Magical day in the Kingdom

 I got up early today to meet my friends for coffee. It was a beautiful fall day.

The part of town where we met was full of coffee shops, restaurants, and art shops. I just love it here, and I don't know why I don't go more often. It is not that far from where I live really.

It's a trendy part of town. It wasn't crowded when I arrived, but when I left at lunch time it was so packed I could hardly get out.

Based on what I've seen on Facebook, cute food decorations are the "in" thing in the U.S. Seems they are popular here too. These are meat buns (or maybe instead of meat they have something sweet inside, but that is definitely steamed bread surrounding some kind of filling). They were for sale on the above-mentioned trendy street.

Here's my cup of coffee and one of my friends. Despite how it looks, the cup of coffee was not really bigger than my friend. When we finished visiting for a couple of hours at the coffee shop, I had to detour to go home, because of all the crowds. What a lovely detour it was, because if I hadn't taken it, I would not have discovered this:

Marks and Spencer!!!!!!! It's a British department store, in case you're not familiar. I LOVE this store. I used to make trips to Hong Kong, with visits to this store in mind. I can't believe one opened in my city!!!! It just opened. They have clothes that are normal sizes, unlike most stores in town that carry size zero as the largest size. I went in this store and I had to contain myself. I wanted to jump up and down like an excited 5 year old, but wisely and quickly determined it wasn't appropriate to display my emotion publicly at my advanced age. So I jumped up and down inwardly. You do remember last week I mentioned that there is nothing I like to shop for in this country? I so happily can take that back now.

Marks and Spencer also carries food items (lots of packaged goods, canned goods, coffee, etc.), and they are generally very good, cheap, and packaged beautifully. And they have a cafe too. The grocery section and cafe aren't opening until December though, but it will probably be my favorite hangout once it is open.

And you know what? They have a brand new Gap store here too, just near Marks and Spencer! (I took a picture of it, but somehow I lost it when downloading the photos). Gap has normal sizes too. I haven't seen a Gap store in China before, although I'm quite sure we are not the first city in China to get one. Beijing and/or Shanghai are usually always the first.

You probably can't imagine why clothing stores could make me so excited. So let me tell you. I am not trying to promote materialism; but I have for years lived under a certain kind of stress. I usually ONLY buy clothes when I am in the U.S. I would love to buy clothes here, but the size zero thing just makes it impossible. I have a great collection of shoes, socks, purses and scarves that I bought in China, but not clothes. When in the U.S. I have to buy 2-3 years worth of clothing, both under and outwear, and hope it will last. And I can't buy much because too much won't fit in the two suitcases the airline allows. All of a sudden, my clothes-buying-in-America intense pressure has been relieved. My life has changed, to tell the truth! I'll still buy stuff in America, but I don't have to depend on those infrequent trips to supply all my clothing needs. Wow, shopping has become fun again, all in the blink of an eye! I had to drag myself out of these stores today after I had looked at everything 2 or 3 times.

I was proud of myself too, because last night I went through my closets and threw away lots of old junky clothes. There's not much left in my closets; I bought one thing today to help re-stock it. (Yeah, after all that excitement and chatter, I just bought one sweater. I practiced self-control.) :-)

Then I went back to my place and went out for a jog as part of my SBP (shrinking body project). There's a beautiful, well kept park right next to where I live. It has a walking track with a soft track-like surface (that's it on the bottom left). I like how it has trees and bushes near the track so it feels more like a stroll in a park -- a football field track is a bit less enticing!

I made some new friends (a family) while I was jogging. (Yeah, they stopped me during my jog, so it interrupted my attempt to get aerobic benefits.) But I think it will be worth it. We exchanged contact information and I am happy I got a chance to meet them.

Later in the day, I got an email out of the blue from some former co-workers thanking me for helping them adjust to the culture when they arrived six years ago. They were laughing among themselves about their initial mistakes with the culture and decided to write and thank me. How nice of them to take the time to write!

And then my mom had a surgical implant procedure last week to relieve her back pain, and it worked! She is currently pain-free for the first time in recent memory (her pain was so severe before that she could hardly move/walk ... she broke a vertebrae last year). She and my dad are really happy (we all are)! Things are looking up, and that makes my heart glad.

Today gets an A+ in my book. From start to finish, it was a beautiful, perfect day. Thank you God for the gift of today.

