Images are from last page of comments. Campus, bank money conversion, breakfast at Ashley's pizza and buying an electronic translator from English to Chinese.
Alright people, I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. I got my first offical "blog complaint". It seems that if I do nothing, someone I mentioned and used their picture, threatened to go to the blog police. I was going to leave him nameless here, but nope, here goes. My best pal Vince emailed me today and said and I quote, "Enjoying your blog. Only have one problem with it. Somehow my picture came out looking REALLY old! Correct that immediately, alright?" So, I made a few minor adjustments to his picture. If you remember, he was way back on the first one. If you are really interested you will have to go back and have a look. http://my-china.blogspot.com/

Just outside the gate, it's like any other campus neighborhood. Many of college related stores, books, sunglasses, mp3 players, etc.

Jane from Ashley and Henry's "American Pizza Kitchen". If you visit Zhengzhou they are a "must see". On the right is one of the sales people from "Technology Market" the biggest electronic

store in town.

This morning I was loafing around my apartment trying to get the kinks out of my back from my granite like bed. I glanced out my kitchen window and through the tree tops, I could see a man, an older man, on his back porch. I was a bit curious, maybe voyeuristic, so I watched him a moment or two. At first I was not sure what he was doing, but in a minute it became apparent. This older gentleman was doing his morning exercise, his Tai Chi. He had to be at least 6—65, maybe more. I was almost 100 meters away so it was hard to tell. The tree tops kept blowing in my way for a clear image. As I watched, I saw this man move with a flowing motion. From one move to the next, it was almost like a choreographed dance routine, a slow motion ballet of sorts. He made is last move, a bowing motion in my direction. It was beautiful to watch. I almost felt like I was intruding on his privacy, but I could not pull myself away. I shot all I could, though none were really that clear. I will look for him again and try harder to get better images.

Let’s talk a little about my taxi rides tonight. Up until now, the drivers I’ve had have been competent drivers more or less. Don’t get me wrong, I never said they were safe or even courteous, just competent…until tonight. I went to my friend’s restaurant more for company then American food. Lee won’t be back until late tonight. My driver going there was rather new I think. He had white knuckles on the steering wheel he was holding the wheel so tight. He was wandering all over the road. Now remember, these roads are covered in bicycles 2 and 3 wheeled, scooters 2 and 3 wheeled, some sort of trike 3 wheeled trucks some with an engine and some pedal power…all with no lights. NONE. The bikes have no lights and the scooters and electric bikes do not use them because it drains the battery faster. Remember the Flintstones cartoons? Remember Fred’s car? Remember how he stopped it? He would drag his feet on the road to stop. Now I’m dead serious about this. I have seen several, more then a few, of these electric wheels of death where the driver was doing the Flintstone Shuffle, really sliding his feet on the road to stop. All this is in addition to the millions of real cars and trucks and busses sharing the road. My driver had me thinking I was in trouble. I was in a bad wreck about 5 years ago in Florida. I was in a very modern car with seat belts, shoulder strap, dual air bags, good tires and brakes and I was almost killed. Now I was in this car with a front seat that would not lock. When he accelerated, the seat went all the way back. When he slammed on the brakes every few seconds, the seat came forward until it stopped instantly every time my knees hit the dash. There was no seat belts and no air bags. He never looked side to side at intersections, his head was locked forward. I should have known better then to get in this taxi as soon as I saw he had a slight resemblance to Evil Knievel. We were almost hit 7 times on this 7 minute drive. 7 times, 7 minutes? 7/7…7&7hmmmm sounds like a drink I could use about now. I ate and spoke with Henry, Ashley and Ilene as I ate dinner. It’s closing time, so I gotta go. I say my goodbyes and head for the street to flag another ride or terror. This driver was no exception. I was thinking about half the drive home that he was worse then the first one. Then I noticed there was play in the steering wheel. I thought this guy was playing chicken with every other driver or pedestrian on the road. He wasn’t. There was half a full turn of free play in the steering box. If he just made a left hand correction in the steering and then had to make a right hand correction, he had to turn the wheel half a turn just to take up the free play, then another little bit for the turn. He went side to side every inch of my ride back. I know we almost brought the population of China almost under control just with the people he almost killed.

Lee got back and I was able to see her today. Hooray !!! She looked exhausted from her week in Hong Kong. Thought we would have a pretty mild day today. First I asked her to lunch. We found a nice restaurant, Chinese of course. Lee looked stunned when I grabbed the menu to look and possibly order. Just like when I was in 1st grade, I like reading things with nice pictures. I perused the menu looking like I knew what the heck I was doing. As I spotted something I liked the looks of, I pointed at it and asked Lee if she liked this? As I had hoped, she responded, “parts of fish? Yes I do.” When she said fish parts, I passed on that one. I was not even going to ask what parts. Next picture, again…Lee, how about this? “Oh, pork, it’s very good.” I smiled. I was onto something here. Next I saw shrimp with cashews. Sounds safe. I said we will have this too please. A plate of something a little pasta-ish looking. I pointed, she stated,”from the potato, I like that.” Another safe one. Maybe one day I will be able to do this alone and safely. We’ll see. Right now there are just way too many ways for me to mess up. Lunch was very nice. Getting better still on these chop sticks. I used to sharpen them to a point and stab my food. No more. There was no food left in my apartment so Lee said we should shop a bit. Lee IS a shopper. She walks so slow, to see everything. Five minutes to buy broccoli, ten minutes to buy eggs. Noooooo…way too slow. She said potatoes, I saw them in next isle, zip, grabbed 2 and was back in 20 seconds flat. Now THAT is how to shop, especially when we have no car and have to carry what we buy in bags and take taxis. We were done, or so I thought. I headed for the exit and Lee said, wait a second honey let me look here for a moment. She took 3 steps, and low and behold (I always liked saying that) she was standing in front of a finger nail over haul repair shop. I got that look from her and she said, “please honey? I need them fixed.” I can’t say no to that look. I realized I was just kidnapped. Being held for ransome of a finger nail over haul. The store was small, very small. Two rows of three ladies to work on the nails, and two more rows of ladies facing them in need of work. This totally filled the store to the square inch. The rows of employees had their backs touching the opposite walls, and the rows of customers backs were touching each other. I’m standing there trying NOT to look like those pathetic looking husbands in American malls being drug around by their shopping crazed wives, but I failed. The nail place manager gave me a sad look and offered me a seat. I’m not sure why, but all the seats I’ve seen in stores here are very small, almost “smurf” sized. I’m sitting there half in the store and half in the mall hallway. The looks, the head shaking, the laughs…now I’m officially one of those American mall husbands, but in China. Different language, different continent, different hemisphere, but same shopping. I saw Lee point to an flower pattern she asked for to get on her nails. It was very nice and intricate. I thought it was a “peel n stick” thing. Ready made tape on things. I was so wrong. This nail person pulled out a paint brush that was so thin I had a hard time seeing the bristles on it. She was actually hand painting each flower, each leaf, each vein in the leaves, by hand. Thirty minutes start to finish. Her nails looked great, like art work. The people in this country sure have some talent.

Well folks, it seems this blog won't accept any more pictures, so as you know by now, it's on to the next one. I'll but the link here in a moment, but for now I'll leave you with this thought: SHUPT. Think on it a bit. OK, here is the link http://my-china7.blogspot.com/ now beam me up Scotty.