More Good Times

 

 

 

Dinner with the Haques and Kay Barrett

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday afternoon while Harry was teaching at ICAR in Greenville and I was preparing for a 5:30 meeting of the membership committee at my church, Eric and Lynn paid my dad a visit. They'd intended to take him out for ice cream at the university, but Dad preferred a quiet visit in his apartment. From all reports, it was a great visit. Dad was quite talkative and Lynn was quite curious, so that was a good combination. One of the things they talked about was why most elderly people in America don't live with their children.  Dad had surveyed everybody on his hall, asking if they'd prefer to live with their kids.  None of them did!  But all like living near their kids, if possible.  In China, the elderly live with their kids.  I guess they discussed several other things as well, such as Dad's childhood, his parents, his career, and so on.

At 6:00 we all converged from different directions at the home of our dear friends, Mary and Imtiaz Haque. There were 9 around the table: the four of us, another friend, Kay Barrett (whose kids grew up with Eric), Mary and Imtiaz's daughter, Mariana, and a young man who's a friend of their family, Fraser Henderson. Fraser had taught in China for a while in a place Lynn and Eric have visited. Now he's in medical school at the Univ. of Virginia. Mariana is beginning a new job at BMW in Greenville on Monday. So much youth, so much potential, such beauty and health! 

Conversations before and during dinner ranged broadly. All of the older folks asked the younger ones lots of questions.  And we shared lots of laughs too.  Dinner was prepared by a new local Lebanese restaurant we all like. Great food and great friends, new and old.

This morning I whipped up another batch of blueberry muffins while the kids slept in. Now they're off to continue rebalancing America's debt while I finish this up.  While I'm attending another church event (they all seem to have converged at once during the kids' visit) this evening, they'll go with Harry and Dad to that Japanese restaurant they didn't get to go to earlier in their visit.  Tomorrow Lynn may accompany me to the child development center (if she gets up early enough). In the evening we'll go to dinner at the home of one of Harry's Chinese colleagues.  We're packing in everything we can manage, and we'll probably collapse next week after the kids leave, but it'll have been well worth it. 

Nearing the Home Stretch

Well, Clemson did win that game against Florida State.  Tigertown is a very happy place this week.

Lynn and Eric drove down to Charleston Sunday (but not early; more like early afternoon). They were treated to dinner there by Liz (Whitley) and her husband Mark. (I can't recall their last name.) Anyway, add one more new food to Lynn's list of favorites: raw oysters!  She's a braver woman than I.  Over the next 18 hours they took a carriage ride, explored White Point gardens (aka Battery Park), found an amazing Asian food store where Lynn was able to buy the much prized American Ginseng for her mother, checked out The Citadel, took a childhood friend, John Vinson, out for lunch (it was his birthday), and dined with another Clemson friend, Josh Arant. They packed as much into a very short stay in Charleston as anybody could.

Harry and I missed the kids.  They returned in the wee small hours of Tuesday morning. Eric rose early enough to make it to a doctor's appt. while Lynn caught some ZZZZs.  In the afternoon, Lynn and I looked through tons of baby pictures of Eric and some of the rest of our small family. I gave her several duplicates she wanted. I think Lynn was surprised to see that Western (Caucasian) children change appearance much more as they grow up than do Asian children.  This is especially true of hair color, but also of hair texture and facial features. Eric had straight, very light brown (almost blond) hair as a little guy, but now it's very dark and curly (if he were to let it grow).

Then it was time to prepare one of Eric's favorite meals. While Eric and Lynn went to the fitness center for her to practice her swimming again, I fixed a pork tenderloin with a maple/mustard,/rosemary marinade that's served with sliced Granny Smith apples that have been sauteed dry and then finished with maple syrup.  I used my new rice maker again, this time for short-grain brown rice.  It came out perfectly. Steamed string beans rounded out the meal.  But the most special part was homemade Indian Pudding.  It bakes in the oven for 3 hours and makes the house smell wonderful.  Again, all parts of this dinner were given two thumbs up from Lynn.  Eric was in heaven.

A truly hilarious aspect of our dinner conversation involved our reading a diary I had kept just prior to Eric's birth, and the notebook Harry had kept during our Lamaze classes.  In true engineering fashion, he had taken copious, careful notes.  Ha!  The joke was on us!  Those notes bore no resemblance to what went on during labor, delivery, or after we brought Eric home.  So, we had a good laugh 33 years later.

As usual, Harry was off early this morning and I soon followed. I did my thing at CCDC and then stopped at a florist to have a small table arrangement made to take as a hostess gift when we go to Imtiaz and Mary Haque's home for dinner later today. Mary's nephew teaches in China too, and he'll be there, so it should be a great evening.

