Journey to Laizhou, China

Pineapple Season.

and boy are they sweet, and boy do they taste good.

We were invited to travel (4 hours) to Laizhou which is north of Jinan and on the shore of the sea. We went at the invitation of one of Dana's medical students. Both of us were to present a 3000 word paper to a group there. We were asked to go, stay overnight and present in the morning. We were treated very well by our hosts and we enjoyed the trip and Laizhou.

Presenting our papers. They were medical research papers full of medicalease and huge words, and complicated by being written in traditional Chinglish/Half Chinese/Half English. Try and read that someday kids. It is a fun read out loud at a Family Home Evening kids. Try it Tanner. I will send you some Chinglish.

Dana and Wendy, read one by one...and accomplished the company's goal.

This was our audience. They were not doctors as we had imagined. They were elderly people who had come to hear about some new medical research and resulting medicines for Diabetes and Hypertension. Then they were asked to buy the products. The had never seen an American or any other person that Chinese...so we were quite the novelty and they were all very gratious and kind to us too. Dana and I talked later and decided that we were kind of a draw or incentive like monkeys at the zoo and they had come to see us and hear us talk. They understood no English however, so the translator girl (we named her Wendy) told them what we were reading to them.

This is the company manager as we were leaving the conference room. I think he was really happy to have us come, although his demeanor is not showing it. Hey, we are happy though.

On the way out of Laizhou, the car broke down as the clutch linkage broke and we limped into a garage to get it fixed...so Dana and I went for a walk and saw this cool tractor with a 50 foot trailer flat bed on back.

She also met this garbage man cleaning the garbage up and thought he was really cute. What do you think? I think he looks like the guy I got fleas from last year. So, I stayed back.

These are the lunch we received as we started to leave town, andour hosts stopped at a fast foot chinese place to get us some of the famous, Laizhou Donkey Pies. They look like tacos to me, but tasted like Donkey, I guess. Dana would not eat them, but did take one bite. I ate one only...You can only eat so much Donkey, and I have heard that "You are What You Eat."

This is our house in Jinan before we left for Laizhou. It is Spring and it is warming now.

Richard Watkins and Dana and I went to a place we have named: "Home Depot". It is a series of hundreds of small shops which cover several acres. The place was closed as we arrived late, except this one shop. We went in and got what we came for. Three long 35 foot extensions cords. I was able to talk in Chinese enough to tell them what we wanted and to ask them to assemble them, and then pay and leave...of course I was talking to them all the time while they were working in Chinese. So, they know all about our family, kids, grandkids, our ages, and names, including our Chinese names. They have our card now. They are now good friends and we took our photos together. They also took photos. When we left, we had such a good feeling about this adventure. I call this friendshipping, store contacting and spreading the spirit of a positive life with our Chinese friends here. We cannot help but love these people. They are just great...all of them.