Hummmmmm

---

It was our last, and busy day when we went to another garden and a Buddhist temple. When we walked through the entrance into the Buddhist temple area, there was a strong smell of the burning of incense.
"I would like to burn some incense for my family. But I don't know how to go about it. Would you like to burn some incense for your family Tracey?" Kaffy said.
"No." I replied. I was being very stubborn because I was hurt that they didn't call me, even on Thanksgiving. So I thought they had forgotten about me.
"Maybe if you light some incense for them they'll get a sense to call you." He said.
"No. I'm not going to do it."
(I did talk to them today actually and found out that they had called me on Thanksgiving, but I didn't get the call. It could have been because my phone was out of minutes or something. I just worry, not ever being away from home this long before, that my existence there would eventually wear off. That they had missed me, but then got preoccupied and busy, and then slowly forgot about me. I know that's not the case, but still, I can't help but worry about something that I fear so much.)

So anyways, I think we had a guide for this temple. Wait, no we didn't. It doesn't matter because they always turn a corner and I, as well as a couple others in our 6 member group, lag behind and get lost. So we did a lot of the touring just wandering around by ourselves or whoever we could stay with for very long. The background music in the temple sounded like the typical Buddhist background that you would think of. Humm hummmmm hummm (with tones of course). It really added to the environment but also laid on me a sense of suspense. Like I was in a movie and something weird, strange, out of the ordinary, scary...no symbolic, no special was about to happen. Or maybe I was just confused. What?

The night before, in the river city, I had bought some crumbly stuff that Kay Garrett said "tastes like the inside of a butterfinger". I thought it tasted like dirt. I bought it because the sweet lady reminded me of a grandmother. So I had packed some of it in my purse just in case I came across any fish. I thought they might like it. Luckily for me, there were huge goldfish just under the bridge in front of the Buddhist temple. And they liked it!

When we got out of the temple gardens, our guide informed us that we had to go shopping, or we each had to pay her 100 yuan. (According to what the company told her.) The travel company gets money to send their travelers to shopping traps. So we had to shop, or pay not to shop. We went to a pearl market where a man, who wasn't very cute, showed us an oyster pearl and how they harvest pearls, collect pearls, and, of course, "How to tell? If real, or fake?" You rub the pearls together, and real pearls produce a white powder. Then we were led into the 100% authentic, guaranteed, real pearls, or 1000 times your money back area. I thought it was very expensive, even with the "20% discount" they offered. And most the pearls were so perfectly round. I liked the unique roughness of the real pearl necklace I bought at the river city in Hangzhou. It has character. 😊

---

Comments

[Departmet of Defense]

hanging clothes out to dry
Well it’s been a long time since we have herd from you, we suspected the worst. Anyway, we have also notice the clothes hanging out to dry suddenly appearing and disappearing for some time now. We first started out putting up 24 hour surveillance cameras to capture some footage. It just so happened that our video would flicker, only for a second mind you, and the clothes would appear. Then the same thing would happen and they were gone from the line. Next we would send out agents to keep an eye on the elusive clothes, but for some odd reason every agent we sent would wake up in some park with no recollection of why they were even in Asia or how they got there, one is still missing. We have only one explanation for this, Ninjas. We think that due to the lack of a need for high class assassins that can not be seen heard or caught, they have turned to the only other thing Asians know how to do, laundry. sencirly, your friend at the DoD

[Mom]

Thinking of you...
I'll say it again, although you may not believe my sincerity, I think of you MANY MANY times EVERYDAY!! This Thanksgiving I wondered if you all tried to have any Thankgsgiving---after all you had a Halloween. I missed you help and enthusiasm in trying new dishes. We didn't have stuffed mushrooms and I even forgot to fix the stuffing! You missed looking at all of the pictures on the Pettyjohns Cell phone of thier pets!!