A little Joy in my Life

Something new came into my life 2 days ago and I've been happy ever since.





I went to npr.org and downloaded podcasts. Oh, what a nice reminder of home (i.e., SE PA) to hear Car Talk, Fresh Air and Talk of the Nation. I listen on my mobile phone or working at my desk at home. I get to hear high-level English and stay up on events in the US (e.g., presidential election).

Today is the Lantern Festival in China. Tons of fireworks and some traditional food, sticky rice ball soup, I think. Instead of that, GP cooked some delicious pork and radish soup, mmmm! She cooks it for a couple of hours and it is wonderful every time. BTW, "radish" means the big, mostly flavor-less one (daikan?) you can sometimes find back home.

Update from Suzhou

I started to get really lazy today; instead of writing my own post, I was just commenting on Ann's instead :) So, here's some little update.

GP and I went out a little Saturday so I could get my teeth checked and cleaned (so-so dentist, can't wait for a real inspection and cleaning), look for glasses (still need prescription), and do some shopping (can not find things I need!). It was cold but sunny, so not a bad day to get out.

Sunday we took the fast train to Shanghai to meet up with Mike and Rachel visiting from the US. Rachel picked up a nasty head cold/flu, so she didn't go out with us, but we had a good time walking around with Mike on Nanjing Lu and having seafood for lunch.

Monday until today has been typical work and I'm trying to get my team swinging back into the projects; we lost momentum with the 2 weeks off. I also need to prepare for an internal review on Friday, customer visit next Monday/Tuesday, my boss visiting Wednesday-Friday next week and another internal review next Friday. Yikes!

Positive things are happening besides the (slowly) warming weather. GP's immigration stuff has moved from Beijing to Guangzhou (according to yesterday's phone call - waiting for confirmation in the mail), I started to exercise again, and I've got my taxes about 1/2 done. I can finish as soon as I get my big wad o' mail from the US (big thanks to John and Horst for gathering, sorting, and shipping my mail to China every few months).

I'm trying to decide when to visit the US and what to do there. I would like to see the family *and* visit friends in/near Philly. I thought of flying to Philly and riding the VFR to Omaha, but that would probably put me in massive pain since I haven't ridden for almost 2 years :p Also can't decide when to go - May? June? Hmm, I'm open to suggestions, so email or comment with your opinions. The other option (since GP can't get a tourist visa now) is to use our "one home trip a year" to go somewhere else, maybe Singapore or even Europe. I'll propose that to my boss next week.

An update

Mike is visiting from the US and I have to say it's great to see him again. We were in grad school together and then maintained a little contact after graduation. With him on Long Island and me in Philly, you'd think we'd see each other, but the only visit was when he drove to my going away party. He's that kind of a great guy :)

I went to Shanghai last Saturday morning to meet with Mike and give him a ride back to Suzhou. We stopped in Hongmei to have lunch at Blue Frog and catch up on old times. Believe it or not, our waitress was "Kelly" and I almost wrestled her into a photo, but she was busy and declined my attentions (women often do that). So, with Mike as my witness, there is a second KBF out there.

Later I'll try to post some of the photos of our visit to the Humble Administrator's Garden. For now, I'm struggling against a head cold. I like the wonderful drowsy feeling, but I can't get much done.

Happy New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

GP and I took the fast train to Nanjing on Wednesday - only 1.5 hours at a top speed of about 130mph - to visit her family. We had family dinner that night, plates of cold meat (duck, chicken, beef, chicken, fish, etc), mostly salted in traditional style. Then we played mahjongg for about 4 hours and I won 7 kwai! That's about $1US, so it almost paid for the trip ;)

We stayed at the Jinling resort about 5 minutes from her brother's house. Nice place, though it probably looks better in the spring and summertime. It was clean and comfy and cheap - the most important 3c's. It was also warm (cozy?) which was nice as her brother's house doesn't actually have heat. We could see our breath as we played mahjongg.

Thursday we ate breakfast and got ready for the big lunch. We treated her extended family (about 30 people) to a nice lunch, even I liked most of the food. I could have done without the rice wine, though, and luckily only had a little. It is about 90 proof and tastes like lacquer. Hours later you can still taste it :p

Thursday night was left overs in hotpot dinner and more mahjongg. Then I got a splitting headache and we headed to the hotel early. A Nyquil and a bath later, I was asleep for about 12 hours. Friday on the fast train again back to Suzhou. A nice little trip and I was glad to meet more of her family and revisit the ones I already knew. Her 3 year old nephew is a typical little boy and I assured her they make them the same in the US. Even his recent injury was typical little boy: he was eating watermelon seeds while sitting on the toilet, dropped one, reached for it and swung right around to fall on his head.

Saturday morning I go to Shanghai to pick up Mike and we'll show him all the best places to buy me drinks ;^)

Happy Monday

I decided to work today, well, go to work. Only a little actual work going on as the place is 1/3 full and not much is happening. Good time to catch up on health insurance reimbursement. Good think I write in English on the receipts so I can remember what they were for :p

My other alternative today was to go to my favorite American bar (the only American bar) at 5am to start watching the SuperBowl. I couldn't get excited enough to do it; maybe if the Eagles were playing.

Thanks for those that said nice things about the Thailand pictures. I keep remembering tidbits of the trip, but forgot them in the original post. Such things as people trying to speak to GP in Thai (easy mistake to make), the guy who addressed her in Japanese (that one didn't make her happy) and the lady who guessed she was from Singapore or Malaysia (which should be complimentary to her) before we told her China. We also met Thais who spoke Chinese which made GP happy and I impressed them when I'd speak a little, too. In Chinese, I mean.

A good friend from college, Mike, is coming to Suzhou next week for some work. I'm very glad to have the opportunity to show someone around and make them buy me dinner :) I'm sure he'll have a great time and you'll see photos here of him eating chicken feet and duck tongues.