Girls Night Out

Greetings,

It's 6:15pm on a very rainy wednesday night here in Nanjing. i'm in a large Internet cafe located a couple blocks from our house, which surprised us. The last time we sought out a cafe, four years ago, we sensed that cafes were going out of style as more China familes gained computers and broadband access. this is certainly more convenient than twittering away on my iPod Touch at a faraway Starbucks.

So, i'm here alone tonight since it's girls night out. Mia and her two best friends are having dinner followed by a "spa" treatment, what ever that may be. it's one of the reasons we're here, though. Here's the story.

Many of you know i met Mia (Wei SuJuan) online seven years ago. She was teaching high school English and i was, well, me. We hit it off pretty quickly and within a week we were video conferencing daily using NetMeeting. I can't imagine building a relationship by phone or email, but videoconferencing was another matter. we spent hours every day, despite the 16 hour time difference, talking about everything. i visited her several times, here in Nanjing, before she pulled up stakes and moved to Modesto to be with me.

it was an enormous sacrafice, one i'm not sure i could make. Think about it. She sold her home, gave away her things, quit her 17 year job, said goodbye to her family and friends, and moved 7 thousand miles away. yes, after we married she kept in touch with her friends via phone, email, and blogs (she had hers befrore i had mine). She videoconferenced daily with her mom. We quickly realized, though, what a mistake it was for her to sell her house. Of course we should return yearly to visit her family and friends. Of course, her son JiaWei should return to see his father and grandparents.

So, four years ago, we spent part of our vacation here searching for an affordable house here in Nanjing. The pickings weren't great, though, for our budget (about 30K) since prices were escalating quickly. we settled, though, for a nice two-story condo (they're all condos here) on the sixth floor. We're a 10 minute walk from her best friend's office at Nanjing University and a 10 minute walk to the tennis courts. The house, though, was going to be a challenge. See the initial pictures from this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bbridges51/NanjingHouseBefore?authkey=0M8v0ryuy9o

See the picture of the bathroom. That's the view as you walk in the front door. Not pretty. So, we hired a designer during the following year, gave her a few ideas, and spent the next summer's vacation completely redoing it. it's a beauty now, all 600 square feet of it. Two bedrooms, one bath, a tiny, but very efficient kitchen, and a renewed look all around. Here are the "after" pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/bbridges51/NanjingHouseAfter

while Mia (Wei SuJuan), and let's stop here to explain the name. Wei is her family name as all chinese names begin with the family name. all women keep their family name when they marry, a sort of tribute to family which doesn't bother me. i think it's a great idea. It also means, though, that her son's last name, Liu, represents his fathers name. So, in our household, we have three last names and a postal carrier that must wonder what's going on.

So, while mia comes to Nanjing to renew her roots, i come to escape. Here, i have ample time to catch up on the fiction reading i never have time for during the year. yes, i always make time for the non-fiction stuff, which is always work related.Like most of my friends, work never ends. here in nanjing, it does as i settle down to a good book. Today, i finished my second novel, John Grisham's first, and i'll start McCarthy's The Road when i return to the house in a bit. For, tonight is girls night out andBrian doesn't mind it a bit.

After this, I'll walk around the corner, buy some snacks from the local grocery and then pass McDonalds just before i get home. It's a very familiar life here, although the language still causes me fits. perhaps more on that later. oh, how i wish Edublogs wasn't blocked here.

life is funny

So, after 3 years of snubbing Blogger becuse i felt it wasn't good enough, i'm back for three weeks. it appears that Edublogs is blocked in china. Heaven knows why, but perhaps the word democracy is in one of the posts. nevermind, here is our travel logue to date.

My United flight to Shanghai last Thursday was uneventful, which according to my research was unusual. A good percentage of UAL flights are late. Landed Friday at 5:30PM, went easily through customs, took the bullet train to the edge of town followed by the subway to the train station. Shanghai (and all of china) have an incredible train and subway system. Subway trains arrived about once per minute during the Friday commute and trains were packed. our two hour train ride to Nanjing was on the 'fast train' meaning that we averaged 250 Kilometers per hour.

Did too much shopping on Saturday, recovered Sunday, and took a two hour tennis lesson on Monday with mia and her son. It was a ball, although i've never been so soaked from sweat after a match. In the meantime, i'm finally catching up on some well deserved SSR (silent sustained reading). i've accumulated a great stack of novels the past two years that sat patiently on my dresser at home awaiting their journey to and eventual disposal in Nanjing. It's a great escape.

of course, there are fires to check out on the home fronts. i'd be tempted to turn completely awayfrom the net these three weeks but between a directorship and the cue presidency, i need to stay near enough to respond but far away enough to ignore things. Vacation is restoration and i'll be more creative and energized as result. The next year for CLRN is a critical step in our transition to a more relevant model.

It's rained for two days straight, a probable result of a monsoon passing to the south of us. Who knows. we've no TV, although we did check them out at WalMart the other day. yes. WalMart.

Hope everyone survived the earthquake in CA, but i'm going back to SSR.