We're sadly counting the days now. Cramming in another dinner date on Friday at the home of one of Harry's Chinese colleagues. No specific family plans for the weekend, but maybe we can take that pontoon ride on the lake that we postponed. 

That's all for now.  Off to throw some laundry in the dryer and run some errands prior to my 5:30 church committee meeting before heading over to the Haques.  Making memories every day.

International Trade Balance

Not a whole lot happened on Friday. I went to my usual M,W,F volunteer job at the Clemson Child Development Center for a couple of hours.  The regular teacher is out with injuries she sustained in a fall in the classroom a week ago, so there was a substitute.  I defer to her as the lead teacher. The kids were pretty rambunctious and loud (who knew the voices of four year-old boys could rival those of adult men in volume?), so I retreated to the reading nook and read to a couple of kids.  One little girl has never uttered a word in my presence, so I thought she didn't understand or speak English. Her family is from Mongolia, I think.  Anyway, she did a lot of pointing and nodding to things in the book we were looking at, but when I brought a hand puppet into the narrative and altered my voice when he "spoke," she lost her self-consciousness or her suspicion of strangers, or whatever had kept her clammed up so long, and she spoke!  A breakthrough!  Her English comprehension and pronunciation is just fine, thank you very much.  Guess I just hadn't earned the right to converse with her until then.

I got home about noon and Eric and Lynn were preparing for a day of shopping and an evening in downtown Greenville.  Turns out, it was quite a successful shopping spree.  They spent 4 hours in Belk's in the Haywood Mall.  Four hours!  Lynn says the cosmetics that she bought for her friends at their request are three times cheaper here than in China, and we all know they're not cheap here!  Hope her friends pay her back. So my conclusion is that the American economy has been enriched substantially by the efforts of these two residents of China.  Wish I could have been the proverbial fly on the wall to see Lynn shopping alone. She and Eric went their separate ways to focus on their particular interests. Eric got a bunch of clothes, which is amazing because he HATES to shop for clothes.  I'm not kidding when I write that he still wears clothes he had in high school 15 years ago.  He was always cheap to clothe; that's why we could send him to an out-of-state college, ha ha.

After the shopping spree they ate at a Jamaican restaurant on Main street and met A.C. Whitley. Lynn finally saw downtown Greenville in its upbeat weekend state and really enjoyed that. They left Greenville pretty late and decided to buy food for today's tailgating at an all-night store like WALMART. They got some things there, but also needed to go to a Clemson grocery store. By the time they got there (2-ish in the morning) they discovered that even in an open-all-night store, beer can't be sold after 1 or 2 A.M. in SC.

At about 9:30 this morning, with very little sleep behind them they wolfed down breakfast while I made a pan of brownies for them to take to the game. I hadn't made brownies in decades, and I followed the directions to the letter, but they were so gooey that I could barely get them out of the pan even when they'd cooled.  I packed a bunch of plastic forks for those brave friends who wanted to eat a brownie without having a hand covered with chocolate. 

As I write this (5:50 P.M.), Clemson is beating Florida State (watching it on TV), so if they can hang onto their lead, this'll mean Clemson will have won their first three games.  It'll be a happy time in Tiger Town tonight.

Eric and Lynn plan to leave early tomorrow for a very short, one night, trip to Charleston. I guess strong coffee and maybe a can of Red Bull will get them there. 

While the kids were fixing the American trade imbalance, Harry and I grabbed dinner at a Thai place in Anderson and then went to see the new Brad Pitt movie, Moneyball.  Saw several of my UUFC friends there too.  Very good movie.  Tonight we're eating at home and will watch a DVD. This is no time to get into that post-game traffic around Clemson. 

It's all good.  We have everything we need. Everything.

Togetherness

Looking at our Family Tree chart showing my first American ancestor's arrival in 1630!

Finally, a home cooked Chinese meal: chicken stir-fry with bok choy. Thanks for the lesson, Lynn!

Ah, to wake to the sound of rain was blissful this morning. Sadly, it didn't last long, but I guess it helped the plants a bit.  Harry was long gone to work when the three of us got up. I made the kids some pancakes from a recipe on the Jiffy Corn Muffin box.  Harry and I always enjoy those and put walnuts in the batter. We serve them with warm applesauce and genuine Maple Syrup.  This was another hit with Lynn.  I think she's really a New Englander at heart.  The final test will be next week when I make that long-promised Indian Pudding.

