China Trip October 7, 2008

On October 31st, Ngng, Yeh Yeh, U. Bob, Bri, and I will be heading to Guangzhou, China. Dad and D will be leaving a week early to visit Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian. I am excited to be on vacation but, this planning process has been very unpleasant. First, I had to find the least expensive travel agent. Of course, Ngng looks int the Chinese newspaper and finds the most annoying, unprofessional, jackass travel agent. He didn’t want to answer my questions and just yelled. Well, maybe he was using a loud voice.=) I inquired about business class and different options…all he said was “it’s too expensive”. Geez, thought this agent would like to make an extra buck or two. Next, dad wanted to go visit around China and that was a headache! Sit back, it gets jucier…I pay this guy thousands of dollars in cash/check and he asks me to write it out to China Southern. I owed this guy money for the upgraded airline seats. Can you believe he wanted me to deposit the funds into his bank account???? Thank goodness, my days of dealing with him will be over very soon!

This morning, dad and I went to apply for the VISAS. It was a zoo! When we arrived at 10am, they were only on ticket number 54 and our number was 196! 3.5 hours later, I walked out in utter disgust. I sat in a silver metal chair for many hours answering e-mails and taking calls on my BlackBerry. And get this, Bri’s passport almost didn’t go through since she no longer looks like a teenager! I told the lady that the photo was taken 8-9 years ago…duh, we do “mature and age”!

Your Thoughts… October 7, 2008

I was thinking about Christmas and realized that we are all so blessed.  We have more than enough of the basic necessities. I know of so many families who are struggling just to make ends meet…they have to decide whether to eat or to buy gas.  We have the luxury of never having to experience that. So… in the spirit of Christmas, I was thinking that we give gifts to college students and under (Kevin, Kyle, Kelsey and the babies) but the rest of us really don’t need gifts.  What do you think of contributing to a charitable organization instead of exchanging gifts (the older ones).  We could decide on one organization and a dollar amount.  Many of us have jobs now and can afford to donate a few bucks.  I would like your feed back on this!

ML