Hi Everyone,

    Hope all of you are surviving the snow and cold.  I don’t miss it at all.  Oddly I do miss the cool Chinese weather.  We often only needed a light sweater which is wonderful anytime but especially compared to the heat of Rebak.  It really is energy sapping for us after being away and also having AC.  Going outside makes me just want to go inside. 

     Sometime this week Randal and I will leave for Thailand.  We’re really just going to cruise for a few weeks anchoring out most of the time.  We will probably cruise up to Phuket for a few days while we are there.  Not sure about our email access since we won’t have a Thai SIM card for our Internet phone modem and if we anchor out we most likely won’t find wifi that will reach our boat.  We’ll do the best we can but it might be a bit.  Unfortunately Spring Training will be starting and I won’t be able to check on the Red Sox everyday. 

     Our China visit was a visit "home" to friends. There were several surprised faces as we walked through Jingan and Biajio and were recognized.  Some things had changed.  Our favorite "Father-Son" food stall in the small pedestrian area was no longer there.  And the small restaurant where I’d taken the wonderful rainy day photo of the side street across the way is closed too.  But there is a large, well stocked grocery store just next to our hotel where I could buy our morning milk and yogurt supplies.  We did have a small frig in the room so we could keep items like yogurt, milk, juice and Coke Zero which we could find quite easily this trip.  Because we didn’t eat the hotel breakfast we always found fresh fruit in our room when we returned later in the day.  The fruit and vegetables in China are wonderful and easily accessible in Jingan in Biajio where it seems everyone has a garden. 

     We went to China to visit friends and also to talk with Bill and Stella about a summer train trip in China.  We’re probably not going to Tibet this time but Stella is coming up with other possibilities to take us to the northwestern part of China near Mongolia.  Most of the people in these photos should seem familiar though some of them have grown up and are now about to graduate from their universities.  Time certainly doesn’t stand still.

Ru

DoraMac

Randal Singkey’s mom, Singkey’s Stepdad, Singkey and me at the Butterfly Love Western Food Restaurant near our hotel. Randal had invited Singkey’s family and Bill and Stella (whom you know because they built our boat and were in many of our China stories.) Sinkey is one of the high school students we became very fond of while we were in China. Randal acts as somewhat of a mentor to Singkey encouraging her from his own life experiences. I’m Auntie! Later during our visit we went to visit Singkey’s home. Her mom also has gardens and makes wonderful dried sweet potatoes. For dinner they took us to a restaurant near their home and the food was wonderful. Singkey said her mom had been too shy to cook for us but I’m sure it would have been fine. Next visit! Again we felt our inability to speak Chinese very sad because it would have been lovely to speak directly to Singkey’s parents. It is truly wonderful that so many Chinese students are learning English!

Singkey and Randal with Singkey’s new computer. Randal decided that Singkey needed a computer while at University. She is just finishing her first year. Her focus is English and her goal is to become an English teacher. She has already been chosen to be an English coach to some of her classmates.

Zoey, me, BoBo at the Butterfly……Restaurant celebrating their forthcoming graduation from their respective universities this spring. BoBo and Zoey were in their last year of high school when we met. I spent a lovely day with them visiting their high school while we lived at the boat yard. And we made dumplings for New Year and they helped me find our wooded bar stools and they and their families visited our boat at the yard. Lots of good memories. Now they are all grown up! Through their emails we have shared in their university years. Zoey’s goal is to become a primary school teacher focusing on teaching Chinese or she might become a secretary. BoBo focused on business and worked hard to improve her English speaking and writing skills and it really shows. She wants to work for some type of international business. Both BoBo and Zoey are looking for jobs in Zhuhai where they hope to share an apartment but they also would like to work in Macau where there are many jobs connected with the gambling industry.

Bill Kimley and Slick at the boat yard.

Slick would come visit our boat when we lived at the yard and sleep over on our bed. Or sometimes he and the other cats would come in the morning and sit on the hatch screen over our bed meowing until we woke up and fed them. I don’t think Slick has really forgiven us for leaving. It took him most of this visit to warm up to me and come ask for food!

Stella in her garden at the yard;

a blue and yellow Diesel Duck Sedan under construction; Jingan across the Yellow Ocean River. Stella can provide the vegetables for most of the people connected with the boat yard and her extended family from her garden. There is a bit more of it not visible in this picture. And the garden produces all year round.

Eldest sister Sandy, Dad, Mom, Gotsome, BoBo at a wonderful dinner cooked by BoBo’s mom at their home.

Sandy is 27, is a university graduate, works for China Post in Jingan and is hoping to marry this year of next year. Sadly, BoBo’s elderly grandfather died in early February and it is their custom to postpone weddings rather than celebrate them during the year of the death. Custom also prohibits family members from visiting the homes of other people for the first 100 days after the death. (I hope I am correct about all of this.) Gotsome is in his first year of university and is focusing on marketing. Or maybe he’ll be a poet!

This is part of the feast BoBo’s mom cooked for us. Even with 7 of us eating we hardly made a dent in all of the food!

Zoey, BoBo, Zoey’s sister, Dad, cousin, brother, and Mom out for dinner at a restaurant near Zoey’s home.

Zoey attended BoBo’s family’s dinner and BoBo came to Zoey’s family feast. It was to have been at Zoey’s home, but because BoBo was not allowed to visit other homes for 100 days after her grandfather’s death, Zoey’s family took us all out to eat. Each feast we attended was wonderful with different foods to try. Because Randal and I were the “guests of honor” each time we were encouraged to eat, eat, EAT! And we did but there was always lots of food left for the take away cartons.

The couple who owned the restaurant. He was kind enough to drive us home after dinner.

Zoey’s brother and the sons of the restaurant owner.

I have other stories and more photos to share. Maybe when we return from Thailand