While I was messing around on the computer, Eric showed Lynn the hand-written Family Tree that my mother's Great Aunt had made back in the 1960s.  It traces my maternal line, with a few of her male ancestors thrown in, I think.  Pretty cool to realize that my first ancestor to come to America did so right after the famed Plymouth Rock crowd.  And the woman who made the chart also wrote an extensive family history, so we know all about several English, French and Portuguese lines too.  Lynn says there is nothing like this in China, as far as she knows.  Nothing written down, anyway.  It's all oral history.  And everybody's families have always been Chinese, so nobody's all that interested in it.  She thinks it's cool that Americans get to do this, since all of us (except for the first people to cross the Bering Strait) came here on a boat and had to make whole new lives.

When Harry got home the four of us headed to the fitness center in Keowee Key. Harry and Eric hit the gym for some cardio work; Lynn and I headed for the pool.  The pool is indoors and usually heated (too hot for me most of the time), but today it was much cooler than usual, so I didn't mind.  Lynn, however, was quite chilly for the first few minutes.  Then she practiced the swimming techniques she's been learning and I watched over her.  We spent about 30 minutes at that and then the guys came and got us and we all headed home to warm showers.

Then began preparations for a genuine Chinese dinner that we've been planning for days. Lynn cut up the chicken into small pieces and tended it in the largest pan I have (don't have a wok), while I washed the baby bok choy, and chopped the onion, garlic, and ginger. I got to use my new rice cooker for the first time (it worked perfectly).  Lynn was the head chef, declaring when each ingredient was done just right. We served the meal in the Chinese style: deep bowls, into which each person scooped the rice first, followed by the chicken, and topped with the wilted bok choy.  Yummy!  It really reminded me of the flavors we enjoyed in China last winter.  We used the lovely chop sticks Eric had given us last year until we had to switch to forks because our rice was traditional American rice, not sticky rice.  You can't eat our rice with chop sticks. Lynn was so happy having a taste of home, her home.

That's about all for today. Tomorrow I'll go to CCDC in the morning. Harry will go to work and then will meet a bunch of his graduate students at the Michelin Tire test track in Laurens, SC, about 1.5 hours from Clemson. So it'll be a long day for him. We may not be able to have our Friday night date. But the kids will have a full day of taking advantage of a big sale at the local Belk Department Store (name brand shirts - buy one, get 2 free!), and then off to G'ville again where they'll meet up with Eric's friend A.C. Whitley for a lively evening downtown.  Lynn doesn't drink, but the bar scene doesn't bother her. On Saturday they'll go to the Clemson - Florida State game.  They'll make some brownies for tailgating this time. Lynn told me, "I think I'm gaining a little weight. My clothes are getting tight."  As I wrote before, "Welcome to America!"

Joys and Sorrows

Tuesday, Sept. 20 was a mix of 'this and that.'  I played the role of Domestic Goddess when I wasn't glued to the computer trying to catch up with e-mails. To think that as recently as 2005 we didn't even have a computer at home boggles my mind.  Now I have a so-called Smart phone too.  Once a new gadget enters our lives, there's no turning back.  We're more free and more tethered at the same time.

Well, Eric and Lynn managed to escape my frenetic domestic pace for a while, anyway. They went to Harry's office where they met one of his Chinese colleagues and then walked around campus a bit. When they got home we all dove into a dinner of ribs, corn-on-the-cob, broccoli, and finally  --  Eric's birthday cake: gingerbread that Lynn and I made from scratch.  We topped it off with vanilla ice cream into which I'd mashed finely ground crystallized ginger.  You can't have too much ginger!

Wednesday, Sept. 21 was rich with emotion.  I took Eric and Lynn to a lunch meeting of an organization I helped to create back in 1979, the Association of Women Professionals. I've always considered AWP to be my second child, so whenever Eric's in town I take him to one meeting.  In the past he's presented programs for the members; first on what it was like to live in Egypt, and later on what it's like to live in China. I think I'm the only member who brings her son to AWP every few years, but he doesn't seem to mind a bit, and there are women who love to see him and catch up on his doings.  Having Lynn there was a big thrill for me. As a representative of the youngest generation of professional women, she could join the group if she lived here.

That was the joyful part of today.  The sorrowful part was that after the lunch meeting we went to the funeral of one of Eric's friends from junior high and high school.  The young man, Chuck Puerifoy, age 32, died last Saturday of a heart attack after having spent a great day with his father at the Clemson-Auburn football game. How sobering it is to lose a contemporary to a heart attack when you're in your early 30s!  Several of the guys from Eric's class were there and as they'll come to experience again over time, it's sad that you only see old friends at funerals. 

