Tea with Mr. Z

Mr. Z and me.

I admit, I have been terrible about blogging lately.  I take photos daily at both the hospital and in my "everyday" life, but I somehow  cannot seem to translate that to the "computer screen".

There is a very nice man here (Mr. Z) who knows my friends/bosses in Oklahoma. We were introduced via email before I arrived in China. He is the retired as a the head of the department of International Exchange of Health Services. As I understand it, he was basically a liaison between foreign countries and China for promoting healthcare exchange. Subsequently, he has traveled all over the world. 

He reached out to me via email and invited me to join he and his wife for lunch and tea this afternoon. Unfortunately his wife couldn't make it at the last moment (her sister fell ill), but we had a really nice time. His English is absolutely great, and he is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Chinese history, culture, and custom. He was very open, and I felt like I could ask him anything, so I received answers to a lot of my "burning questions" today. He talked all about Chengdu when he was a child (it was only a city of 1 million, not the14+ million that it is today), about Chengdu during the time of the rule of Chairman Mao (Mao Tse-tung), and Chengdu today. It was really interesting!

We had a wonderful lunch, walked around the park, and then we enjoyed talking/Chinese  tea. He and his wife even brought me a little "care package" with fresh fruit and traditional  Chinese snacks. It is so fun, wonderful, and refreshing to meet such an open, kind, and generous person.

I hope to see him again and meet his wife before I leave!

A perfect day for a walk in the park!

A child and his mother feeding the fish in the Park. The fish are fed via food in a baby bottle attached to a stick. The fish will suckle on the bottle to get the food out. The kid has to be sure to hold tightly onto the stick...those hungry fish were feisty!

So I will add this to my list of  "interesting cultural practices" in China. While Mr. Z and I were having tea, these people came around multiple times and asked us if we would like to have our ears cleaned (I, of course, couldn't understand). Both of us politely declined. But, this man, took her up on it. It is not unusual to be walking through the park and see someone getting his/her ears cleaned out. She even has a heavy duty headlamp on :)

Not your typical Q-tip :-)