I finally made it out of Alaska without having to give up my first born, but not without wondering if it would come to that. (I love you Jacque) My medical clearance didn't come through until the morning of my flight. I Packed all my luggage in the car and set out for a few last minute errands. I arrived back home an hour before Taylor was to come home and drive me to the airport. Keep in mind, I DROVE MY CAR around town for about 2 hours. When we got in the car to go to the airport.....it wouldn't start!!!! I didn't wonder if It was Devine intervention, I mean come on, I just paid $100 to have the dealer tell me there's nothing wrong with it!! Taylor and I just started laughing in amazement! Then, we unloaded all those heavy suitcases and stuffed them in her car. The adventure was begining..finally! I'm glad I;m not telling you the plane wouldn't start, or better still, that we had a crash landing. The worst thing that happened on my trip to Beijing was leaving my pillow that I dragged thousands of miles (BECAUSE I WANTED IT HERE) on the plane. I figure that's no biggy after everything else that has gone on. Its just a pillow...at least it wasn't my pink blankie..now that would have been tragic!!
After arriving here safely and getting a pretty good nights sleep, we set out for some shopping. Now that was an experience!!! Loved it, but it is really crowed here. We walked to a few of the Malls and I gotta say...IM ALIVE. I truly thought it was going to be in the Headlines. Death by Scooter. I came close to getting run over more than once. They drive all over the place. Its a mix of thousands of cars, mixed with thousands of scooters and just as many bikes. I would think I was on a sidewalk with bikes and scooters going by, only to quickly move out of the way of a car. Its funny though, among all the kayos, no ones is yelling or speaking harsh words, or even looking angry. In America people get shot for less!! They love to honk their horns though, it just isn't in anger. Our driver is amazing, but I sometimes just have to close my eyes, when he is literally just inches from another car. It's a "TRY" situation on the streets. If you see an opening you try to take it!!!
I went out on an Adventure today with Three other ladies from church. I was a little nervous. I gave Steven, our driver, the address where he was to drop me off. I didn't really even know what these ladies looked like, I was truly hoping they would remember what I looked like and find me. It took an hour to get there in traffic. We went to the Chinese Capital Museum. After the museum, we wanted to get something to eat before we made our next stop at a chinese temple. None of us spoke Chinese and we went in the Embassy area where the Chinese people speak some English. My driver had stayed out side to wait for me though, so I asked if he could drop us off somewhere to eat Chinese food. He took us someplace very close, dropped us off and we were on our own :) The adventure began....
NO ONE in the little authentic chinese restraint spoke any English. they pointed us to a table and mingled together over at the counter just looking at us..sometimes laughing and sometimes with a look of pity. We were wondering if they were even going to serve us when 2 of them (teenager looking) headed our way. They sat a menu in front of us that was entirely chinese characters and began agin to laugh because we burt our laughing. We tried everything from pointing at others peoples food to putting our hands to our mouth trying to say we were hungry. Finally I called my driver who speaks 'SOME' English and asked him to talk to the kid and just order food for the four of us. The kid was laughing so head that a woman, a customer, took the phone from him and talked to Steven. It was all so hilarious and WAY OUT of my comfort zone. We literally had no idea what she told them to get us. First we got a bottle of water, later came our food. 24...yes 24 long egg roll looking things. They were stacked on three plates. It was sooo much food. We mixed our soy sauce, vinegar, and hot pepper flakes and dug on. We don't know what meat was in them..don't want to know..but they were wonderful. Some had carrots with the meat, some cilantro (my favorite) and some green onions (I think). Soon they came back and started pouring us bowls of something creamy and runny. A Chinese gentleman that was eating at the next table sensed our wonder and was able to speak enough to tell us it was Hominy Soup. He and he wife were eating some also and they had a bowl of some type of vegetable looking thing she was putting in it. i pointed to it and asked what it was. Before I could stop him, he grabbed the bowl and put half of it's contents on one of our plates. He told him hank you and tried to tell him that wasn't necessary but he insisted. It was good, I think it was tangy pieces of steamed cabbage, but I'm not sure :) We finally had all we could possibly eat and put our hands in the air and rubbed our fingers together...universal symbol for money, right. They cracked up, but soon brought us a piece of paper with 41 written on it. For all that food (leftovers to take home) it was the equivalent of less than $6 for all of us. I quickly said I'm buying :)
Next it was off to the temple, which was across the street. When we were done my chariot awaited. He took me and my new friends home. My driver is wonderful. He did have a good laugh about our experience at the restaurant. He said " You say you want Chinese" I said "We got it"
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Sent from Julie's IPad
Begin forwarded message:
From: Julie Jackson <dawgsmommy@gmail.com>
Date: September 6, 2010 11:52:44 AM GMT+08:00
To: Darron China# <darron.b.jackson@conocophillips.com>, Darron Jackson <tazeng@hotmail.com>, Mom Hansen <beverlyhansen@frontier.com>, 007 <andrew.b.jackson@us.army.mil>, Ben Jackson <bjack20000@gmail.com>, Jacque Butterfield <jacquedee@gmail.com>, Blog <dawgsmommy.myblog@blogger.com>, "mrslincoln55@gmail.com" <mrslincoln55@gmail.com>
Subject: Erma Bombeck
You remember Erma Bombeck? The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side of the Fence!
Well that grass in China better be pretty green!!! I'm just saying.... I feel a little like that saying. "If anything can go wrong it will.". I mean really people..... If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries why am I in the Pitts??? Seriously.....first, I have my car towed from my garage to the dealership because it won't start. I'm not crazy or anything, it really wouldn't start! I have witnesses!! I don't hear anything from them for a day, when they finally call I get this from them.
"Hello, this is IDIOT from Lithia Dodge, we have your Jeep here and we were wondering why.". UNBELIEVABLE!!! I tell, we'll call him IDIOT #3, that it won't start and the guy I called and talked to told me to have it towed there. Then another guy from there told me who to have tow it. " Oh says IDIOT "3 we probably won't get to it untill tomorrow now since it is almost closing time....I was totally shocked....NOT! Next day I get a call telling me it's ready they did all the tests and there is nothing wrong with it! Started right up! I can come get it, that will be $100. Totally shocked!...NOT! Sooo....today I go to my friends for dinner. I get out of my car and hear a very hold hissing sound. I'm thinking is there a gas leak in the garage? What's going on? I look around and start going toward the sound... Which leads me straight to my back tire! I reach down and run my hand along the tire and feel AIR! To my dismay there is a screw sticking out. Now I realize it's Sunday so I just have to let the life seep out of my tire and figure out to use the air thingybob in the morning so I can speed to the tire shop. It's these bumps in life that I have had lately, and I've only mentioned the minor ones, that make me start thinking. Is there greener grass somewhere? Will it be better....softer....not make me miserable. Are there cherries without Pitts out there somewhere? If so where are they? And if anything can go wrong, it will...then what next? Then I stopped and reminded myself that life is an adventure...we sure don't want it too easy, then it would be boring, we would become weak. So we take the lumps and the bumps and we get tough. We learn how to Pitt our own Cherries, and make our own grass greener and we thank our Father in Heaven that we have grass to fertilize and cherries to Pitt, a body to take care of and family to love! I don't think the grass will be greener in Beijing, but the love of my life is there. Who needs grass?
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