From there we went on to a happier event, a trip to Whole Foods in Greenville.  Lynn bought some tea from the only tea farm in the U.S., the Charleston Tea Company. We'd taken some to China last winter, and apparently it was a big hit with Lynn's parents and friends.

Our basket loaded with goodies, we then drove into downtown Greenville to meet Harry for dinner at a Thai place, Lemon Grass.  Harry had been teaching an afternoon class in Greenville at a branch of Clemson University, the International Center for Automotive Research (ICAR), so it worked out nicely.  Lynn insisted on treating us to that meal. We tried to dissuade her, as she is young and needs to save her money, but she really wanted to do it, so we caved. Saving face is still very important to the Chinese (and everybody else).

Home now and ready for bed. It was a day of joys and sorrows, which pretty much describes life.  For us, mostly joys, for which we are very thankful.

A Day in the Country

Taking a ride in Eric's childhood friend  -  Ty Buchanan's  -- 70s era Ford pickup truck with a 90s era Corvette engine under the hood. Lynn declared the sound of the big, rumbling engine "Sexy!"

Sunday night under the Clemson Snuggie Lynn bought.

So much to catch up on.  I still haven't made Eric's birthday cake. Turns out, he prefers homemade Gingerbread or Indian Pudding (go look it up, you non-New Englanders), and I didn't have the ingredients. We're really spreading out these celebrations. He'll get his treats sometime this week if he stays home some evening.

We didn't end up going to Nami, after all. Instead, we dined at the restaurant owned by the property owners of our community. We all had seafood; Harry had Lobster cakes and the rest of us had seared Ahi Tuna. "Very rare, please." Delicious.  Then we just hung around together in the living room, listening to music and reading. Lynn ate the tuna leftovers for breakfast the next day.

Saturday was Eric's "guys day."  Lynn decided to pass on another football game. She slept in and Eric got up early to join the Whitleys again for tailgating, this time taking a dozen of my blueberry muffins to share. Harry ran his usual Saturday morning errands (recycling, etc.) and Lynn and I had fun doing some shopping at WALMART.  While there, we sat in the Dunkin' Donuts cafe' (Lynn had --  you guessed it: hot tea, and I had hot chocolate) and we enjoyed Girl Talk. She's familiar with the book Men are From Mars -Women are From Venus. It's very popular in China!  We discussed how much more independent people are here (even couples), and how important it is for each person to have some "alone time" in the apartment and to have time to go out with friends without one's partner. She and Eric both do that in China, and she said it didn't bother her that he had the entire day and evening with his buddies in Clemson.

She asked me what my first job was.  That took a while to remember (summer cashier at Al Payne's Lobster Shop in Harwichport, on Cape Cod). And then she wanted to know about subsequent jobs, so I gave her the whole story.  Tried to reassure her that it took quite a while to find my niche.  She studied music in college, but says that looking back she would have preferred economics!  She wants to take a night course in it. We discussed the worldwide situation young people find themselves in now: so many career choices that it's overwhelming. I told her about the many engineering students I advised at Clemson who discovered it wasn't their thing, and how I worked with them to find a better fit.  She said that type of advising doesn't exist in China and she wishes it did. 

Then home to heat up some ribs and make corn-on-the-cob for dinner, just Harry, Lynn, and me. A quiet night with the old folks! 

Sunday I dashed in to church early and didn't see Harry or the kids until about 2:00 when some very dear friends hosted a drop-in at one friend's fabulous restored 18th C. family farmhouse (6 generations have occupied it).  About 20 friends ("old" and new) came. Dad and some of his friends came too. We had punch and dessert and caught up. Again we celebrated Dad's birthday and Eric's birthday, and our anniversary. And Eric called the event Lynn's Coming Out Party (in the old fashioned, traditional meaning of coming out!).  She has weathered all this exposure so well. But she's ready to spend a little more time in what passes for a city in SC, and to be around more young people. I can understand that very well.  (We think we're still "with it" but come on, get real!) They'll hang out in Greenville tonight, taking in the downtown scene.

We were going to rent a pontoon boat on our lake this afternoon, but it's cool and cloudy, so we postponed it until next Sunday.  Tonight Harry and I will just kick back and watch a Netflix that we've had for weeks. Life in the slow lane is very appealing to us right now.

Food, food, and more food!

Dad treated us to dinner at Seasons-by-the-Lake

Hungry trio.

Time to practice swimming.  Lynn and Eric took advantage of our community pool for Lynn to practice more of what she'd learned the day before.  Our pool is only 3-4 feet deep all over, and it's warm. There will be another lesson next week, but in the meantime this place is ideal for practicing.

