Food and Friends

Friends from the Local Branch

Peter and Shelley who live nearby came to visit today. He is Korean and majored in the Chinese language, Shelley is Chinese and majored in Korean. He joined the Church in Boston where he was at university. They are a beautiful couple who have a son in first grade (he speaks Chinese, Korean and English). Peter is in the clothing export business, Shelley owns her own service company. They have a car and are anxious and willing to take us around (perhaps when we get a manual wheelchair figured out). It was as if we had been friends for years. They want us to come to their house for dinner.

Acupuncture for Dad?
Jason the physical therapist/acupuncturist (note the photo with Joseph’s leg as tall as his shoulder), during his regular session with Joseph expressed a willingness to treat Dad’s girth (which is amazing to everyone in China). This is one of those party stories of the future. (public humiliation is good for weight loss, right?). The price is right (free) but the cost. . .

Food and Drink
Speaking of food. . . it has been very interesting here. The hospital does not provide food, as we have mentioned. The staff takes order for lunch and dinner from a collection of take out places that include Chinese, pizza, Chinese, chicken, Chinese and pizza. The Chinese is really good. Both Joseph and Matt are committed to experiencing it all, so enjoy trying everything. They deliver the food in little plastic containers, then come back to pick them up. With the little fridge and microwave, leftovers work well. We bought a couple of extra containers to keep leftovers in. We also bought dishes and utensils. We can both cook and wash up in the common kitchen area.

Shopping at the RT Mart
We mentioned the market before, like so many things here, if you expect a third world country—think again. This is a beautiful, modern, clean and amazing store. It handles foodstuffs on the first level and electronics, stationary and housewares on the second. The escalator is a ramp, perfect for shopping carts and wheelchairs. The shopping cart wheels have a grove in them that matches the grooves in the ramp so they rest on a rubber brake going up or down the incline. The variety of live fish, frogs and turtles is accompanied by fresh chicken parts (note the photo with separate sections of chicken feet, gizzards, hearts etc.). The selection of fish, meat, poultry and seafood of everykind is matched my an amazing collection of fresh fruit and vegetables unmatched anywhere. The fresh selection at the bakery was mind-boggling. If we start now we will never be able to try everything. It is all quite inexpensive. The presentation is world class. Whaddacountry!