Wed. - Fly from Shanghai to Guangzhou (used to be called Canton, as in Cantonese). Flight canceled, then new flight delayed due to weather. Company changes email service while I'm in the airport. My new laptop keeps giving me the blue screen of death every time I hook up to the free airport Wifi. This means I can't download the code to reactive my blackberry. (Deep breath) Arrive in Guangzhou after midnight with no internet or email service, the driver we set up waited in the airport for 2 hours, saw our original flight was canceled, and left. I had previously found the hotel taxi card (in a nearby town) on the internet on my BB, but this page was rendered unavailable. Sat in taxi line for over 30 minutes, giving me and my travel partner time to find the hotel reservations that had previously been emailed. Got in the taxi, driver was clueless. Lots of calls and stops for directions, arrived at hotel after 2:30am.
Thurs. - Meetings in the morning in Foshan. Drive to Shenzhen for a Medical tradeshow, where I saw this:
???
Deeply confused and moderately disturbed, we head to the Hong Kong border. By the way, it continues to rain all day. In HK, comforted by the below sight:
The menu read: Tartaletta - milk chocolate and caramelized banana tart, roasted banana gelato. In other words: the stuff dreams are made of.
Fri. - AM meetings in HK. Right before lunch a storm rolls in and the bottom drops out. We had another meeting at lunch then I headed for the airport with plenty of time before my 5pm flight. Get all checked in and past border control by 4pm only to sit until 9:30 due to delays. Flight was eventually cancelled, which led to the below mob scene:
Good thing the police were on the scene...
It was total madness. No one knew what was going on and people were crowding the desk screaming at the clueless 20-somethings behind it. I was talking with another American who said he was actually in the air for 9-11, grounded in Albuquerque, and it was nothing like what he saw that night with regards to the chaos and the way people were acting. Anyway, had to reenter HK. Made it to the hotel at 1am.
Sat. - was told I had a 9:30am flight. Got to the airport at 7:30. Sat until 11:30. Arrived home at 4pm. Headed out shortly thereafter with Riley in tow to meet up with some new Indian friends to do the shopping for the men's dinner.
Sun. - Head to church, which was great by the way as usual. Afternoon is more shopping and cooking. Below are a few shots of the men's dinner. Yet again, another awesome experience where we got to make more new friends and support them in prayer!
The chef from the Shangri-La took the day off to cook for us. Man, this guy had some skills! He said, while eyeing my $10 santoku from Walmart, that my kitchen was set up better than the restaurant. Oh, and for scale, that's a 19L pot full of chicken legs!
Oh, one more thing: Rowan loves these events. Below is a conversation we had about them:
Me: You know this weekend is another men's dinner.
Ro: Are the Indonesians (last month) coming to our house to cook?
Me: Not this time.
Ro: Are the Mexicans (month before last)?
Me: Nope, this time it's people from India.
Ro: Yay!
He enjoys showing off to new people more than just about anything!
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