With celebrating two birthdays and one anniversary within 9 days, it seems like all we've done is eat out.  Thursday, the 15th was no exception. Dad wanted to treat us to a good meal in a nice quiet restaurant, so we went to Seasons-by-the-Lake, a lovely place on the Clemson University campus. Good service and pretty good food. Lynn tried Oysters Rockefeller and loved them.  They beat out the fried oysters and the coconut shrimp. 

Our pace is finally slowing down. The only other thing that happened yesterday is that Lynn decided she likes the bite-size candy bars like Snickers, Heath Bar, and Clark Bars better than what she found in the giant candy section of the Mast General Store, so she bought many big bags of the individually wrapped candy that you can find in any American grocery store. I'll have to give her one of my spare suitcases just to carry it all.

Tonight we'll go out to celebrate Eric's 33rd birthday at Nami, a fabulous Japanese place on Lake Hartwell. both E & L are craving Japanese food. We had planned to go to Highlands, NC, but rain is expected, so we'll put that off for another day.

Tomorrow is our 45th anniversary. The florist just delivered a vase filled with a dozen yellow (my favorite color) long-stemmed roses from Harry.  Nice!  How lucky I am to have 3 great men in my life, and a delightful young woman.

Shopping and Swimming

Lynn tells us that it's customary to bring your friends and family at home small gifts of food snacks from your travels, wrapped candies, for example.  We decided that the best selection of such things is at the Mast General Store in Greenville. It's kind of a cross between the Vermont Country Store and LL Bean. Eric and Lynn went over there this afternoon. For any of you who've been there, you know that it's a kid's paradise. What Lynn decided to do was to buy one of several types of candies to bring home and taste. If she thinks they'll fill the bill, then she and Eric will go back and buy a bunch of them.  One item that Eric and I strongly urged her to try is Maple Sugar candy. It's a North American (gotta include Canada) specialty that most kids who grow up in the north are treated to from time to time. I gave her a taste of pure Maple Syrup tonight to prepare her for the taste of the candy, and she liked it.

After they returned from Greenville, Eric took Lynn for her first swimming lesson.  Her teacher, Barbara Piekutowski, is the mother of one of Eric's childhood and high school friends. She teaches in her own pool, so it's quiet and private.  Barbara's a good teacher. Apparently, by the end of Lesson One, Lynn was swimming on her own!  She'll practice with Eric here at the Keowee Key shallow indoor pool a few times, and then will take a few more lessons from Barbara. It was so nice to hear Lynn say, "I'm not afraid of the water anymore!"  Is there anything this young woman can't do? I don't think so!

They got home about 8:00, tired and hungry.  Eric wolfed down a huge bowl of Gazpacho (one of his favorites from his time studying in Spain), and Lynn couldn't really conceive of a cold soup, so she heated hers in the microwave. Presto: hot vegetable soup.  Why not?

We're all winding down now.  Tomorrow: a little swimming, maybe a nice walk along the edge of the lake, and dinner (Dad's treat) at a very nice restaurant in the conference center run by Clemson University. On Friday, Eric's 33rd birthday, we'll head up to Highlands, NC (4200' above sea level) just one hour north of here. Highlands is a quaint little scenic town, but the ride up there is half the fun (great views down the mountains).  Dinner will be at a famous Italian place we haven't been to in years.

That's all for this day.  We're still just having a ball together. So happy, so lucky.

Mid-Autumn Full Moon Festival

So last night, after the first home cooked dinner we've had since the kids got here we went to Dad's apartment to observe a Chinese family tradition: sipping tiny cups of Chinese tea and nibbling little pieces of Moon Cakes. I wrote yesterday that I expected something very dry and grainy, but I was very wrong!  It was sweet and just moist enough, chewy and tasty.  My dad, who could live on fruits and nuts and nothing else, loved this stuff, so Lynn left him another still-wrapped Moon Cake for him to enjoy another time. Plus, she has one more to give him when she and Eric leave on Oct. 3rd.

Lynn had given us a delicate tea set while we were in China, so she used it to brew and serve the tea. This was the coolest part:  she sat on a little stool in front of Dad's chair to very carefully explain the importance of this festival and how important it is to share it with family.  She calls him Grampa (which is what Eric calls him).  The Chinese young people, judging by Lynn, still know how to honor their elders.  I never saw Dad so tickled! 

