Homeward Bound

Our Chinese Adventure has drawn to a close.  We passed through the hostel doors this morning at 9:00 and were met with one last blast of smells, sights and sounds.  Our Shanghai accomdation was right next to a meat and fish market.  With that, the mornings brought among the most powerful odors to assault that unavoidable sense.  Riley gagged and Tara held her breathe until it was safe to draw air again.

I peeked out at 6:00 one morning to see garbage strewn all about.  Amongst the garbage were people who appeared to be sorting through it and pulling out food stuffs.  I do not know the final destination of this food but I imagine it may have served to sustain those who had picked it out.  

On our way to the station we heard fireworks exploding and saw a limo decorated with flowers and a well dressed man inside.  There were a few other flower clad cars in what we can presume was a wedding procession.  If you listened carefully you often heard fireworks in the areas we visited.  Pyrotechnics are employed whenever there is something to celebrate or simply for good luck.

Planning notes:

- Packed 10 rolls of toilet paper, almost made it.

- Brought 60 food bars, ate 50, used soft serve ice cream cones as meal replacement.

- Drank an estimate 90 1.5 liter bottles of water.

- Patti and girls had a good clothes rotation.  

- I wore 25% of my cloths 75% of the time.  Did not help that I lost 33% of my shirts.

Ripoffs:

- Paid US$13 for a cab ride that probably should have cost US$5.  Riley was near comatose and passed out in the cab as he flew down the bikeless bike lane while almost scraping his paint off getting into it.  We will call that one worth it.

- Paid US$5 for a moped rickshaw ride that probably should have cost US$0.50.  Tara and I were in a hurry and never had as much fun scattering pedestrians in a motorized vehicle flying down the sidewalk.

Food:

- Patti is quitting rice.

- Tara and Riley are banned from all kinds of junk.  Forever!

- Last minute airport spend down of the remaining

P RMB$130 to $2.2 was the last junk food hurray.

Water:

- Ready to stop keeping my mouth shut in the shower.

- Ready to drink from the faucet again.  Including teeth brushing.  Tara had the great idea to put a cup over the spout.

- Ready for it not to be raining every day.  That was only in South China, but it kept us nice and cool.

Odds & Ends:

- It was different being taller then most of the folks in a country.

- Our iOS devices and other things enjoyed visiting the land of their birth.

- Sitting in LAX I really see the contrast in ethnic diversity between America and China.

Coming Home:

- Even though we were 14 hours ahead of Denver time Patti and I were still on the early to bed early to rise program.

- Brought the TRX along and got in a decent number of workouts.  I am curious to see what kind of shape I am in.

- Hoping to get to bed by 10:00 Sunday night.  That will make for 31 hours since my head last bonded with pillow.

- Going to work Monday morning and have a meeting until 10:00ish Monday night.  Lets see how that works out.

- I stashed work computer somewhere in the house.  Not sure where.

- Looking forward a boxspring with a mattress on top.  But my sleep number may now be that of a sheet of plywood.

- Clean sheets with no evidence of usage other then mine after the last washing.

- The girls enjoyed their last minutes of child stardom as a pair of Chinese women stood in the airplane aisle and stared at them for several minutes.

Control:

The flight from L.A. to Shanghai was the roughest I had ever been on and had more dips then the rides in Disneyland the day before.  At times I was wondering if we were going to make it.  I know that God is in control of all things, but at times I disregard that knowledge.  Midway into the turbulence I had to rest in the confidence that God is really the pilot and that nothing will happen to me other than what He wills.  God was gracious to remind me that I could trust Him and that trust carried me through the other situations in the trip where I could only pretend to be in control.

The Master:

On the funicular ride up to the top of Victoria Peak in Hong Kong I saw a billboard that made more sense to me the deeper we entered into the remnants of Buddhist China.  'Follow the One True Master' it read under a recognizable image of Jesus.  Kung Fu Masters are also Buddhist Monks and are revered in their journey toward enlightenment.  They, in a sense, show the way to an incomplete end.  Jesus is 'The Way' and brings His desciples to completion apart from anything they are capable of or would choose to do on their own.

This trip was great!  All kinds of everything.

Thank you God for seeing us through this safely and use this unique experience for Your glory.

Until next time,Xi Jian.