Homesick!!!

Well, it's Day 20 of my trip. And even though it took me all week to post all of my Hong Kong pictures, it's been a pretty quiet week for me. Work has been a little slow, and we're waiting for some things to be finished up before we can start on the next phase of our project. Evenings have also been quiet.

We did visit the German restaurant again on Wednesday. It was a warm night. We ate out on the patio. After dinner we bought two tickets for a Pearl River cruise up and down the river in downtown Guangzhou. The entire city was lit up in neon along the riverfront.

The last picture is of the White Swan Hotel - one of the nicest hotels in the city - 5 stars. Ryan and I sat in their dining room and had a few beers one night - expensive!

Anyway, something weird happens to you after about 2 weeks of business travel. You start to look at the calendar and say, I'm getting a little bit tired of this. You notice that your trip isn't even half over. You tire of eating out at restaurants every night. It's when the coping mechanisms come out - things like room service, pulling out your favorite movie DVDs you packed, and craving for simple homemade meals. Simple things like steamed vegetables, steaks, macaroni and cheese, fruit you recognize, all the basics start popping into your head. You find yourself wondering if it's possible to boil spaghetti in a hotel hot pot because you're craving something simple, easy, and quick.

I'm especially tired of riding in the back seat of a taxi each and every day. I miss my house, my cats, and being able to call my friends in the evenings. I miss the autumn chill in the air and the leaves falling. I will miss the gradual change of seasons this year. When I return, I will go from 80 degrees here to 40 degrees at home. I miss American television. I miss fresh air, country roads, and clean water.

But you learn how to make it through. We send postcards, call home, e-mail friends we haven't spoken to in a while, we travel to Hong Kong in search of Irish Pubs and true American style hamburgers. We visit Starbucks when we're feeling nostalgic. Call it a seventh inning stretch. I'm almost to the point where I'm looking forward to eating Chinese food again. But I'm also counting the days until I land in Cincinnati and go to Outback for that traditional steak dinner!

So, we're spending the day in Hong Kong tomorrow. It's a total of 4 hours travel time, for maybe 6 hours in the city, but since we have no other plans for Saturday, why not? (And all the hotels were full Saturday night!!)

Oh - and on Sunday we're going to the final match of a badminton tournament. It should be something to see - the popular sports over here are badminton, tennis, and ping pong. We even got caught in a traffic jam leaving work at 7:00pm tonight because people were on their way to the badminton tournament! Maybe I'll take up a new sport while I'm here.

Miss you all!!!!