Because it was a beautiful evening, we did all this out on Dad's patio. The pictures aren't so great, but you get the idea.  Typically, Chinese families would serve the tea and Moon Cakes outdoors under the moon, but that wouldn't have meant dragging 5 chairs way down the hall of Dad's bldg. and hauling them out to the parking lot. So we just went out to the parking lot after the tea and cake.  The moon was spectacular. It was so special to all be out there together, with nobody else around.  And we kept reminding ourselves that Lynn's family had just done the same thing, only 12 hours earlier.

Today Harry went in to teach his 11:00 class and the rest of us slept late.  I made the kids an omelet with sweet red bell peppers, some yellow squash, cheddar cheese (Cabot cheese from Vermont) and fresh basil. That may sound like a strange combination, but they loved it.  Of course they enjoyed more fresh peaches and Lynn had her usual mug of tea.  English Breakfast is as good as Irish Breakfast, it seems.

Eric has had to devote much time today to trying to figure out why Lynn can't access the internet on her laptop.  Still having a problem.  Soon they will go into Clemson to poke around in the College Avenue shops and whatever strikes their fancy.  They'll have dinner with Harry, either at home or at a restaurant, because I have a commitment over the dinner hour.  Oh, speaking of dinner, Lynn loved my Moroccan turkey burgers and sweet potato "fries."  Just this afternoon she has discovered the joy of Weight Watchers Ice Cream Sandwiches!  At this rate, this size zero young woman will need a new wardrobe. Welcome to America!

Small World

She's not really naked. See her little outfit below.

Sunday was so busy I didn't get a chance to post anything.  To go back to Saturday, the tailgating and the game were "fun" according to Lynn. And Clemson won, although they didn't play very well.  Fortunately, E & L were treated to the usual Whitley family's Southern Hospitality. Nobody does it better.  Seats in the shade capped off the experience. Afterwards they stopped at the ESSO Club (famous local bar) before heading home, hoarse, tired, and happy.

Sunday, the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, was a far more serious day.  E & L accompanied me to church, and on the 30-minute drive in I attempted to explain the history of Christianity and its many branches, including modern Unitarian Universalism, which incorporates elements from a vast array of world religions. Nothing in the service fazed Lynn. She couldn't catch every word, but she got the gist of the sermon, and she enjoyed the music. Lots of people there wanted to meet her. Some already knew Eric.

Off to the nearby town of Pendleton for a yummy brunch at the Village Baker and Cafe'. Lynn declared that Shrimp and Grits are very good. So was the bacon.  And the turkey and dressing. And the green beans. And the English Breakfast tea.

A quick trip to the super market and home to Harry.  Then we four hopped back in the car to drive back to Clemson's performing arts center for a community event that was billed as a 9/11 Remembrance and Reconciliation. About 800 people attended this well organized event.  There was music, candles, personal testimonials from 'born and bred' South Carolinians, as well as those from all over the world; religious leaders of various stripes, and a Gold Star mother whose daughter, a helicopter pilot, was killed in Iraq in 2003. The whole service was so moving, so tender, so inspiring.  The we gathered in the lobby for conversation and refreshments. I had a fascinating conversation with some young men, graduate students from Tunisia, Pakistan, Libya, and Germany.

By then it was time for dinner, so the four of us invited two good friends to join us at a brand new Lebanese restaurant in Clemson. Wow, what a great meal we had!  The owners were extraordinarily generous with us: free appetizers and treats for dessert, as well as giving me a bottle of fragrant Orange Blossom Water that I'd detected in the rice pudding and raved about.  It was a wonderful evening. Lynn enjoyed everything she tasted, and liked the spiciest dishes best (although none were really spicy).

So home we went, full and happy.

This morning I got up early, left E & L to sleep late, and went back to my volunteer gig: helping in a 4K class at the Clemson Child Development Center. I don't go there in the summer. It was great to get back in the swing of it.  There is nothing like a four-year old on his first day in a new school to take your mind off anything else.  I'm trying to learn the names of the kids who are new to the school.  They all call me Miss Linda.

Since Lynn is a teacher at a Gymboree Play and Music Center in China, she is very interested in observing my class. I'll give the teacher a few more days to get her class into a routine before bringing Lynn in there. She and Eric will also visit the Montessori school where Eric went from age 3-8. And I found that there's a Gymboree Play and Music Center in Greenville. We'll go there too.

