Guest Post: Mother In China

All -- this is a guest blog from Chris' Mom. I arrived in China last week Tuesday and this morning am packing to leave. I can not believe that a week has flown by so quickly. And, what a week it was!!

We arrived with Chris waiting for us outside the gate. He had met a friend waiting for our one hour late plane. It turned out to be a coup for us as he joined us for dinner that evening and then invited us to a dinner and a show on Friday night.

Hotel Man -- Robin/Sean was waiting for us at our Hotel. What a grand Hotel. Marble and gold everywhere in the lobby. We checked in ran upstairs to put together the gifts we brought for Hotel Man/Robin/Sean and then presented them.

It was muggy and foggy before we arrived. The calm before the storm. It rained that night on our way back to the hotel and then turned chilly. But a nice chilly. Absolutely perfect weather -- crisp air, blue skys, awesome. Thank you China.

The food has been absolutely tremendous!!!!!! Stupendous!!! Delicious!!!!! Day one was Peking Duck. Day 2 Purple Bread, Fish Stew, and Dumplings, Beers on the Lake. Day 3 Corn Yogurt and Purple Bread, KFC on Wang Fu Shen Shopping District, Peking Opera Dinner. Day 4 Red Bean Yogurt and Purple Bread, Fragrant Pot, McDonalds at 9pm (got caught on subway and Chinese Restaurants had stopped serving). Day 5 Dim Sum, Hot Pot! Day 6 Hotel Buffet Breakfast, Snacks at the Mall (Green Tea Bun and Crab Custard Bun), Noodles at 'The Hallway'. Day 7 plan is for breakfast at Hotel and Lunch with Hotel Man. Suffice it to say we ate VERY well!

We saw The Wall, The Malls, Carrefour (think Chinese Walmart), Forbidden City, Tiammen Square, Chris in a terra cotta pot upheld by a small Chinese girl on a bench, Pearl Market, Nanlougu Market, Arts District, Night Market, Hutongs (Sarah and I did a bit of our own off the path exploring),Beijing Zoo and the Pandas, Tea House, Beijing at night, Beijing in a cab, Beijing on a Bus, Beijing on a subway and Beijing on foot. We got around.

We have had a lot of fun, laughed a lot. This city is incredible. Chris was an excellent tour guide. He negotiated the subways and buses with ease. He helped us our purchasing. He laughed at our poor attempt at Chinese yet worked with us to improve. We were in awe (and increaingly stay in awe) of his language and cultural skills. His friends are amazing .

We enjoyed the people and people watching. The people, cars, buses move as one and no one waits on the other. People in travel are one minded -- get out of my way. Yet, as we pondered over a map or tried to figure out where we were in a mall, people would stroll over and help us out. It is a very quiet and clean city. We didn't see a laundry mat. We heard very, very, maybe one siren. For a city this large, no fire trucks and ambulances dispatched every 5 minutes. Honking is done to gently make aware the presence of a car to walkers and bikers. Cars use all the lanes on the freeway, even the invisible lanes between lanes.

Sarah and I were a bit leery of the toilet situation. We are converts now! We love the squatters. Our first squat was on The Wall.

We love split pants. We love to see families in power squat position resting. We love to say Ni Hao and practice our Shey Shey everywhere. We love to torture Kelly with the question game.

I have left a ton out, so those who know me ask for the great stories, I took notes in my journal daily. I also took close to 500 pictures and several videos. And Chris, from the bottom of my heart and Sarah's -- Xiexie.