Miserable bus, lovely hotel room

I had a miserable bus ride yesterday.* A 3-hour trip took 5 hours. We were crammed in like sardines and I couldn't move my arms for all that time. It was filthy, hot and muddy. The windows were fogged up and I couldn't see the gorgeous countryside. I tried to block the entire wretched experience out of my mind even as it happened. It reminded me of the good old days of travel in the Middle Kingdom, and made me realize that some of those good old days were really not good at all. Some were very third-worldish. My mind had done me a favor by helping me forget, but I blew it by reminiscing via re-enactment. There was no other way to get where I was going though.

But today* is better. I'm in a coastal city now. I can see the Pacific Ocean from the window of my gorgeous, clean and spacious hotel room.

I ran next door to meet someone at Starbucks this morning in the pouring rain. When I got back at lunch time, it was still raining hard.

When I stay in a nice hotel, I am always torn between seeing the sights of the city or spending time in the hotel room to soak up a relaxing environment...to get my money's worth.

Today, God made the decision for me. The rain was too hard to go out. I put on my pajamas, got my Kindle, and read nearly 300 pages of a 550-page novel. Heavenly. I can't remember the last time I had time on my hands to relax like this.

I'll be back in my own place soon. After weeks on the road, I am ready for some clean outer clothes. The ones I have must be filled with enough germs, dirt and bacteria to infect a major city.

___
*When I say "today," I am talking about the day I wrote this, not the day I posted this.

Afternoon at the coffee shop

Gifts from Mike and his "girlfriend" -- the flowers were from them a while back, the homemade goodies in recycled jars and the wooden goose basket were from today.

I spent the afternoon at a coffee shop talking with a 25-year old young man I first met a few years ago. (He says he is 27 years old, but based on his actual date of birth, he is really 25). Let's call him Mike. Because it wouldn't be cool for me to give you his real name.

Warning: This story doesn't have a plot or anything, I just thought some of you might want a glimpse into everyday life.

Mike, a reserved type, is nice looking, is a mechanical engineer and has a good-paying job. 

Back in December he introduced his girlfriend to me and I quickly discovered they were living together, planning to get married at the end of 2013. He expounded on that today. 

Turns out they are already legally married, and plan to hold their wedding ceremony with invited guests at the end of 2013. (In this country, the act of marriage registration makes the marriage legal, not the ceremony itself as it is in America. Lots of Chinese married couples choose a later wedding date after they are registered.) 

I don't know why Mike introduced his wife to me as his girlfriend in December though. Why not just say "this is my wife?"

Mike's wife only had one week off for Chinese New Year, so she's back at work this week. Mike himself has three weeks off. He is bored sitting at home out by the quiet lake, so he wanted to visit someone. So he called me up. He wanted to practice his English as much as anything. We met at Starbucks. Fortunately, there are lots of Starbucks in this city; unfortunately, we initially went to different ones, postponing our meeting for half an hour or so. 

He brought me some homemade snacks his mom had made. She made sugar-coated peanuts and sesame toffee squares. He and his wife also picked up a souvenir for me while visiting a tourist mountain on their trip home for the New Year. (They drove home for the holidays, because they have a car.) I am so touched -- I feel unworthy that they thought of me during their trip. 

Mike didn't come from money. His parents are poor farmers, growing their own food. His mom has 10 chickens, a cat, an ox and used to have a pig. We looked on Google maps to see where their plot of land is several days' drive to the west of here.

Mike's worldview is so different from mine. For example, he was excited to tell me he had a dream and Einstein was in it. Yep, he dreams about Albert Einstein, the scientist. I can't even imagine having a dream about anything to do with science. Or about anyone with a bad hairdo for that matter.

Mike wishes he could go to England to meet wheelchair-bound scientist Stephen Hawking, and he was carrying a biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs with him today. It seems much of the world is in the business of building heroes that have nothing to do with Jesus, though He's the only one who will remain standing when all else fades away. I am so unimpressed with just about everyone else the world tries to sell me on as a hero. But I didn't want to ruin it for Mike, so I just winced smiled as he talked about them.

Deep down in my heart I had a mental picture of how I hoped our meeting would go today. After discussing deep questions that his soul had pondered since my Christmas party, Mike would drop to his knees right there in the middle of the coffee shop, repent (with tears streaming down his face) and become my spiritual brother today. Alas, not today. It didn't even come up. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

After taking an e-bike, subway, bicycle and taxi for my outing today, I finally returned home. 

I'm kind of chuckling over the fact that a popular 25-year old guy called up someone my age to spend the afternoon with, but it's actually not that unusual. It's one of the things I love about this place. Anything can happen.