After arriving in Dublin, we called our hotel and asked for their shuttle van to pick us up. It was too early to check-in so we asked them to take care of our bags while we went downtown. It wasn’t running so they told us to take a taxi and we would be reimbursed. We were, minus 40 cents. Then we caught a bus to downtown. The bus stopped many times and we finally arrived downtown in about an hour. We bought a tour bus pass for the next day and walked around. We were not impressed by the popular Temple Bar area. 
There is supposed to be a book sale on Saturday afternoon, but we found only a few sellers and a mediocre selection of books. My wife commented that it looked like a Chinatown for the Irish. We walked around some more, bought a sandwich, and headed back to the hotel on the bus. 
Friday we left for Ireland. Our plane took off a bit early, just before noon. We flew to Chicago and arrived a little before 5 p.m. We had just under two hours before the Aerlingus (Ireland’s national airline) took off. We rushed off to take the train from the domestic terminal, where U.S. flights fly into and out of, to the international terminal. We were in such a hurry that we didn’t think about what food might be available on the other side of the security checkpoint. There were only a few vending machines so we managed with the water bottle that we filled from the drinking fountain and the cookies, gorp, and bananas we’d brought with us.
Our flight to Dublin left at 6:45 p.m. Friday and arrived in Dublin on Saturday after 9 a.m. There’s 8 hours time difference between Ireland and the Pacific coast of California so it has taken a couple of days to get used to the time change. I enjoyed watching the display on the plane; it was on the seat back in front of me. You could watch videos, play games, but I liked following the progress of the plane. On the other plane, the one to Chicago, you could listen to the cockpit radio conversations with the ground.
I don’t enjoy the tight seats and the long flights. The flight crew does a good job of trying to make it pleasant, but it’s still a long time to sit still in a small space.
Yesterday I went went to a new immigrant family’s house. This family is from Kazakhstan; they speak Russian. There are 12 children in the family. The oldest is in high school; the youngest is a toddler. They are really enjoying life in the U.S. Slavic families love bread. In this family’s kitchen there is a large bread machine, something I am sure they didn’t have in Kazakhstan.
This week there was a news item: The U.S. population is now 300 million (300,000,000). Our population is third in the world behind China and India. Most of the growth is coming from families coming to the U.S. When I was a child, most of the families were white, American born, and middle class. Very soon most of the families will be hispanic, asian, or other ethnic group. It’s an interesting change. Today I was at the electronics super store and looked at the staff behind the counter. There were Hmong, Vietnamese, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Thai, Pacific Islander, and African-Americans. All working together to sell electronics (that are almost all made in China…). I love the rainbow of nationalities that we have in our country.
A coule of weeks ago, Brittney Elizabeth Moon was born to my son Jeremy and his wife Jennifere. Hee’s a picture of them at the hospital a three of hours after she was born.
School started a couple of days later. I am still trying to get my attendance up in my classes, but I’m also teaching a third class in Bryte. The class is at an apartment complex My vie-principal is looking for a teacher for the class. Right nnow I am teaching 9 hours on Monday-Thursday and then just 3 hours on Friday. Here’s a picture of the class. This day there were ten students from five countries who spoke fiver languagesof the former Soviet Union, but all also spoke Russian. An aide, Olga, has been helping me too.
I’ve been home for four weeks, but my mind has been in China most of the time. I’ve been editing videos and organizing photos. I’ve uploaded quite a few videos to the web and made some DVD’s for friends. Looking at photos of Beijing streets yesterday I recalled how vibrant they were. The street where these photo were taken was alive with color and neon. Every 50 metres or so there was a different sidewalk cafe with professional performers or karaoke. People crowded around to listen and watch. It was like nothing I had ever seen.
technorati tags: Beijing
We’ve been home for almost three weeks. I haven’t done any blogging, but I’ve been working on putting together DVD’s of our photos and video. I have also created a couple of new features on the EnpingEnglish website. People in Enping have started back to school and are busy. I go back on September 4. I hope to write more often as things settle down.
Spring is still three weeks away, but my daffodils were looking glorious last Saturday. It reined hard on Monday and they got pounded down some and they are drooping from all of the water they took in, but they are still lovely. The daffodils are some of the first flowers of spring to come up.
How do you like my new truck? My son is a mechanic and he just sold his shop. He brought us two truck to put on the side of our house. This is a 1951 Chevrolet that he hopes to fix someday when he has the time. Since he is always busy and never has any time, the truck is probably going to be beside our house a long time. It brings back memories. When I was a boy my neighbor had a green Chevrolet truck. The husband built a camper on the back, using wood and I guess aluminum that he took the family back to Oklahoma in. I am three years older than the truck.
It’s late, I know, but I’d still like to wish all of you in EnPing a prosperous and happy new year in the Year of the Dog. I hope all goes well and I can see you again in July or August. I think of you daily and picture EnPing in my mind. I also think often of the delicious dim sum at the hotel on the main boulevard.
