Typhoon and Happy Valentine's Day in China!!!

Gentle Reader,

 

Well... the last leg of our journey has changed substantially due to the impending typhoon coming out of Taiwan.  We are now at the Sofitel Hotel in Shanghai, but it was a series of serendipitous events that landed us here.

 

We had a flight scheduled out of Guiyang, but when we went to check in with Lisa and Kathy, our two amazing monitors, we were told all flights to Shanghai were cancelled due to torrential rains/typhoon coming.  Fortunately, I had looked at the arrival/departure board and noticed that there was an 11:10 flight on the board to Shanghai.  We had exactly 35 minutes to try to make this happen.   My grateful compliments to Kathy and Lisa for assisting with the language and the details.  With their help, the flight was changed to a different airline, we were issued new boarding passes, and then escorted quick style through security... carrying all our luggage with us onto the plane.  We were extremely impressed with their willingness to accomodate us and get us off to Shanghai!!!!

 

Once here, we discovered our non stop flight to Detroit had also been cancelled.  So, now we are in Shanghai and extra night and then in Tokyo overnight.  Major changes in our return arrangements, thanks to the typhoon!

 

Last night was Chinese Valentine's , so we celebrated at the Cotton Club, which is a premier jazz place here in Shanghai.  People from all over the world packed the place, including many Chinese.  There was a woman sitting alone, doing a lot of texting on her phone.  I noticed she kept dabbing her eyes, and she seems so terribly sad.  So, I just reached out to her and expressed that I was sorry she was sad.  We ended up talking.  She had been dating an American she met online, and the relationship was recently over.  Between Scott and me, we were able to pull quite a bit of conversation and smiles out of her, in spite of her obvious sadness. 

 

The view from our hotel is absolutely beautiful! 

 

Oh... we had a lovely last night in Guiyang.  We took all the monitors out to dinner -- Leon, Kathy, Lisa, and Penny -- to a Beijing dumpling restaurant they recommended.  We also had some wonderfully spicy Japanese tofu there.  Carol, from the Zunyi site joined us.  She and Bill Richardson had a tragedy occur at their site in the last days there.  One of their students lost their three year old daughter to a virus.  They brought her into Zunyi from the countryside, but it was too late and they couldn't save her.

 We also took the monitors out for a celebration at California World Cafe.  They were reported to have beers from around the world, but really only had about 6 different beers from Belgium and Germany.  We ordered a few and shared samples with each other, having a little taste of the Europe in Guiyang.

 

By the way, I have eaten pig's ear now, as well as tripe.  All quite by accident.  Will never seek either dish out intentionally.  Scott is a bit more daring than I am when it comes to trying everything on the Chinese glass turntable.  We've had eel, frog, numerous fish head dishes... and I did discover that the fish cheek, considered a delicacy and an honor to eat, is really quite delicious.

 

We also paid a visit to LeDong's Oakland Learning Center on Saturday morning.  Six elementary school students were putting on an English Program for their parents.  They introduced themselves in a somewhat formatted way, and then they shared some short stories.  A fun morning that showcased their learning of English!

 

We didn't expect to have internet access, but were able to arrange it with this hotel.  So...  Happy Chinese Valentine's Day to all of you!  Reach out to someone you love today and give them a sweet squeeze and some warm sugar...

 

Namaste,

Marianne/ Mei Lan