Tuesday, July 4, 2006
Happy 4th of July!! It was not quite the same celebrating it in
China, but since there are so many American families with us in
this hotel, we did do some celebrating American style (a
barbecue of course). There were a great deal of us running
around with red white and blue and "AMERICA" or "USA" on our
shirts. If the Chinese folks don't know this is the United
States Independence day they are going to think we are all
living in a police state country where everyone is required to
wear uniforms of some kind. The BBQ was probably the best dinner
yet as they had fresh steak, seafood, and other meats out for us
to select for the chiefs to BBQ for us. It was a great chance to
meet other Holt families from other provinces that were
traveling around the same time as us. There was a couple from
the Bay Area at our table that we did not even know about.
Just prior to the BBQ we all met at the famous "Red Couch' to
take a picture of all the babies in our traveling group. It was
mayhem. Needless to say we did not get a picture of them all
sitting happily on the couch as we said cheese and snapped a
picture. If you look closely you can see a fight breaking out on
the right side of the picture near Annabel. She is the one
furthest to the right in the picture.
Ni Hao. It is Popie. Occasionally, the Horvaths get weary and
ask me to say something for the website. This is one of those
moments. I know that if you have been following this journey
(and thank you so much for doing so), you have seen many, many
pictures of pagodas and babies - all beautiful - but there is
other stuff going on. Believe it or not, there is quite a bit of
down time, and some of our group get restless. Yippo is a little
bit devilish, and, I am afraid, has infected Joo Joo with this
attitude. Steve has noticed this also, and today recorded some
of their behavior, which has now been posted in photos.
To while away the idle time, Yippo organizes card games. After
teaching Joo Joo how to play fish, he then introduced betting.
Yippo can deal from the bottom of the deck. He made Joo Joo
quite despondent by fleecing him of all his yuan. After Joo Joo
reflected on that for a moment, he became very angry and started
to beat the nonsense out of Yippo. After taking a picture, Steve
broke up the fight and made Yippo give the money back to Joo Joo
and shake hands. Then the two of them invited Steve and I to
play cards. They took the big money from us. Luckily, Steve
recorded this on his camera with the timer, and produced proof
positive (something I rarely see in my profession) of a
conspiracy between the two of them TO FLEECE US!! We took our
money back and locked them in separate suitcases for an hour.
They are both back on duty providing comfort to Mia and Annabel,
respectively. We have all learned a thing or two from today's
experience.
God Bless the USA!! |
All the Hunan spicy girls together for a group photo
Right side of the couch, Annabel and Kailee
Posing at the BBQ dinner on the Pearl River
Yippo takes the pot at a game of "Go Fish"
|
