From one cowboy town Calgary to another, Fort Worth Texas I was sent on a 1 month training course. Fort Worth is itself located right next to another cowboy town Dallas. Stuck in the middle is the suburb Euless, home of a one time moderator Fesnik. To pay homage to another cowboy country tradition, we meet at the local Outback restaurant to partake of some home spun yarns.
After being seated and handed the menus, I had to decide what to order: It was the chicken Breast at times, it was the Worcester sauce at times, after an age of foolishness, we steered to the beef. Nick had a bone to pick so he ordered the large T-bone steak, while since it was night, I ordained the sirloin.
Before leaving my own season of Darkness back in 2008, I had followed along the stories of two earlier Chnlove adventurers. The first was Arnold's and the other was Nick. These two modern days Marcos dressed in Polo shirts, created this spring of Hope for me. So since chance has offered me the opportunity to meet one of the two - don't worry Arnold as I still hope to make it down to LA one of these days - I contacted Nick to schedule a visit.
With the discussion of our early days of mishaps and adventure, I slowly remembered details of his earlier postings. His anxious moments when his wife was stranded with a ticket to fly through Taiwan to the USA, but not the Chinese government's approval. Akin to any Americans trying to fly to Cuba from a USA city. His frantic moments trying to organise a transfer ticket on a shoe string budget. I told him how I had showed my future wife his wedding pictures and wedding day movie, which had my to be wife planning our own picture album.
We talked about our own misconceptions about China and our own wives cultural shock with living in North America. It looks like Calgary, although, has a larger Chinese community for my wife then for Nicks, but it looks like his wife has adapted quite well. I also told Nick that I took cues from his wife's interview to help my wife when it was her turn to be interviewed. Of course Canada and USA have slightly different visa processes, but they still share many similarities.
All in All, it was a good dinner, although too short in time but it was an age of wisdom that had been discussed. And I hope that with our own recent winter of despair from recent threads, that a season of Light will be soon upon us once again.