Judge Learned Hand

I wrote so faithfully when I was in China, and we were always on the go there. But now, I again find it difficult to find time to write. I really can't believe it is now December. I find that when ever I go on a trip, the next few weeks after returning fly by incredibly fast. Maybe it was something to do with E=mc2.

I was thinking about what I should write. This is my family blog, so I think it should be about my family. Nevertheless, I always find it extremely difficult to take my mind off of work. This leads me to think about Judge Learned Hand. Judge Hand was a judge on one of the federal circuit Court's of Appeal. I don't think his writing or legal reasoning were greatly supirior to other federal judges who wrote appellate opinions, but for some reason other judges in writing their appellate or district level opinions very often have cited to Judge Hand's opinions to give support to their own findings. (It is a very common practice for appellate judged to cite other cases, and then to either show how the cases support their findings, or how the case is significantly different. It is much less common, however, to site the name of the authoring judge unless it is one of the US Supreme Justices that they are citing). This then begs the question as to why so many other judges have cited Judge Hand's opinions and also stated the author's name. I think the silly, obvious answer is the correct answer. Judges like to say, "according the the learned Judge Learned Hand in XYZ Case..." I guess this shows that judges are people too.

Judge Learned Hand's name came up in about 2,600 published federal Court of Appeals cases and 230 US Supreme Court cases.

Christian · Who

I have failed to be the prolific BLOG writer that I wanted to be. Oh well. Maybe if someone would pay to see what I write, that would be motivating.

Moving on. Christian is a most interesting child. He gets a little bit obsessed with things. He even admits he gets obsessed with things. I checked out from the library some of the Doctor Who videos, and Christian has become a bit obsessed about them. He wanted to find a refrigerator box to make it look like the Doctor's tardis (police box) and put it in front of his bedroom door, to try to achieve the same size anomaly (you see only a box, but when you walk it... tada! it is as big as his bedroom). He had to make do with putting a piece of paper stating "police box" and a drawn window on his bedroom door. He also wrote out in detailed instruction how to make a toy "sonic screwdriver" using a Crayola magic marker and colored duct tape, and made a few of them himself. He even chanced is Poptropica passwords to words related to Doctor Who. I am sure this will pass, and he will go back to wanting to make a hand flipper.

Too many candy corns

Too many candy corns last night. At least that was my excuse for being more than fashionably late for Bishopric meeting this morning. It was really a lame excuse as I didn't even eat any candy corns last night; I polished them all of a couple of nights ago already. And I can't even blame it on the time change as we got an extra to sleep last night, not an hour less. I guess what ever the reason, I was just really tired, and fell back asleep after my alarm woke me up. Sorry about that.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween, and am happy that Halloween won't be here for another year, until I am ready to eat candy corns again.

Halloween is Here (and thankfully almost gone)

Alyssa and Eden. The 1980's live on.

Chelsea and Christie, the nerd and the princess

Jessica (ninja) Christian (dementor) Justin (Iron Man) and Paigie (bumble bee) ready to go out trick-or-treating

I have to admit that I enjoy taking the little ones out trick-or-treating. Kennedy Paige, dressed up as a bumble bee, was the oldest in the group this year. She went out with Christian, and their two younger cousins, Jessica and Justin. Their mom and I were always close behind.

This year we are in a new neighborhood, and I wasn't sure what to expect as far as how many trick-or-treaters would stop by, so I bought about $50 worth of "fun size" sweets. I still have at least $35 in candy left over. Had I been the person giving out the candy, I would have doubled or tripled up on the servings, but I was out wandering in the cold, dark streets behind the four children, which is where I would rather be since I have been told that I am not allowed to scare the little kids as the come up to the door and ask for candy. As we went from house to house (which took a long time, as the yards are larger in this neighborhood than in our old neighborhood, and as there are many vacant houses) I noted a couple funny things. First was way the Paige would always say "trick or treat." You may be asking what is funny about that. Well, writing it down without explanation loses something. Most people, including myself, say "tricker-treat" but not Paigie. At every door she came to, she was most careful to always clearly enunciate every word: "Trick OR treat." Maybe she was really expecting a trick at at least a few of the doors. The other funny things was Jessica. She loves pets, and every time she would be at a door where someone had a dog, she would make little cooing sounds at the dogs, similar to the way most other people coo at a baby.

