engagement ceremony

for clarity...
We are engaged, not married. The object will be to get a fiance visa and then once she gets the visa and comes to America, we would have 90 days to get married. The comments merely let me know who is reading. You are correct that I am having only limited amount of English communication because most of the time, Lisa is talking with Wang Jian or her family in Chinese and I only get very little snippets and not much translation. As she told me after Leshan, translating is very hard for her, especially once it gets beyond simple language of I/You/Me and onto things like scientific or historical things. Leshan was a perfect example because the guide would speak for maybe 20 minutes and I would get no translation. I was so exhausted by the climb, I didn't much care but the problem was that if you asked me a single question about what I saw there, my only answer would be a lot of Buddhist monastery buildings. I had no real context and if those buildings were built 10 years ago or 1000 years ago, I would not know. I get sufficient English conversation with Lisa and I don't require much anyway. So I'm not really missing any English communication but I did want to leave a significant blog in place. The hair...sort of creepy I think. I was very happy with my gray hair but you see almost no gray hair in China...everyone colors their hair if they have gray hair. They make fun of my big tummy but to tell you the truth, I have seen plenty of Chinese with big tummy's or just plain fat but I think percentage wise, it is pretty low. What is almost impossible to describe is driving at approximately 35 miles per hour and going through a red light without hesitation...that will cause any American to struggle to find the brakes with their foot. Unbelievable experience. Beijing to a great extent and the center of Chengdu to a lesser extent has a lot of police so the driving there is a bit more orderly but all of the other cities, not quite so. The biggest treat has been to be in so many people's 'houses' - they are always called a house by Lisa but they really are apartments/condo's.

I have figured out some things about Chinese beds
and you couldn't sell a foam mattress in China if you tried. I have started a blog entry on houses/apartments in China including beds and I will get it up in the next day with some more pictures and thoughts. Basically they are all convinced that if you sleep on a soft mattress, that will cause them back aches and neck pains even though for example, Wang Jian constantly complains about neck pain. Lisa the same thing. She says she won't ever sleep on a soft mattress. They not only don't want to sleep on a soft mattress, they are utterly convinced that it will ruin them.