1. Shijiazhuang - When we arrived in Shijiazhuang, we were all exhausted from such a long drive. The kids immediately fell asleep, but the adults were hungry. We had heard that there was a Pizza Hut nearby (and we were getting tired of Chinese food at that point), so Bill and I headed out to find food. Shijiazhuang was a bit different than Beijing in that VERY few people spoke English. Therefore, the hotel (knowing that we may have trouble finding Pizza Hut) wrote down the phrase "I want to go to Pizza Hut" in Chinese. Then Bill and I walked around downtown handing the note to various strangers and they pointed us in the right direction. It made us all laugh.
2. Umbrellas - We were supposed to give gifts to Melia's caretakers upon our receiving her. Knowing this well in advance, Katie purchased these nice little umbrellas for each of the 4 people that we were to give gifts to. Only after we arrived did we learn that giving an Umbrella as a gift is considered a very rude gift in China (for real!) Apparently, the word for umbrella sounds very similar to "separate". Therefore a gift of separation on the day that we separate Melia from her caretakers isn't exactly poetic. Therefore, we had to buy some last minute gifts. The funny part is that 2 days ago when it rained so hard, I made the comment, "At least we have lots of umbrellas". To which Katie realized, "Oh no! I sent them all home with my parents and our kids!"
3. The Great Wall Post - I tried and tried to post this video when we were still in Beijing, but our lovely Internet connection was partially blocked. (A large source of frustration for me on this trip). Our connection at this Marriott seems to be much more cooperative, so I'll go ahead and post it now.
4. Arthur - Arthur was our guide and translator in Beijing. His job was to make sure that we were having fun, and believe me - as long as he was around, we were having fun. But Arthur had one small problem: His English was 50% understandable.... at best. Fortunately he told us about twice as much information as we cared to know, so it all worked out in the end. Here is a clip of Arthur trying to teach us Chinese. It should also be noted that it's funny that he's using the fog on the window to write things down. We marveled at how they never seemed to turn on their heat anywhere. Including the defrost in the cars!
In case you're wondering, that last word was supposed to be "discuss" (Discarse)
Here is another clip funny of Arthur: It is supposed to be of Katie and I "locking" our love to the forever structure of the Great Wall of China (and throwing away the key), but Arthur kind of stole the show with his narrative.
I'll never know what he just said.
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