Oh, China...

After a really good time of relaxation and renewal, we flew back into country today, although not to our hometown. We are in the west part of China. We have been planning for the past several months to visit a good friend in his village to meet his family. We spent a great deal of the past few weeks planning and buying train and plane tickets (as his village is about 1200 miles from where we live). Imagine our surprise when we landed in China and gave him a call to learn that he is not home, nor will he be returning home before school begins! So, here we are in the west part of China with train tickets to his hometown and no plane tickets out until 9 days later; and, yes, we already tried and are unable to change them at a feasible rate. Oh, China...

Luckily, the west part of the country is lovely with lots of mountains around. In other good news, we are not really upset with our friend, as his reason for being away from home is very admirable and exciting to us. And, as we sat on a bus getting this information by text message, we realized how much China has mellowed us. Never before, and in no other country, would we have shrugged off the news with a laugh!