Chelsea had a friend over, and did a little bit of trick-or-treating. Alyssa had a bunch of friends over. In fact, it seemed that they were still showing up half-hour before the party started to wind down. Unfortunately I don't know most of them, but they seem like pretty good kids.

Chinese Wardrobe

All of us liked the silk robes and outfits I brought home from China.

Blogging in General

I began to think about people who make their living off of their blogs (and the like), and wondering why I couldn't do that. Then it hit me. I am boring. Not that I try to be, but I look at the Salt Lake Tribune's Robert Kirby, and I simply lack the dry, sly, slightly provocative humor that Kirby has. I mean, I don't even have a pretend friend, like Bammer, who has been my friend and confidant since childhood. I like his gig. He writes his article on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, unless he is gone on vacation, and then the Trib does a reprint (royalty payments? Probably work product of the Tribune, so Kirby has to pay the Trib when he publishes his books). Most of his articles are fun to read and have me laughing while in my favorite reading room.

Nor to I have a chip on my shoulder like Heather B. Armstrong, that allows me to aim my animosity towards an organization that many people love, and many other people love to hate. I can't believe that the adds on her blog site have become the sole source of her family's income! Maybe I could find something or someone to berate while describing my dailly doings, but all I can think of is the IRS. That would bore people to tears, except for the accounts and tax attorneys, who wouldn't read it because I am just not educated enough to complain about it on their level.

I guess that leaves me to talk about the mundane, with no remuneration, save for my satisfaction of having written down just a little bit for my posterity.

My Birthday Week - Big 40

Since before we were married, Rochelle has celebrated her birthday the entire week prior to her birthday, calling it her birthday week. One day a year is just not enough for her. Well, here I sit on my birthday week. But not just any birthday week, but my 40th birthday week. I am not sure how I feel about that. Different people feel different ways on their 40th birthday, and I just don't know which category I should put myself into this week. Well, since it is my birthday week, maybe I will try a different emotion for each day of the week.

Tuesday: I wonder if my body will start falling apart, like many others I know, when they hit 40.
Wednesday: Hey, Greg Peterson is competing in an Ironman triathlon next week, and he is five years older than I am, so 40 can't be too bad.
Thursday: An MRI or CT Scan? I just can't decide.
Friday: They say 40 is the new 30. Well, I don't believe that but maybe something like, "My fortieth birthday can be the first day of the best of my life" (I find that more appealing that the "rest" of my life)
Saturday: Who can think about birthdays, I have sprinkler lines to put in and trick-or-treat candy to hand out.
Sunday: Mentally blocking that day out. I think a few people are coming over to remind me of my age. I think I have some Church reports that need to be done.
Monday: Hey, I am forty years old today, so I think it's high time I decided for myself, without asking anyone's permission, that I am going fishing!

I guess no matter what I think of it, I will be completing my 40th year within the week. It makes me feel a little bit old, but also a little bit wise, along with the hope that I have not yet come to the half way point. There's just so much more to do.

Choir Concert in the Forbidden City

Photo: Choir at the Forbidden City Concert Hall (poor quality of photo is because I had to use my mobile phone camera)

