Thursday, June 29, 2006
On The Mend
I'm hoping you are waking up to a lovely morning there! For those of you who are the praying people... thank you!!! I'm sure you were heard, that we've been heard, and now everyone can rest assured that all is well indeed, AMEN! Kim is back at the hotel, eating, drinking, smiling, cracking her usual jokes, and... did I say... eating??? Hallelujah!
Dale and I took some clothes over to her this morning at the hospital (a story in and of itself, as I thought I was walking into an inner city bus terminal that was really the Suzhou Hospital!), and saw how wonderful the 'Western' Hospital was... clean, efficient, modern... (flat panel TVs in the rooms even)... and felt so awful that middle class people here can't afford to be there. So sad. Kim looked well, and she eventually got all her medicine in her, ate enough, that she was back at the hotel with Emily by 3 pm. Shall I mention here, that Emily deserves wings, halo, and a free pass to whatever she wants from here out.
Meanwhile... The rest of us all got all of our humor, bad jokes, enthusiasm, patience (with capital P), and energy back and we enjoyed our day of touring: Humboldt Garden (lotus flowers, amazing architecture, landscape architecture, feng shui, total serenity), then toured the Embroidery Factory to see the women do their very specialized and intricate hand work... words can't describe...., then off to lunch in a wonderful restaurant (western bathrooms). A small shower came, but didn't stay long enough to ruin our Canal Riverboat Tour. Just amazing! One minute we'd see architecture from the 21st century, and the next there's a grandmother leaning over the canal wall rinsing her laundry. Such ying and yang. Many small children's faces light up when they see us, and they are all eager to say "hello" and are excited when we understand them, and they giggle when we answer back "Ni Hao". After the Canal Cruise, we walked to the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" in China, which is the Tiger Hill Pagoda, built in 900s. AMAZING! Can't say I'd want to be on the down side of that structure very long. It is part of a Buddhist temple, and some of our people knelt and prayed at the giant Golden Buddha in the worship area. Other Buddhists came to pray, so we witnessed the protocol and felt comfortable not offending anyone. Jamie, Sloan and Claire hired rides to the top of the hill in one of those covered seats, carried by men between two poles on their shoulders. The seat was in a small red tent. VERY funny, as the people who carried Sloan were half her height!!! She paid them twice as much, and they wanted their picture taken with her....
Back to the hotel, and we were given 2 hours to walk the streets here and be in the general public... but not in less than groups of 3 without an adult and 2 with an adult. SUCH an experience one can't imagine. In case you didn't know... there are a LOT, a bunch, slews, beaucoup people here, and just as many bicycles and cars and buses. We kind of stick out, though. I can't remember ever being in a crowd that I can see over people's heads! Shopping was an experience with the language barrier. I've become quite the bargainer, and wanted to just see if I could do it without a language interpreter. I ended up with just a little something that was 120 Yuan that I was able to get for 10. I know it was a good experience, because (as Emily has explained to us) the seller smiled when it was over, so I didn't under pay.
Now we are off to the Technical University for a small performance..... well, actually it was supposed to be a small one, but Allie got a phone call this afternoon that the university has put the word out and many universities in the area are coming to hear us sing, and they asked us to sing for maybe 90 minutes!!! We (being the bargaining gurus now) understood that to mean 45 minutes, so we offered 30, they said 60, we agreed on 45!!! So the kids are singing a 45 minute concert tonight, we're not sure to whom or even if its with anyone, exchanging greetings with college kids, and then we are being treated to a feast (I'm sure) at a fine Suzhou restaurant. Can you read that we've all become quite the flexible tourists here, happy to have anyone like us, and I can honestly say now that everyone is now having a BALL, we are moaning that time is getting short, but VERY anxious to get to Shanghai tomorrow. We've been promised a Karaoke restaurant tomorrow night that might have a few English songs!!! Kids are so excited for that.
Zai Jian! (Bye)
Gwen
Tomorrow we are off
Dale and I took some clothes over to her this morning at the hospital (a story in and of itself, as I thought I was walking into an inner city bus terminal that was really the Suzhou Hospital!), and saw how wonderful the 'Western' Hospital was... clean, efficient, modern... (flat panel TVs in the rooms even)... and felt so awful that middle class people here can't afford to be there. So sad. Kim looked well, and she eventually got all her medicine in her, ate enough, that she was back at the hotel with Emily by 3 pm. Shall I mention here, that Emily deserves wings, halo, and a free pass to whatever she wants from here out.
Meanwhile... The rest of us all got all of our humor, bad jokes, enthusiasm, patience (with capital P), and energy back and we enjoyed our day of touring: Humboldt Garden (lotus flowers, amazing architecture, landscape architecture, feng shui, total serenity), then toured the Embroidery Factory to see the women do their very specialized and intricate hand work... words can't describe...., then off to lunch in a wonderful restaurant (western bathrooms). A small shower came, but didn't stay long enough to ruin our Canal Riverboat Tour. Just amazing! One minute we'd see architecture from the 21st century, and the next there's a grandmother leaning over the canal wall rinsing her laundry. Such ying and yang. Many small children's faces light up when they see us, and they are all eager to say "hello" and are excited when we understand them, and they giggle when we answer back "Ni Hao". After the Canal Cruise, we walked to the "Leaning Tower of Pisa" in China, which is the Tiger Hill Pagoda, built in 900s. AMAZING! Can't say I'd want to be on the down side of that structure very long. It is part of a Buddhist temple, and some of our people knelt and prayed at the giant Golden Buddha in the worship area. Other Buddhists came to pray, so we witnessed the protocol and felt comfortable not offending anyone. Jamie, Sloan and Claire hired rides to the top of the hill in one of those covered seats, carried by men between two poles on their shoulders. The seat was in a small red tent. VERY funny, as the people who carried Sloan were half her height!!! She paid them twice as much, and they wanted their picture taken with her....
Back to the hotel, and we were given 2 hours to walk the streets here and be in the general public... but not in less than groups of 3 without an adult and 2 with an adult. SUCH an experience one can't imagine. In case you didn't know... there are a LOT, a bunch, slews, beaucoup people here, and just as many bicycles and cars and buses. We kind of stick out, though. I can't remember ever being in a crowd that I can see over people's heads! Shopping was an experience with the language barrier. I've become quite the bargainer, and wanted to just see if I could do it without a language interpreter. I ended up with just a little something that was 120 Yuan that I was able to get for 10. I know it was a good experience, because (as Emily has explained to us) the seller smiled when it was over, so I didn't under pay.
Now we are off to the Technical University for a small performance..... well, actually it was supposed to be a small one, but Allie got a phone call this afternoon that the university has put the word out and many universities in the area are coming to hear us sing, and they asked us to sing for maybe 90 minutes!!! We (being the bargaining gurus now) understood that to mean 45 minutes, so we offered 30, they said 60, we agreed on 45!!! So the kids are singing a 45 minute concert tonight, we're not sure to whom or even if its with anyone, exchanging greetings with college kids, and then we are being treated to a feast (I'm sure) at a fine Suzhou restaurant. Can you read that we've all become quite the flexible tourists here, happy to have anyone like us, and I can honestly say now that everyone is now having a BALL, we are moaning that time is getting short, but VERY anxious to get to Shanghai tomorrow. We've been promised a Karaoke restaurant tomorrow night that might have a few English songs!!! Kids are so excited for that.
Zai Jian! (Bye)
Gwen
Tomorrow we are off
