The Day Before The Cruise

Friday was a flurry of activity in my parents’ house. We were packing like crazy people, because we always wait until the last minute. We were also trying to clean up the house a little, so it would be easy when we came home and also so it would be presentable to the people taking care of our cats.

All was going about like you’d expect until about 2pm. My dad was sitting in a chair looking very worried. So, I asked him what was wrong, and he told me he thought that he might have a hernia. We decided to go to a local clinic to get it checked out. The doctor confirmed that he did indeed have a hernia. He said that normally it takes about two weeks to schedule the procedure to repair it. He said that going on vacation wouldn’t hurt it, and told him to be careful. We went home and told my mom and sister about the situation. We prayed and decided to go ahead as we had planned.

It was a long day. I think that I hit bed around 2am. I’m not sure if my mom slept at all. It was quite the early morning. We had to get up at 4:30am to get to the airport on time.
We drove to Mary’s house where we left our car and met up with Kavita. Mary arranged for a limousine to take us to the airport. That was only the second time in my life that I’d ever been in a limousine.

The flight was a little over four hours. We landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico at around 5pm or so.



We checked in at the hotel, and then went to get something to eat. I was excited to introduce my family to a type of Puerto Rican food that I really like – mofongo. It is made from plantains and marinated meat. I don’t think they were all that impressed, but Kavita and I loved it.

We went back to the hotel completely exhausted. I fell asleep around midnight wondering what the next day might bring.

“If I'd known how much packing I'd have to do, I'd have run again.”
-Harry S. Truman

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cooking Up a Storm

Image
There has been quite a bit of coverage in the media about the economic impact of the COVID-19 virus. Obviously, Chinese businesses have been hit quite hard, as have the businesses around the world that rely on Chinese consumers and manufacturers.  One thing that has gone somewhat unnoticed is the effect it is having on some farmers. Katie has been following the chatter on the web about the struggles that some farmers are having because their products are not consumed as frequently as the staple grains, proteins, and vegetables that typically comprise the average Chinese diet. Many of them are selling their products for well below their average price in an attempt to increase demand; it is sad to think that their products are spoiling when they could be helping so many people. My wife has a huge heart, and over the past few weeks, she has been ordering things from these farmers online, and not just in small amounts… like a lot. So, we’ve had foods like, okra, asparagus, basil, and
Read more

Pan Wei Bo Concert

Image
Last Sunday night I had a rather unique opportunity. One of my friends was given tickets to a concert. She asked me if I wanted to go. I thought about it for a while, and I decided to go. It’s not too often that famous pop stars make it all the way to Changzhou, so I had to check it out. The concert was held in a small sports stadium that was built within the last year and modeled after the bird’s nest in Olympic park in Beijing. I would guess that there were about 20,000 people there. One thing that I noticed immediately was that although the tickets had seat assignments, very few people sat in their seats. This was nice because my friend Dorty was able to sit by me. The tickets that we had were for seats that were not near each other. Ironically, I also saw my friend Andrew there, so he also sat by us. The stage was an explosion of dancing lights. The setup was very elaborate. The concert was not at all what I was expecting. The headline name for the concert was Pan Wei Bo (a famous
Read more

Getting Ready for Christmas

Image
Wow, this year is going so fast. The holiday’s really snuck up on me. The last four months have seemed like an endless flurry of events. I really feel as if my feet have not yet touched the ground since I arrived here in August. I do know that Christmas is one of the most important holidays in my country, and each year it is my greatest hope that I can communicate the true meaning of Christmas with my students, friends, and everyone else in my life here. Each year I take one class period and explain the culture of Christmas to all of my students. Many of them know things about Christmas. Usually, their knowledge is limited to Santa Claus, gifts, and Christmas trees. In addition to explaining those things, I try to explain to them that Christmas is much more than that. I tell them the reason that we give gifts and why we started to do that some two thousand years ago. It is always so amazing to see the wonder in their eyes when they begin to understand the true meaning of Christmas. The
Read more