Out on the lake today

Hey everyone, this is Scott again. Just want to say hello again to my friends at work. Dharna, it was good to talk to you. Tell everyone I said hello and I'm glad ya'll have found a way to view the blog. We were out at the lake when I called you Dharna. I sent Kortnie and Tracy out with some friend of ours with a young boy named (now at least) James. Those two are "thick as thieves" now and apparently chattered amongst themselves the whole time they were paddling the boat. Kortnie and James' father thought it was too cute and Kortnie will post a short snippet on Youtube tomorrow of them. It turns out that all that chatter was a disagreement between the two on which direction to go on the lake! They are kids after all. We have had a great time here in Nanjing but I think everyone is ready to fly to Guangzhou tomorrow. I've enjoyed the Chinese food for the most part, except for the "BBQ" place up the street. I know, just know I had some strange meats served to me that if I had known what they were, I wouldn't have eaten it. Monkey comes to mind. Pretty sure I had that! But for the most part the food has been very good. They bring out one dish at a time, everyone eats a bit, then the next dish is served, etc. The Kung Pao chicken last night was so good I was almost depressed when it was gone! This sure is an interesting experience. I got to meet a family today at the lake who were very friendly. The gentlemen is a Chinese/American here with his Anglo/American wife visiting family. He introduced me to his very large family and we had tea at the lakeside while Kortnie and Tracy were boating. Very nice people! It is interesting the looks we get from people here in China. People are just fascinated by us strange looking Americans! People ask to have their picture taken with us all the time. I felt like a rock star at Tiananmen Square. People were feeling my beard, asking to have their picture taken with us. Great fun! The biggest hit though was this little blonde girl with our group. Oh my god, this child couldn't have had a few minutes at a time to herself without being picked up by Chinese people who fussed over her so much with her blue eyes and fair skin. She was probably only five or six years old but she maintained her composure quite well. I was impressed. Her picture is being shown to countless numbers of people throughout China right now, given that most of these people who haven't seen Americans are from the countryside. To the indigenous Beijing people we were nothing new. Ho Hum! I don't know, I kinda like being pointed at and smiled at. It's fun. There are very, very few who don't seem to like us. That has probably been the biggest surprise for me. I think I came with my guard up a bit and was expecting the Communist vs Capitalist ideological thing to be a problem. No problem! They are bigger capitalists than most Americans! My father-in-law Fred hasn't paid full price for anything since we've been here. Even in the supermarket! How strange is that? I've bargained for a few things, for fun. Or if I thought the price is just outrageous. Other than that, I just figure we have plenty of money and if they get a little more to take home to their family we're none the poorer really. Well, I'm just going on and on and I've got to get my kiddo out of James' room. She's a bad influence on the boy, what with all her guns and such. For such a pretty girl, she sure does like guns and military shows on T.V. Go figure! Blog to ya' soon,
Scott