, Natalie, Jodi and everyone else who put so much time and work into the picnic. It was a lot of fun.
I don't remember Sunday much - just relaxing at the parent's, IIRC. Monday was a little shopping and repacking. Tuesday was GP's birthday and she spent it sleeping in the Ford Freestyle (who came up with this thing) while I drove across Iowa and Illinois. We found the Candlewood across from O'Hare airport (it looked questionable for awhile, then the neighborhood got better again) and had a nice birthday dinner at the recommended restaurant.
Wednesday morning we got on the plane for Shanghai and found it (pleasantly suprising) only 60% full. Unusual, but appreciated. The flight was good (thank you Benadryl) and we made it to Pudong in good time. Immigration took less than 5 minutes (usually 30-60 minutes) and we got the bags and found my car.
Of course, as we drove back to Suzhou and home, I was already checking and responding to email . . .
I'll get the photos up sometime. I promise. ;)
posted by Matt aka Maxiu at
7:39 PM
2 Comments:
It was so great to see you both. The girls miss GP though, didn't say anything about Matt.
the Thailand girls that work in the kitchen here are a little bigger than GP but they remind me of her and makes me miss her too.
GG
(don't know how to spell big sister)
Natalie
So nice to finally meet GP (oh, and to see my grr grr!) J and J have also said tha they miss GP and want to talk to her again, like the other cousins though, they haven't mentioned Uncle Matt...
You went to HP on Friday and didn't invite me? That's it! I squish your head! I only have to open my fingers a tiny bit because you are so far away and have a teeny tiny head! ;P
KBF
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