Brayden’s CP Blog

No earthquake here…

May 13th, 2008

Hey all!  Just wanted to let you know that we are fine!  We did not feel anything from the earthquake.  As a matter of fact, we didn’t even find out that there was one until about 8:00 Monday night!  Kind of weird that we didn’t because we are between Shanghai and Beijing, and both of those cities felt the shaking.  Sounds like our angels were watching out for us!

On a happier note, the going away party on Sunday was AMAZING!!!  We were in the commons area until about 10:00 visiting with everyone.  We got to meet Mandy and her mom Brenda from Osceola, Missouri, which is between Kansas City and Springfield.  Heck, we are practically neighbors when you consider that there are folks here from all over the world.  Really, we had a great time!

On Monday, we decided to skip out on therapy and go have one last venture to downtown.  We rented a car this time so we didn’t have to spend time begging a cabbie to take us, but more importantly to bring us home!   I’m not sure if our driver got lost or what, but we did A LOT of driving around getting there.  I would say this trip was by far the most interesting of all car rides.  There is so much construction going on downtown.  It is very old, so they are trying to update buildings and streets.  That meant for a whole bunch of playing chicken on one way streets, dodging street workers, and testing the drivers skills of manuevering the car down a road that is meant for only two cars, but both sides of the street are already lined with parked cars!  Very interesting!  As I said, this is the older part of town, so there are a lot of vendors selling fruit and meat cuts right on the sidewalk!  It was really an awesome experience to see it all!  We did finally make it to the Jimo Market to gather more treasures.  Jason even did some bargaining of his own!  A lady told him 200 RMB for the same pair of flip-flops that we bought on Saturday for 80 RMB.  He told the lady 100.  She slammed down the shoes and walked away- wouldn’t even look at him!  Needless to say, he didn’t get those flip-flops!  After the market, we headed to the Jusco.  We actually found the McDonald’s there!!!  YEAH!  Our first hamburger in a month!  The biggest burger they have is a double cheeseburger, so Jason had to order 3!  The kids were so good.  Brylie didn’t even try to get up and play on the jungle gym until she was full!  Brayden ate an order of chicken nuggets and half of a cheeseburger!  We were pleasantly suprised- they actually taste like the McDonald’s back home.  Next we were off to find the DVD store which was supposed to be very close to the Jusco.  After walking forever in the rain, we got in the car and drove around.  Again, no such luck!  However, the driver was going all around this area that reminded Jason and I of Westport in KC.  Very cool area with lots of really modern bars, shops, hotels, and apartments.  All of the sudden we spot a building with JASON’S BAR across the front!!  My camera battery was dead, so we didn’t get a picture, but still we thought that was pretty cool!  Our driver followed the highway along the coast on our way back home.  If it weren’t for the Chinese techno music playing on the radio, we would have all thought we were in Florida!  It was beautiful with a lot of modern apartments and hotels along the coastline.  We saw a few glimpses of sailboats in the bay where the Olympics are going to be.  Such a great way to end the trip!

 Today (Tuesday) was packing day!  We started after therapy, and are still not quite finished.  Brayden had another massage, and he LOVED it.  He was a bit sore from therapy, so the massage really helped him calm down.  We spent the late part of the afternoon handing out gifts and saying a few goodbyes to the nurses that won’t be on duty tomorrow.  We really didn’t think it would be so hard to say goodbye.  We are saving our hardest goodbye’s for later tonight.  It will be very difficult to say goodbye to Giovanni and Elvia and Ching and Cindy.  They have all been here with us from day one, and we have become such great friends.  I think it will be very hard for the kids as well.  They both really love them all.  I think Giovanni reminds them of my dad. 

Well, that’s all for now.  I will try to squeeze in another update in the morning before we head to the airport.  Hope you all have a great Tuesday!  With love from China!! 

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