On to the second to last night in Beijing. I think this will be my last entry about China. The Choir had the opportunity to sing their entire program in the performance hall located within the Forbidden City, on the eastern edge. We, the choir lackeys, were able to obtain tickets at a significantly discounted price. Our tickets cost us $5.00, but according to the ticket stub, had a face value of about $85 US. It wasn’t a sell out, but it did have reasonably good attendance. The choir did a fantastic job, and again, as before, it was a super crowd pleaser that they sang “Same Song” and invited the audience to sing along in the expected parts. Our local tour guide assigned to our bus told us the next day that their Chinese pronunciation was very good. She was able to go, as I later found out, because a couple of choir members from our bus bought a ticket for her. The acoustics of that theater were not the best I have heard, but they were a marked improvement over the acoustics in the theater in Shanghai. It was interesting how the program was MC’ed. At first, prior to the intermission, a young man got up to announce the choir and made a few comments. He read from a piece of paper in his hand, and did so in a very robotic manner. Apparently, one of our head tour guides, Tang Cai, was going to be the MC, but with all that had happened earlier that day (when Afton fell and broke her knee), the tour company owner from the US forgot to bring Cai’s suit, so at first, he refused to go on stage. But after hearing the other MC a couple of time, he put on someone’s sports coat and went out, and did a wonderful job. I, of course, couldn’t understand much of what he said, but I did understand that he said the choir came from America, and that it had been invited to the festival in Shanghai. The next time he came out, he told of our tour route, from Shanghai, to Xian, and then to Beijing. Although I didn’t understand any of the words he said next, I was able to understand what he said, as he told the audience that the choir had brought with them many friends and family, who were seated in the audience. All of the audience in front of us turned around in the seats to look back at us, but as most us didn’t catch on to what was said, almost everyone in our group also turned to look behind us to see what everyone in front of us was looking at. That was funny, indeed, as most of our group never figured out, until maybe sometime later, that we were the ones being pointed out. I told the few sitting next me that he was referring to us.
Photo: Choir at Shanghai Concert Hall, Opening Ceremony. This hall had good acoustics, the other place for the Sunday concert did not.

Prior to the concert, I went for a walk with Kraig Loveland as we had some time to kill. We walked to the north side of the Forbidden City, where, earlier in the day, I had notices a store that sold camera batteries and memory cards, so I went to see if I could find a rechargeable battery for my and Mom’s camera, as we were snapping so many photos that our batteries only lasted half the day. Even though it was the second to last day, I knew that the next day we were going to see the Great Wall and also drive by the Olympic Stadium, so wanted to have enough battery life. I found the right shop, and after some negotiations, was able to buy the batteries for about $14 each. Still probably more than the best price, but not too bad, I suppose. At first he wanted about $80 for one (I believe that almost all the vendors that deal with tourists operate under the principle of “never give a sucker an even break” and “every tourist is a potential sucker.”) After that on the way back, I ended up buying a Breitling watch, which according to the street vendor, “is almost as good as the real thing” Well, we shall see how long my $12 US investment lasts before falling apart.

On the way to the airport the next day, we were on the toll freeway, when traffic came to a stop because there was a wedding party (I looked like a wedding party, anyway) stopped on the freeway, with seven stretch limos. The guide said something about them having VIP status, so I guess that means they can stop and block traffic where every they want. They even had a police escort. I didn’t ever figure out why they were stopped there, but I just see that as another unique aspect of life in China.

Once we flew out of China and landed in Icheon airport in Korea, I really wanted to venture outside to say that I had truly been in South Korea. I believe it would have been possible, but the still small voice told me not to do it, and I listened. Had I not, Mom and I might still be in Seoul...who knows. I only know that no good would have come from leaving the airport. I was told by someone in my ward that everyone in Korea eats kimchi. I really wanted to try it. As I was not able to leave the airport, I looked and found a restaurant in the airport that served kimchi, so I gave it a taste. I loved it. It was very “pica” (spicy hot) as my family would say. On two of the airplane rides I was able to also try bimibap. I was impressed, and that was airplane food! It was also pica and very tasty. Based on that, I feel the need to now visit Korea and sample the food. Who knows, maybe Korea also has some interesting sights to see. Chinese food is very bland to our palette (I think that it why the Chinese restaurants in the USA add so much MSG), but it seems the Koreans like to really spice things up.

Video Clip of Hutong district in Beijing

The following is a short video clip I took with my cell phone during part of the ride on the bicycle rickshaw through the Hutong district.

