All Good Things....

As I begin this at 4:45 p.m., Monday, Oct. 3, the kids have just lifted off from Detroit for a 16 hour flight to Shanghai.  From there they take another flight to their home city, Guangzhou.  Fortunately, this is Golden Week, a national holiday, so neither one of them has to work for several days.

While Eric and Lynn began packing on Sunday, I was involved in a lengthy event at church, so I didn't get to see them until about 4:30 p.m., when I met them in Easley where they were returning their rental car.  No more driving for Eric until his next trip home, whenever that may be.  We met Harry and Dad at that new Lebanese place we like so much and had our last meal together.  I know that every time Dad says goodbye to Eric (and now to Lynn), at 94 he thinks about whether he'll get to see them again. I predict he will.  Dad is in great health.

As expected, the kids stayed up pretty late trying to figure out how to pack about 100 lbs. of stuff into the bags they arrived with, plus two bags I gave them.  I had a couple of huge Space Bags, those strong plastic packing bags that you vacuum the air out of to compress your stuff down to a stiff wafer.  Even using two of those, their bags were very heavy. At the airport, Eric had to redistribute the weight to avoid paying overweight fees.

At about 2:00 a.m., I noticed that the power had gone off.  No thunder storm or anything; just suddenly no power.  Oh, brother, I thought.  How are they going to get up at 5:00 and grope around with flashlights while finishing packing, and without any coffee or tea to help them wake up?  But about 4:00 a.m., the power came back on. I knew this in spite of having no lights turned on, because for some bizarre reason, the little counter-top TV we have in the kitchen always comes on when the power comes back on, even though it hadn't been on earlier!  Suddenly I heard men's loud voices, some sportscasters shouting me awake!  Yikes!  So I went to the kitchen to turn it off and then couldn't get back to sleep.  C'est la vie.

Time to curl up under that Clemson Snuggie. It's a long trip.

So, where does that leave me in closing out this blog?  Tired, but very contented. We adore Lynn, and she seems to like us pretty well, too.  She and Harry were the ones getting choked up at the airport. We feel like she's our daughter, and hope that she'll be our daughter-in-law someday. We'll see. It's up to them. They seem to be very good together. He catered to her wishes, and we sensed no tension between them in our presence. And it's been such a joy to watch Eric taking the lead during Lynn's first trip to America. We're so proud of the man he's become.  Now we'll look forward to our regular Skype calls with them, and dream about their next visit. 

A Taste of China

Mrs. Huang (who prepared a huge feast), a visiting graduate student, Eric, and Lynn.

Our host, Dr. Huang, Harry, Mrs. Huang, and a visiting professor.

 

Delicious desserts: Red Bean Moon Cakes, Watermelon, nuts, shrimp crisps, and salted dried plums.

Harry observing the Chinese tradition of leaving your shoes at the door and donning slippers.

Wonderful conversation over dessert.

As we approach the end of this busy, joyful time with Eric and Lynn, we all enjoyed a taste of China on Friday night at the home of Dr. Yong Huang and his wife in Clemson. Dr. Huang is a colleague of Harry's in mechanical engineering, and Mr. Huang is a biologist who works in plant pathology. They also invited a visiting professor and a visiting graduate student.  But there was enough food for 10 more guests! It was a lot of work for Mrs. Huang to prepare so many dishes. I really don't know how she did it, but we enjoyed it tremendously. The Huangs offered wine, fruit juice, and tall glasses of hot green tea to go with the vast array of beef and salmon, vegetables, rice, and other starches (taro root). I wish there were some authentic Chinese restaurants this side of Atlanta.

Dr. Huang is quite a raconteur, so the conversation was lively and varied.  We discussed food, politics (domestic and international), football, child-rearing philosophies (Western and the Tiger Mother style common in China), and everything else.  The evening flew by. It must have been fun for Lynn to speak some Chinese, especially with the other young woman who was there. This kind of event reminds us that there is nothing more fun than many generations around a table, sharing views and personal experiences. We always learn something about Eric when we're in this sort of situation, because people ask him things that elicit information we didn't know.  For example, either we didn't ever know, or more likely, we forgot, that when he was in an international relations class at the University of Delaware, his professor, Yaroslav Bilinsky (who had taught VP Joe Biden), took Eric's class to then Senator Biden's office for a visit and plenty of conversation.

Today Eric and Lynn are doing their last-minute shopping (can't pass up all those sales).  I made a pan of brownies for Eric to take to A.C. Whitley's tonight where he's having his last Guys Night of watching the Clemson - Virginia Tech game on TV. This time the brownies came out right!   Lynn will be staying home with us; she truly doesn't mind him doing his own thing.  They don't play the "games" that so many couples do; no guilt trips or jealousy.  Nice.

This morning Lynn said that she really likes the American way of being organized so you get to do more things.  I think she means our tendency to plan activities, sometimes too many activities, but we tackle our lives with a lot of energy.  We went on to discuss the American view that you make your own destiny. I told her that everybody asks children, starting at about four or five years old, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  This tells the child that it's in his/her own hands, not just fate or planned by someone else. She likes that idea.

Well, that's about it for now. This gorgeous day is flying by, so I want to get outside and enjoy it before the sun goes down.  I'm trying to stay in the moment, not think about how soon the kids are leaving. Now is all there is.