Ireland/China 2025, continuing (11)

[aadler]

First day in China – June 21 Saturday

Up at 7:00AM, showered and shaved and then Susan and I down to breakfast before returning to our room. Just before 9:00 Kevin sent us a message that he was on his way, and we traded messages till he arrived at our door maybe 11:15.

We had everything ready to go at that point, so downstairs to check out at the front desk. (At that time I confirmed that our reservation was in place for an overnight stay before we leave two months from now.) There was some discussion regarding the best way to get across the border; I wanted to follow the one that would include some inconvenience (a pair of taxis) but was much less expensive, Susan wanted the easier one (a single car hire) that just happened to cost five times as much. I made my position clear, at which point we did what she wanted. Anyone who’s ever been married understands this kind of ‘compromise’.

The most unwelcome part of the process was the actual border crossing between Hong Kong and mainland China. There was no getting around that, but we’ve been through it before, even with the wheelchair, and this one was no more onerous than the usual. Then into Shenzhen, then to the building where we’re to stay. (Same as the last time we were here, but a different apartment.)

He and I went out to do a small bit of light shopping, just enough to carry us through lunch. (Cup of noodles and a drink for each of the three of us.) His plan was to bring our granddaughter Amber back to visit with us after her Spanish lesson, so he left for his apartment.

Then, almost immediately (3:40PM), he texted back that Amber’s Spanish teacher had been late and so her lesson was still ongoing, meanwhile Mei-li and her mother (Laura) were on their way over to visit with us. Which they did, fortunately long enough after the text that we had time to straighten things up and get the suitcases and semi-unpacked stuff stuck into a bedroom with the doors closed.

They visited, then they left (and I was starting to fade a little, so I don’t really remember much of what was said, except that Mei-li is estimated to be within 10 days of delivering our next grandchild.) Then with Amber’s lesson finished, they left and Kevin brought her over for the original visit.

She’s not 10 years old yet, but she’s grown a great bit in the last year, nearly 5 feet tall now. Susan gave her some of the presents we’d brought, and she gave us a drawing she’d done in school:

(Best I could manage with my cell phone camera and the available lighting.)

I brought out my Rosary collection, which I’d brought more than 5,000 miles expressly to show off for her; over the last several years, by things that just came to us and things I specifically sought out, I acquired enough Rosaries that I can (and do) use a different one each day for an entire month. I’d been looking forward to this … and, fortunately, she was as pleased and fascinated as I’d hoped she would be. At the end, I gave her a brightly-colored Rosary chaplet, which she kept looking at for the remainder of the evening.

(Also, at some point in the later afternoon, Kevin brought us some groceries Mei-li had ordered — I think she said from the local Sam’s Club — to carry us on the days we didn’t feel like going out to eat.

Kevin left with Mei-li, but very soon afterward he came back to pick us up, and take us to join the entire family: Mei-li and Amber, Logan (Mei-li’s father), Laura (her mother), Jack (her brother) and his girlfriend, and at least two sets of friends (at least one of whom I remember dining with that larger family the last time we visited).

It was another of those grand dinners at a restaurant with a rotating serving disk, the servers would place various dishes at the outer edge and people would help themselves whenever something came by that looked good. Logan and Jack and one of the other men were going through small pitchers of baijiu (which is so potent it’s served in glasses the size of a medium-sized thimble, even smaller than those used for sake, but Kevin and Mei-li ordered that I only be given red wine, because they’d seen him push me to higher consumption in the past.

(Right at the end, I acquired one of those tiny glasses and got a single serving of the baijiu, which I used to toast them before setting that glass over on my other side so there would be no refills.)

Despite a decent night’s sleep, Susan started to flag, so Kevin escorted us back to our apartment before returning to the party. I was a little surprised to see that it was barely 8:00PM.

Sorted out some more things, did some catch-up on my daily record of this trip (for which I’ll have to transcribe some previously handwritten notes done during the last two days of airports, before I can bring things up to date on LJ). Said a Rosary with Susan — she fell asleep after the first few minutes, and I finished in both our names, she was just exhausted — then set things aside for final sorting tomorrow and prepared myself for bed around 10:30PM.