America and Expo Park in Chongqing, China

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I’ve been a little remiss about blogging, Not only has it been a while, but I went to the US for a month in March and April. My friend, Mary, above on the right, had hand surgery and I wanted to be supportive. The woman in the middle, Susan, is our long time friend from when Mary and I were in nursing school 30 years ago. Besides that, I had a chance to visit with my brother, Bill, his wife, Rita, and their daughter, Emily, and her family who live in San Francisco, just across the Bay in Oakland where I lived and did nursing for over 20 years. I also got to check out my rentals, take care of some other issues, and visit the area where I spent a god part of my life.
It had been over two years since I had been back in the States. In most ways, it seemed the same. I enjoyed the familiarity of the sameness, while at the same time could see I don’t really need to be there on any kind of a permanent basis. As I’ve told many people, it felt like I was going to a big theme park. I really enjoyed touching bases with my friends and family, enjoyed looking around at familiar and changed things, and eating all the food I missed. In some ways, I look at this as my eating vacation. I ate everything I missed and more, and ate a lot of it, probably gaining 3 kilos while I was there. I stayed most of the time at Mary’s apartment. For a time, I was helpful during her recovery. I spent a few days in my home town of Stockton, where my brother still lives, visiting and doing business stuff. Sometimes I stayed in a motel near Mary’s place. As much as we are dear old friends, it’s best if we don’t spend too much time together. I also got to take care of some things in the Bay Area and visit with friends there. I must say, I had a fine time.
I have some family photos. Here is my brother and me.

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Here are Bill, me, Emily, her husband, Kenneth, and Bill’s wife, Rita.

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Here are Bill and Rita.

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Here are Bill, Kenneth and Em’s and Kenneth’s son, Lucas.

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Kenneth and Lucas on the couch at their place in SF.

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Em in front of an urban mural near where they live.

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I got on a photo jag when Bill, Em and I were walking on that street with the murals. I think nearly everybody has seen pictures of San Francisco, but I don’t think they’ve seen this street. I hadn’t. Very cute.

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I’m not up for some kind of rambling discourse on my visit to the States. I had the good time I described, Mary’s hand is good, and I’m outta there until something comes up which necessitates my returning. As I always say, the US is a good country, but I’ve been there before.

Practically nothing important has happened since I returned to Chongqing. My life is like it is. I sit with my computer, do most of the cooking, hangout with Myung and bring her dinner at the shop and hang out with her some more. We see friends about once a week. Except for some inconsequential stuff, that’s about it.

A big new park did open up in Chongqing recently. It cost some amazing bizzilion dollars to build, but it really is nice. It’s attractive and a lot of attention was paid to detail. It was made in some ravines and hills, so it’s up and down and has tunnels from one area to the next. The theme behind the park is exhibition of symbolic buildings and cultural significant stuff from many of the regions of China. There are many exhibits of famous or culturally typical structures and motifs from the areas. They are somewhat miniaturized, but big enough that you get the feel for the real places. So, what you do it walk through scenic areas and come upon clusters of these exhibits. Suddenly, there is something to see in Chongqing besides go to the big Buddhist temple, take a booze cruise along the Yangtze and look at the brightly lit buildings, visit the Stillwell headquarters, and start your Three Gorges tour. Here are some pictures.

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See Myung hiding behind the old dude fishing with his grandson?

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That’s about it for now. I don’t know where I am going in July, when I have to make my every three month visa run/trip. It’ll be monsoon season, so many places in Asia aren’t that fun at that time. I may just make a simple run to Hong Kong, or I’m toying with the idea of going to Taiwan, which is modern with a lot of pavement and decent shelter. Myung says Taiwan isn’t that interesting, though, so maybe I won’t go there. I think it’s expensive. We’ll see. In November, I may go to Nepal again and/or India. My friend from back in S. America while Myung went back early to Korea, Marita, is thinking of going to India and maybe Nepal and maybe Mongolia around then. She’s one of the few people I’ve kept up with, and it would be nice to meet up. That’s a long way off, though, so anything might happen. We’ll see about that, too. There are big political problems brewing again in Nepal.

Lastly. I have a few pictures of Myung and me.

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So, until next time, be well, all of you.

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