Finally, E & L are going to get a home cooked meal tonight. One of Eric's favorites: Moroccan Turkey Burgers, oven-baked sweet potato "fries," and a salad with our great local peaches. At 7:30 we'll go to Dad's apartment to celebrate a Chinese holiday variously known as the Mid-autumn Festival or the Moon Festival.  I know it's not 'mid-autumn'  --  and my guess is that the Chinese know it too  --  but the moon is full now and by golly, we're going to celebrate.  E & L brought some special confections called Moon Cakes for us to nibble on with some hot tea which L will prepare at Dad's and serve in the porcelain tea set she gave us as a gift when we were in China.  After sipping and nibbling (or maybe before, I don't know the protocol), we'll all go out to the parking lot and look at the moon. It's comforting for Lynn to know that her family in China has all gathered in her home town to do the same, albeit 12 hours ahead of us.

It is such a small world. We're all in this together, so let's enjoy it.

Go Tigers!

Saturday, September 10, 2011
1:00 pm

Yesterday was a whirlwind.  Lynn decided that for breakfast she'd like to eat some shrimp curry I'd made the other night.  She said it was very good. She likes strong, spicy flavors.  But she also likes mild ones; cream cheese on a blueberry muffin.  Later we dashed off to have lunch with my father in the Clemson Downs dining room. Lots of Dad's friends came by our table to wish him Happy Birthday and to meet Eric and Lynn. Lynn got her first earful of the mellow accents of elderly native Southerners.  She managed very well and won them over with her natural charm and good manners (she and Eric stood up every time one of the old folks approached). She tried her first Hush Puppy, but they'd been out of the fryer too long and had turned into little rocks, so thumbs down on those. The baked chicken and sweet potato were better.  After lunch we took Dad to the Clemson University ice cream shop where we each got two scoops (the nice girls who work there gave Dad whipped cream on top of his because it was his B'day) and sat outside in this gorgeous weather we're having.

Lynn then presented Dad with her gifts: a soft winter scarf made of silk and wool, and something he'll be able to enjoy now, a bag of dried mangoes.  He loves dried fruit and went crazy for the ones Eric brought on his last trip home, so this made Dad's eyes brighten considerably.  

Then we dropped Dad back at his apartment and drove 20 minutes to the town of Easley where Eric was picking up a rental car.  The kids also went to an AT&T store so Lynn could buy a sim card for her cell phone and Eric set up a plan for his American phone.

Later we all met up at home before heading out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. There are many international restaurants in the large city where E & L live and Lynn is an adventurous eater. She ordered a ceviche dish and a chicken burrito.  Portions in the States are always too large, so some of it came home in a To Go box. Lynn drinks a lot of hot tea, black with no sugar or milk. We figured out that if she orders unsweetened "ice tea" without the ice, and asks the server to pour it in a mug and heat it in the microwave, it works just fine. 

Harry and I are just charmed by Lynn.  She is so natural and poised, and not a bit shy about asking us to explain anything and everything.  Over our Mexican meals she wanted Harry to explain exactly what he teaches in his classes.  All about automobile control systems, ride comfort, stability, tire behavior, etc.....things I still couldn't explain to anybody.  She was very interested.  This from a young woman who studied music in college! 

She told us a story about something that happened when she took Eric to her family home (3 hours by bus from Guangzhou where E & L live) for a week during Chinese New Year. She has lots of aunts and uncles and cousins. At the home of one uncle, the man sternly inquired of Eric if he was prepared to take good care of Lynn for her whole life.  You know, the good old "What are your intentions?" grilling of the young man. Lynn said Eric said, "My parents have been married for 44 years and they are my idols."  A pretty diplomatic reply, don't you think?  Not totally committal, but leaning in the right direction. Now, I don't know if he really meant that, but apparently it did the trick.  Uncle nodded and made a pleasing grunt of approval.

Before we all hit the sack, we sat at the dining room table with the calendar and a list of possible activities during their visit.  Then everybody bid each other goodnight.

Today is very special: Lynn's first American sporting event, a Clemson home football game. She had bought a cute orange outfit in China and Eric had taught her a popular Clemson cheer, so she's all set. They just left a little while ago to tailgate with Eric's good friends, the Whitleys.  The Whitleys are faithful Clemson fans and have a great location under a tree for the pre and post game festivities. I can't wait to hear Lynn's impressions of the spectacle. 

Today's lessons in use of American appliances:  the cord must be plugged in with the two different prongs in the correct holes of the electrical outlet.  The iron can be used with our without water (steam).  It's best to boil water in the microwave using a Pyrex measuring cup rather than in the mug you intend to drink out of. Some of our old mugs get too hot to handle.  The joys of a garbage disposal!  Look, the egg shells and peach skins can go right down the drain.  A Thermos bottle (the real one with a glass interior) is handy for keeping tea hot while tailgating, but will have to be left in the car during the game (no food or beverages can be taken into the gigantic stadium:  83,000 seats).  The dishwasher: yes, the water comes up from a tube in the bottom that rises up and sprays everything.  It can also dry the dishes.  Maybe tomorrow we'll get to the electric can opener. Or the clothes washer and dryer.  E & L have a small, front loading washer, but nobody has a dryer in China. And wait 'til we use my bread maker and upright mixer!  It's so much fun having a girl around the house.