Choir Singing with a Christian Church in China

I found that I did not mention a most interesting opportunity that the choir had. The choir had been invited to sing with a Christian congregation in Xian. Christian definitely a minority in China. The church that we met with was formed in 1994. I did not ever find out what branch, if any, of Christianity they belonged to, and was prohibited from asking. I assume that they are allowed to meet and gather as they are either part of a large sect that had been established in China prior to the Cultural Revolution, such as Baptist or Lutheran, or because they are a local, independent church, not controlled by any organization outside of China. We meet in their meeting house. Their choir sang a few hymns from the stage. I was fortunate enough to be sitting by someone who speaks Mandarin, show she told me what some of the songs were about. Our choir then sang a few songs. After that, there were about 5 ladies who did a dance, in order to praise God not just in song, but also in dance. Then one young man sang Amazing Grace in Mandarin, and his voice was just amazing! We were fortunate enough to have someone from their church who helped announce things, who is fluent in both languages. She obviously learned to speak English by spending some time abroad. Many of our choir members brought shirts to give as gifts, and our choir received a beautiful gift, which was a very long scroll with, as I recall, art work on it. It was really a wonderful and uplifting experience, to have two groups of people separated by language, culture and the distance of the great oceans, to be united in the worship and remembrance of the Savior. After it was over, they said we were allowed to mingle, but it is very difficult to mingle when there is such a language barrier. People can say “hello” in English, and everyone on our trip had learned to say “ni hao” (hello), but after that, all you can really do is smile and nod to each other. As a result, most people just went to get on the bus. I was headed in that direction, but then opted to make a loop around the inside of the building, and shake peoples’ hand, while looking them in the eye and smiling. I also told the congregational leader there that the program was very wonderful and uplifting, all the while knowing, of course, that he couldn’t understand a single word I said. After we boarded the buses, the church parishioners stood outside and waived at us until we drove off.

Photo: A not very good photo, taken through the bus window, of the Christian church members waving at us as the buses departed.

As to religion, the Chinese people are allowed a great degree of religious freedom in that they are allowed to meet and to worship. However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not an officially recognized religion in China. LDS foreigners living in China are allowed to meet and worship. We have several branches in China, but Chinese nationalists are not allowed to come meet with us or be included. And foreigners are not allowed to discuss religion with others, especially us, being members of a non recognized faith. The Shanghai Arts group that invited the choir was very concerned about the issue, as was the Christian church where the choir sang, because if we were to have caused any problems by asking about religion or comparing religious practices, then it would also be a problem for both of those organizations. It would also set back any progress that might have been made for our Church in China. When we went to the church meeting, although we were allowed to mingle, we were expressly prohibited from exchanging phone numbers or email addresses in order to avoid the slightest possibility of being viewed as promoting an outside religion. The issue is so serious, especially in light of the Choir being about 98% LDS and the mission statement of the Choir, that we were reminded about the issue of not being a church choir and not speaking of religion and not asking questions about religion, and so forth, on at least half a dozen occasions. Some day that will change, of that I have no doubt, and I feel that many of the Christians will be quickly drawn to the Gospel once the Church is allowed to operate in China.

Chinese Toilets and Hotels

Well, I guess my trip is coming to an end. There were so many wonderful things that we were able to experience, and only a fraction of them have I been able to share. Now, that things are coming to an end, I guess I will just ramble on a bit about a few things that I found of interest.

Public toilets for one. I was fortunate enough to never have to use one of the pay public toilets, on the streets, but my suspicion is that they might look even better than some of the public toilets we used in the government tourist shops or the restaurants we stopped at. That, however, is not what I find most interesting. Most public restrooms have a sit down toilet, but all have squaters. Hope not to offend anyone, but I set my natural inhibitions aside and took a photo of the toilet as I felt my descriptive writing to be less than adequate to describe them (in case you can’t tell from the 2-D photo, it is a porcelain basin flush with the floor). Ya’ just hoist up your pant legs (so they don’t get on the floor), drop yer’ drawers and pretend you out in the woods. Enough potty talk; on to other things.

I didn’t mention our room in Beijing. It was pretty nice. It had a lot of little amenities that one doesn’t find in other hotels, such as a few office supplies like scissors and a stapler, a nice shower, battery alarm clock, shoe shine oil, razor, and a few other things like that. They didn’t charge for internet usage, which was nice. However, our hotel in Xian (pronounced “she - on”) was still, overall, a much better hotel. They had more bilingual staff members, better concierge service, and were simply much better equipped to handle large groups. And did I mention the beds in Xian were soft? The beds in Beijing were about the same as the first hotel. But as tired as I was every single night, I didn’t really make too much difference, except the conspiracy sleep-wake dreams got progressively worse. I have those dreams anyway, but one member of our group works for a government contractor which does classified work for our government, so he was briefed before he came on the trip. He didn’t tell me about the briefing, but did tell his mom a bit about some general things of the briefing, who then told my mom, and just that little bit of information I got would be enough to make anybody a little bit(or even a lot) paranoid.

