Friends in China

I am meeting new people all the time here in China.  Liu Danling, is a former student of my Chinese teacher at ICC, Rich Lin. The young man with her is Qin Xin, a student that stayed with me after Danling had to leave.  Qin Xin showed me the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower and helped me find the bus stop.  We all cycled the city wall and then had a wonderful meal.  Many of the students also visited the Bell Tower, with some of the Chinese students from Xian University.
The bus ride was very interesting for me.  I have only been on a bus in Peoria twice and that was to show Nico, our French son, how to get to ICC and then I took the Chinese students on the bus to help them learn how to get around Peoria.  This is much different.  Going to the Bell Tower at 9 am was fine.  Coming back at 4 pm the bus was packed and I mean packed.  No matter how full it is you can always get a few more people on.  The bus costs about 15 cents.   I could take a taxi but that would cost 8 dollars maybe 10.  I came to China to try as much as I can to experience China the same way Chinese people do.  If that means squeezing on to a bus then I will squeeze on to a bus.  While I was on the bus I noticed some of the people were a little taller. As the bus emptied out the closer we got to my school I could see those taller people were standing on about a 10 inch step. I was still taller and they were.