Ireland/China 2025, continuing (13)

[aadler]

Third day in China – June 23 Monday

Up shortly after 7:00AM, light breakfast. After 9:00 I went for a quick walk around the block, but since this is a city block in Shenzhen I was able to stretch it out into 30 minutes of light exercise.

With a day-to-day job, and knowing Mei-li is going to have limited movement (and giving birth pretty much any moment now), Kevin arranged for the girlfriend of Mei-li’s brother Jack, a young woman who goes by Joy, to be available to help us with anything we need a Chinese speaker for: ordering meals, getting us a taxi, any range of services. Today I posted her a text on WeChat about either trading dollars for renminbi, or working out a way we can make payments by some kind of local card purchased through our own debit cards. I also raised the idea of getting an inexpensive local phone, so we could look things up and communicate with each other via WeChat when we’re not in the apartment connected to the building internet.

I got Susan’s laptop running properly (she hasn’t used it in close to a year) so she could watch DVDs to pass the time. I did a bit of writing for this year’s summer_of_giles, then went out for an afternoon walk. Of course, we’d be going back over to the Yins’ for dinner later, another walk there and back, but I really do try to get in daily exercise to (hopefully) forestall further cardiac issues.

A little before 4:00PM, Joy showed up to work with me on the first of the matters I had raised. At a nearby bank, she guided me through the process of currency exchange, and I came back to the apartment with over ¥5,000 for spending money. Then, around 5:00PM, Amber and her Chinese grandmother came by to escort us back to their place for dinner.

Unexpectedly, Kevin was substantially late getting in from work, so after waiting a considerable amount of time, we all sat down to eat without him. The same standard excellent meal by Logan: I told him, “You have a great chef, you should give him a raise.” Mei-li had to translate that, naturally, but he laughed, so I can hope she rendered it accurately.

Kevin and Amber walked us back to our apartment once the meal was ended and Susan had passed over another couple of bags of gifts. Once they left, I initiated a Rosary with Susan, and she went to bed immediately afterward.

Somewhat before 11:30PM, I knocked off for bed myself.