Quiet reigns in the house now. Harry's running errands.  Later this afternoon he and I will have our (postponed) Date Night: a light dinner out and a movie while the kids "do the town" (Clemson) after the game. Tomorrow E & L will go with me to church. That'll be another "first" for Lynn.  And at 4:00 there's a community-wide gathering on the CU campus to remember 9/11.  Harry will join us for that.

I took a couple of pics of the kids just before they left for the game, but I don't know how to post them, so I'll have to wait until Eric can help me tonight or tomorrow.

Harry and I feel SO BLESSED!  We have everything that matters in life.

Settling In

Since we've been in this house for 31 years, and it's the only house Eric remembers, I'd forgotten how it looks to someone who has never been in an American home before.  This is especially true because it's an architect designed, one-of-a-kind contemporary, perched on the edge of a steep hill, has no foundation (just support posts) and you can walk under it.  Very unusual, indeed.  Eric took Lynn on a tour of every nook and cranny.  Poor girl must think we're moles!

Lunch on the screened porch which is high off the ground, sort of up in the trees may have caused her to decide that we're a bunch of monkeys. Crazy Americans! 

Laundry done, a short walk in the neighborhood, and then it was time to go sample whatever kind of food Lynn wanted to try.  She chose BBQ.  We took her to the famous local dive called Sardi's Den (not to be confused with that hangout of the stars in NYC).  Half a rack of baby back ribs (sorry, vegetarian readers), baked beans, coleslaw, steamed broccoli, and a glass of unsweetened ice tea (no hot tea served at Sardi's). Messy and delicious was the verdict.

Then off to Dad's apartment for a short visit and some melon for dessert. Dad greeted Lynn by saying "I love you" in Chinese.  What a guy!  Eric gave Lynn a tour of the apartment, carefully explaining who everyone was in the family photos.  She is very interested in getting the family tree straight, and Eric's always been a great family historian, so that took quite a while. I think what amazed Lynn most about Dad is that, gasp......he's still driving.  And he's really pretty good.  As his birthday gift, Harry arranged for Dad's car to be "detailed."  For those who aren't familiar with that term (I know I wasn't until a few years ago) it means having a professional cleaning of every part of the car, inside and outside, including waxing and polishing by hand, and so on.  Dad is thrilled with this gift, as he's not able to do that sort of thing anymore.

By 8:00 we were all yawning, so left Dad with a plan to be his guests for lunch (the main meal at his retirement complex) with him today.  It's his 94th birthday, so we want to spend as much time with him as we can.  He'll introduce Eric and Lynn to all his pals.

So, that brings us up to this morning. Recap of today later.

Tired but happy!

First Full Day

Thursday, September 8, 2011
Noon

Eric and Lynn arrived right on time at GSP, tired, but smiling. A sight for sore eyes. Their luggage was the first off the carousel.  Hope that's a sign of how things will go for their entire stay. The first thing Eric pointed out to Lynn once we exited the airport was the fresh air!  He told her, "This is what air is supposed to smell like." And they were still in the parking lot. 

Once we got off the Interstate, we pointed out several deer along the rural roads. I think that was a "first" for Lynn. She's always lived in cities. Got home about midnight and by 1:00 we were all in bed with the windows wide open to the 60F temps.  Harry is conditioned to get up pretty early, so he did it today too. Made his breakfast and took off to Seneca to run some errands.  I dragged myself up at about 8:00 and made a batch of blueberry muffins with local berries we'd frozen in July. Eric is in heaven eating those and local, fresh peaches. Lynn is well into a very large, very strong cup of black tea.  She likes the muffins and peaches too.

Today's temptation that must be avoided: telling her and showing her everything about our home, Keowee Key, Clemson, SC, the US, and so on.  We're reminding ourselves to give the kids some space and go at their own pace.

If we all manage to stay awake through this afternoon, I think we'll go see my dad. Tomorrow is his 94th birthday so we'll definitely be with him then, but he's eager to meet Lynn and see his grandson. To make Lynn feel welcome, he asked a Chinese nurse in his retirement community to write "Welcome" in Chinese characters on a card that I was to give Lynn upon her arrival.  He's so sweet.