Photo: Olympic Stadium (Bird Nest) of the Beijing Summer Games

Back to the hotel. It has a wonderful looking garden in the back, but because of our busy, busy days, I only got to see if from our room window. There wasn’t too much else to see around it. We did go for a walk the first night in Beijing to see what we could see. Sure, it was a little bit worrisome to be walking around a huge city, obviously tourists, at night, but overall, I felt safe enough to do so. We may not agree with the semi communist / socialist, oppressive government of China, but I have to admit that their harsh criminal law keeps crime (according to my subjective impressions) very low. I can’t think of any other huge city I would dare walk around in like that at night. Anyway, we only found a convenience store where I bought a couple of Diet Cokes and saw a Hyundai car dealership which was closed, so I did not buy a car. We also saw a lady riding her bicycle at night, with no lights, wearing dark clothing and talking on a cell phone. Well, I guess everybody does it. One other thing I find interesting about all the hotels, is that in order to have electricity in the room, you have to take your key card and insert it into a slot right inside that door, which is a mechanical switch for all of the room power. When you leave the room, you obviously take the key, and all the lights go out. I am sure it saves a lot of electricity.

The Great Wall of China

Photos: Me, Carlos, at the top section of the east edge of the Great Wall section near Beijing, and a photo of a small portion of the wall. Friday was so hazy, one can barely see the wall on the other side of the mountain side, but I did my best to photograph them.


Today, Friday, we went to the Beijing section of the Great Wall. It is a limited section, and no longer continues very far into the east. I hiked to the last point possible from the road, which was a huge elevation climb, as the road is in a river/stream basin. It was really awesome, but also very crowded. There were mostly Chinese tourists, but also a few small groups from Russia, India, a US Indian family, and, my best guess, from Pakistan. One lady, when we got to the top of the section we were climbing, asked me to take her picture, so I did. She said “spieciba” (thank you) so I said in my best Russian (ok, you can laugh here), “Russian?” She said, “da.” Finally about five minutes later, I remembered how to say “you're welcome,” but by then, of course, she was long gone. I did learn how to say “thank you” in Mandarin, but I just never got the pronunciation down very well, but better, I think than many in my group. (Thank you and the word for the money, Yuan, both have these very difficult, unfamiliar diphthongs. Oh ya, off on tangents again). I think I would like to see some other sections of the 4,000 mile wall, and walk on top of other parts that are more level. So Rochelle, I guess my answer is yes, I would like to return to China. I hope I can include a few photos of the Wall into this post.

On the way to the Wall, we stopped at the “Jade Factory” and on the way back at the “Pottery Factory” (or something like that). It is a government racket, where the tour companies stop their groups and show them how some of the things are made, and then bring you into a large sales area. I honestly don’t know if the tour companies are required to present their groups, or if they do that just because they earn a commission on the things purchases the group makes (I have it on good authority in addition to my own infallible powers of observation and deductive reasoning that they do get kick-backs). I don’t see that as being dishonest or anything, but just the way things are done. China has only been opened up to tourist for the last 20 years, and I imagine that it is now much, much less strict with tourism issues than it was in 1988.

Photo above: Carlos' self-portrait at the Jade Factory

Huton and other thoughts on Beijing

Written on October 23, 2009

When we arrived in Beijing, I noted that even though it is the most populous city (I think) in the county, the apartments don’t seem so densely packed in as in Shanghai. The city is very clean and the roads are in great shape. Along the roads, there are many plants to help beautify the area. Water trucks drive by, when needed, in the very early hours of the morning to water the plants. The streets, at least the main roads, are regularly swept with a spray and sweeper truck. Every morning since leaving Shanghai, I have not been able to get out in the early morning to see people out doing Ti Chi. I get up around six a.m., shower, get dressed, gather everything that I need for the day, go down for some breakfast, and get on the bus and head out for the day. It is a slightly different schedule for Mom. She gets up at six or a little before, showers or cleans up, then fusses over hair and make-up until there is no time for breakfast, goes down to the breakfast buffet, grabs a few pastries or fruit into a napkin and jumps on the bus. I would have liked have been able to go to the park again, but as I get to bed at midnight or later, my ambition to get up and 5 a.m. is just not there like it should be.

