More Ketchup Please

**ANOTHER WARNING**
This is not a “We have Ray" post, but a ketchup on trip stuff post!

Nov 12: Monday

I awoke at 4am this morning. Ugh. Pick one:

A. Still adjusting to sleep issues
B. Desire to record Sat & Sun because once Ray is with us, forgettahbowdit
C. My dad’s snoring
D. Nervous energy

Let’s go with B and quickly wrap up the weekend for posterity.

…Saturday started with breakfast which I already shared with you was fantastic. We had missed out opportunity to dine with May, because we were 30 minutes behind. Oh, well, sitting at a deuce next to the window with my dad was nice.

After breakfast we hooked with May in the lobby. She is just positively the most perfect coordinator we could ask for. So nice, so helpful. As an aside, we found out she would be flying with us to Guangzhou this week, which was GREAT news. That trip is long in its own right, at apparently about six hours with a layover somewhere. We hope that Ray, her, and I can be in the same row.

We hit the bank to exchange some money. It’s just up the escalator from the lobby. I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve done this (Italy in ’97?), because it was more involved than anticipated. An estimated eight minutes elapsed before the $200 was converted into around 1,450 RMB. Several copies of my passport were made, and I signed two or three things. (May was next to me to help, but the police officer didn’t realize it and made me stand behind a yellow line, about six feet back from the window. When he left the teller waved me back up.)

After my father exchanged some money too we headed out with our driver provided by the Civil Affairs office. His name is not spelled this way, but it sounds like “song.” It appears he’ll be with us for the week. Song is tall and thin and has a gentle way about him; yet after spending a few days cruising around Harbin with him, the fellow definitely has missed his calling to be a Grand Prix race car driver.

Words can not really describe how absurd the driving is around here. The locals make the Italians and the Greeks look like they are sitting still parked in the garage. There are roundabouts the get four and five cars deep. Song, if necessary, goes in at a 90-degree angle to the cars racing around if he needs to get to the middle.

Oh, and just throw in the fact that (literally) tens of thousands of people are walking around too, and it gets unnerving at times. How no one has been hit is not clear to me; believers or not, there are many a guardian angel flying around in this town. I've missed tons of good pics in the car, but one neat thing we saw was the "old meeting the new" - a guy on a horse pulling about 20 pieces of 20-foot long PVC piping; in this traffic no less. Here's the pic - just focus on the middle and your eyes will help fill out the rest.

So our first out-and-about-stop on Saturday was, er, WallMart. We just needed to pick up some bottled water, which turned into getting other odds and spends. There were two levels to the store. I’m not the biggest shopper back home, but to me the store was completely different than the ones back up. It’s more like a grocery store, with fruit, veggies, and meant/fish/poultry downstairs, and non-perishable items up stairs.

The place was packed and there were workers everywhere. I recall reading about the customer service in China being good. It is, and folks are so friendly; it could be because they are prepping for the 2008 games and putting on a nice face, or because there so many staff members. I can understand the latter with the government-run businesses (our gov’t is just like theirs: consider the 83 people at the MVA), but not something that Sam Walton’s family is running.

Oh, well, the folks are genuinely nice. We had a nice exchange with a mother and her young 8-year oldish son when checking out. Mind you, we are the only Americans in Harbin (without exaggeration) so we catch the attention of folks. At one point the boy just turned around and in perfect English asked, "What is your name?" He blushed of course. My father answered Bill and asked his name to which the boy responded, "Henry." One thinks it's his English-class name! We gave Henry a NC quarter, stamped with the Wright Brothers on the back.

From WallMart we went to the St. Sophia Russian Orthodox Cathedral. Candidly I expected more than what we so, if only because of all the Cathedrals I've been to in Europe. This one ws gutted inside and serves as a museum for recent Harbin History (from the early 20th century). My issue was probably more selfish than anything, in that everything was in Chinese. So the pics were nice to look at; and there was a very nice suprise in that the back rooms of the church, with pieces of iconic artwork on display. I've never seen these "Board Pictures," and really enjoyed them.

I'll say this: it's nice to see Christ is not completely surpressed in this country. And religion in general, as there is a synagogoe here as well. (check out the way-way background of the pic below. That is the landscape around the Cathedral from 100 years ago.)

(the Ascension)

Later we went back to the van to head to the hotel. I hope Song has a good book to read or something, while we just walk around this week.

A nap was in order Saturday afternoon, which was followed by dinner at the restaurant downstairs. We were thrown for a loop on that one. May came with us and helped us order...then left! It's something about not wanting to "take advantage of the families." As if she'd be doing that when we were the ones to invite her! Oh well, I wouldn't have wanted to eat with her anyway...she had "Dog Soup" at the place she ended up at! They breed certain dogs like we raise pigs. Yes, we all hear about that in China, but they your here and your think - "Dog? Oh-Mah-Gahwd!"

Dinner was perfect - PERFECT. My dad and I shared a plate of calamari and vegetables. The calamari was MUCH more tender than back home. Then there was side dish of spring onions and something or other, with more seaford. Yummy. The last thing we got was a sort-of pigs-in-a-blanket, but it wasn't pork, but rather shrimp. It was wrapped in a translucent cabbage. That was a little too salty for me. We also had a bottle of wine, or at least half of it - the left overs are sitting on a shelf in the room. All this came to a whopping 40 bucks.

...On Sunday we had breakfast with May, and then at 10am went out to walk down Zhongyang Dajie, a cobbled-stone center street lined with department stores, stylish boutiques and souvenir shops, many of which hawk Rusian-inspired goods. Again with the customer service reps. This one store had no less THAN 25 in this one 3000 sqft area!

It was nice to see all these people walking around. LOTS of activity. We just strolled casually and window shopped.

Here are a few pics from the day. It's definitely a place I want to take Ray to this week. Which reminds me...we have a date with destiny this morning. Pray for us.

Bless you for walking with us. Peace be with you.

Demian