Miscellaneous Items

Thursday when it started raining the Damoudes decided to head for dryer ground. However the rain had already got their lunch bags wet and Tanya's ended up ripping and her lunch fell to the ground and the water bottles headed down the stairs. One of the attendants got on his walkie-talkie and announced "bottle coming down, bottle coming down". (The relating of this at the back of the bus (our usual seats) sent us into hysterical laughter and we again were the center of many looks and wonderment as to what we had been drinking (Mediterranean dejavou)).

The Sunday of the convention we had to go back to the hotel and pack up for an early morning flight. It was decided that during lunch of the convention to get some food we could eat at the hotel (cost of room service requires a small mortgage). We got spicy noodles (a cousin to top ramen), some bbq pork, peaches and a bag of dried cuttle fish. Carl was so proud of this find he brought it out of his bag on the bus and was showing different ones and decided to open it offering samples. Within seconds there was a large commotion as the smell from the dried fish bodies was equal no doubt to what Martha feared when she said of Lazarus "surely by now he must smell!" Back of the bus was in trouble...again.

Our bus captain made a large yellow and pink hand for us to be able to quickly find him in the large crowds we were always amidst. This got quite a few smiles, chuckles and even some serious questioning by the guards/police when in Tianamen Square and the Forbidden city.

China Town in China? While in route to our hotel Carl looks out the back window and sees a sign for China Town. He cracks up laughing and is rolling on the seat turning red and having a hard time breathing (this in itself is a unique and humorous event) as to why there would be a need

for a China Town in China! Sleep deprivation.

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After the Forbidden City while walking back to our bus not only did we face an onslaught of people selling items we also were faced with women begging for money. To say that some in our group were assaulted by these women is not an exaggeration. Carl and Aaron were physically punched several times in the arm by these women begging for money for the children they had in their arms. One woman hit so hard she caused bruises! A little more physical than we have experienced elsewhere.

While waiting at the Portland airport for our ride home periodically there are announcements over the intercom. We heard just such an announcement for a person to pick up a phone and dial 0. It was in very understandable English with a slight southern accent. Then it was followed by the same announcement in Spanish, or at least it started out in Spanish. The woman had a very gringo way of pronouncing her Spanish but did ok till she got to the part of pressing 0. Instead of "cero" it came out "y" followed by a long pause and then in her southern accent "zero". Due to our sleep deprivation this caused us to roll and double over with laughter, even Carl. Apparently Spanglish is spoken at this airport it is part of the integration process.

Here are some more pics:

a resting spot after 2 hours of walking the Forbidden City

feet pics, wouldn't be my blog without them!