Beijing, like Shanghai, has construction of high rise apartment buildings going on everywhere, but it is mostly in the out-skirts of the main, old city. I see that some of the old house, made of red brick, in the center two rings of the city have not been torn down, but some of them should be. Unlike the old (1940s or 1950s) houses of Shanghai, which have some of the old style pagoda type roofs, many of the older houses here look like they should be torn down. I imagine that some time soon they will be. There are now movements to protect historically significant buildings, such as the ones in Hutong.

Speaking of Hutong, I want to mention some of the things that the “groupies” (aka lackeys) got to do, while the choir was in rehearsal. I believe I mentioned already the trips to the Shanghai Museum and the Jade Buddha Temple. In Beijing, the choir was rehearsing prior to the concert in the Forbidden City concert hall, so we went to Hutong. If I find my memory card adapter for me cell phone camera, I will send a couple of pictures. The Hutong area was founded many, many hears ago my Mongolians (I understand many still speak Mongolian) during the Kan dynasty (I believe they are descendants of Gankas Kan rule). The ones that founded that little area, which is around a lake, called the lake a “sea” which is the meaning of one of the parts of the word in “Hutong,” as the people from Mongolia had never seen the sea. The houses are fairly uniform in construction, with a small square in the center, so it is a small square house with a square yard in the center. The houses have, if I recall correctly, the boys room on the east side, the girls room on the west, which has a lower ceiling, the family rooms on the north and the parents room on the south (I could be mistaken on my directions, but you get the idea). And the bathroom? Oh, that is down the block, as there are only communal bathrooms. And the cost? If you want your little piece of heaven (with tourists continuously wondering around the streets, try $3,000,000 US. What a bargain. In the age of 40 plus story high rise apartment buildings, the price of land is out of this world. If you buy one, however, you get the property in fee simple (its yours, no strings attached) where as if you buy an apartment for $250,000 to $500,000, it is yours for 70 years, then you have to re-purchase it (you never know, things could change dramatically before many of the terms vest (too much legalese?). The streets around the houses are so narrow that cars are not allowed. We toured the area in a bicycle rickshaw. It was a cool experience. According to what I was told, when the Communist Party first came to power, the families in these houses were told that all things were now in common, so instead of one family per house, there would now be about eight. After a time, the government bought out the owners, then are reselling the properties to those who can afford it. My own suspicions: there must be something else involved such as a down payment and a 70 year, low or no interest mortgage... I just don’t know. Really, I don’t believe everything I am told, even though I think the people that tell it to me believe what they are saying. It was a cool little tour, and fun to take a short rickshaw ride. About the price of the apartments, however, I do believe that, but again question the repayment method.

Sorry about all the typs I typed it on the bus, and proofed it at 1 am, with only one eye open as they were going cross-eyed from sleepingness.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (and the Funny) Happenings

Photos above: Mom at the Forbidden City, Beijing, China and Carlos in front of McDonald's, just to show the influence and influx of western capitalism. And no, I did not eat there.

