Blogs from Langfang, Hebei, China, Asia

Hey everyone, Second day here... woke up early but not too early. I seem to have adapted to the major time change quite well :) Sleep was relatively uninterrupted. Connected with one of the volunteers, and made a new friend by accident. It all started when mom and I were looking at the games and mom pulled out the Monopoly. Oh hey... it's a Hong Kong version! In this version, the obvious difference are the property titles which would be, of course, names of places in Hong Kong. Instead of railroads, we had stations (seems to me they used subways for this instead of railroads as in the original version). Currency is somewhat different (10s instead of 1s, no 20s, etc). Not a whole lot of other differences with the game... Anywho, we were looking it ... read more

We got up at 6 this morning, and I probably could have slept later. Maybe my body was a little more used to this physical exhersion. Either way, we needed to hit the road. Gordon flew out of his bed, the efficient Engineer that he is, and I quickly followed suit. Once downstairs for breakfast however, Gordon's efficiency was delightfully stalled when we ran into the father of a family who had come in the night before. He was a pastor from Pensacola named Johnny. He was here adopting another def Chinese baby. He was as polite and easy going and on top of things as this orphanage was. His wife he said we a def educator, they were trying to help, to do some good. After breakfast at this place, I just felt like this ... read more

Today Gordon and I arrived at China Orphans outside of Langfang. The ride was terrible. I am clearly out of shape. I was riding so slow, slower than I ever thought I could. I must be in the worste shape I've ever been in. It was painful. Gordon was delightfully patient. He's really doing this because I am. So for him to have to carry me is really pathetic. He's a real trooper. If Ali or Dre had made this trip with us, I can't imagine they would have been so forgiving. We left Beijing at around 7:30. It took us two hours to ride the 20km to get out of the city. I have a new appreciation for how terrible the roads are designed there. The ring road system makes the city like a sprawling ... read more