Beijing, China
October 22, 2009

Every large group trip has its misfortunes. Ours waited until we arrived in Beijing. I hope there are no more. I knew that we would be doing a lot of walking and many stairs today, so I put on my knee braces with the hope of them helping me to not dislocated my knee should I step down wrong. A woman in the choir, Afton, was not so lucky. She went down, apparently dislocating her left knee cap, and then fracturing it. She had it cast, but will need surgery when she gets back to St. George. That was the worst. The others are simply a series of unfortunate events. Yesterday we went to the Temple of Heaven and today, the Forbidden City. Outside of both there are many (illegal) street venders trying sell touristy gadgets (did you know that you can buy a watch with Chairman Mao in the watch face with his arms being the second and minute hands). But we learned from sad experience that many of the vendors are also thieves. My own experience: I worked a deal with a vendor to buy three picture books about the area attractions. Of course they wanted 100 Yuan each to start, but in the end, we agreed upon 50 Yuan for three. All I had was a 100 bill, so he made change. By this time, our group was leaving, I was in a hurry to catch up, and also wanting to not show my cash, so I saw that it was a 50, and stuck it in my pocket. Latter that night, I went to a convenience store to buy a soda, and pulled out my cash to find out that the 50 bill was really a 50 Ruble note. Even though it does have a value, it can’t be spent here, and I doubt it is worth even exchanging. It is worth about $1.70 US, whereas a 50 Yuan is about $7.50. After I paid the thief, he said, “hey I can’t take this 100 bill because it has a little tear in it.” I just waved them away and caught up to my group. In retrospect, I see that that was “Step Number 2" in “how to steal money from the tourists.” I believe he would have asked me for a different 100 bill, and given back the one with a tear in it, but it would not have been Yuan, but rubles or money from Taiwan, which is much more similar to Yuan, but the value of a Taiwan 100 note is only about $3.00 US. This happened to several of us. When someone then tries to pay for something with the foreign money, the vendors say “fake money! No fake money.” It just makes me mad. One guy had one of his 100 Yuan bills swapped with a Taiwan bill when his deal fell apart with a vendor. When he discovered it, he was ready to go back and extract some justice. Earlier today, I had reached a deal for some books with a street vendor for 30 Yuan. He said “I have change,” but as soon as I pulled out exact change (having learned my lesson) he said that he didn’t say 30 but had said 40. This was a blatant lie, and, I presume, an attempt to really make the sale for 50 or 100 by giving bogus change.


Photo: Carlos (that's me) with the #@*%!! vendor that ripped me off. I didn't know Mom had this photo until just a bit ago. Maybe I can now go back with a big stick... but I, would probably be the one arrested.

The other “bad” is that at least two of our group members fell victim to pick pockets. There may have been more, but maybe they were too embarrassed to fess up. One guy lost his driver license and a credit card. The other lost $200 US from his front pocket. It was so crowed in the Forbidden City, that you have people bumping into you all the time.

Now for the funny. There is one choir member, Winona, who I would guess is about 70 years old, short, and just funny. She has a very spry personality and is just fun to be around. When we visited the Terra Cotta Warriors, we were each told we could pick up a bottle of water from the cooler in the front of the bus as we got off. Winona was in front of me getting off the bus. The person in front of her grabbed the last water bottle out of the cooler, so she grabbed a can out of the cooler and got off. The driver then saw we were out of water and grabbed a new box of water bottles and gave me one. I then continued on, catching up to Winona. I had my suspicions about the contents of the can, but just couldn’t decide whether to say anything or not. I know I should have, but just couldn’t make myself do it. So Winona pops off the can top and takes just enough of a sip to taste it (as she knew she didn’t know what was in the can), and oh, if you could have seen the expression on her face! She said, “what is this nasty stuff???” So I took the can, smelled it, and told her it was beer. She said she didn’t see how anybody could actually like the stuff, so I had a laugh at her expense and then threw it away. After that, I kept teasing her about “boozing it up” and asking her if I could get her a “cold one.” Winona being Winona, she didn’t keep it a secret, but told others in our group, getting herself teased by them as well.

Flying to Beijing

October 21, 2009. We are now flying from Xian to Beijing. The flight is over mountainous regions, where a few things really stand out to me. First is that every mountain side that is not too high in elevation for farming is being farmed. Only the much higher elevations are left alone. Second is that there has not been a single moment of the flight where I have not been able to see areas populated to some degree. Third is that every river that can be dammed is dammed. Now that we are over the planes, I find the lay out of the land very interesting. There are like mini-cities separated by large filed areas. I suggest looking at the area about 2/3 of the way between Xian and Beijing (heading to Beijing) on Google Earth, if you find things like that interesting. I can now tell that we are getting closer to Beijing because the Smog seems to be getting thicker.