Well everybody was right here, be yourself and everything will work out fine. It was my first time flying and i am still not in love with that but not as bad as i thought it would be. I arrived in Shenyang about 20 hours after i left, no sleep so i was feeling a little greasy. Linda and Karen, another translator met me at the airport with roses and she filmed the meeting. She looked beautiful! Linda had said all along that she would spend every minute with me while i was there. Frankly i was a little nervous about this. When we got to the hotel she asked to have another room. I thought well here we f---ing go. There was no more rooms available so we went up to mine and she and Karen were going to go to another hotel to fine one later.
I took a shower and we went to get dinner. We had a nice dinner and a good talk with allot of help from Karen. After we returned to the room I told her that if she wanted She could have the bed and i would sleep on the floor, she agreed. Karen left so we spent some time alone and had a few laughs and she said i could sleep in the bed too. Thank god because the carpets are filthy in this place.
We spent the next day with Karen and went to the park by the river that Brent talked about. Good advise it was beauitful there and as i love to fish and live near a river myself i felt comfortable and we had a wonderful day. By the end of the day she was arm in arm with me all the time. It felt great! We had dinner at a very good resturant with Karen, the resturant had i am not sure what you call it but like a stream running through it and many palm trees and bushes. It was very pretty in there. Karen left us at the hotel and we had another good evening just trying to talk and understand each other. She has such a beautiful laugh.
The next couple days we just spent time together exploring the city. I have never been to a city of this size other than driving through Chicago in a truck. It was quite an expreience for me. Shenyang to me was a little depressing. Building's that seem to be almost ready to fall down while new ones seem to be going up everywhere. Didnt see many workers though. Side walks that were caving in and frankly not my kind of place at all. But I was with a beautiful lady that by then would not walk two feet without looking to put her hand in mine or her arm around mine. We went to the tomb and the imperial palace and a couple more parks. I was falling very much in love with this woman and thinking she was feeling the same way about me. In this period of time we also visited the agency #612 and i met our translator Sonia. It went real well there and she sent many pictures to my daughter's email for me. I have no complaints at all about this agency and was treated very well by them and have been in comunication with Karen and Sonia through email and MSN every day since i been back.
Well we went from sleeping on each side of the bed to sleeping in each others arms by now. Nothing else yet though but it was great. I woke many times thinking my arm had been removed but didnt want to move it and wake her. We are now engaged and she will come here on engagement visa but not soon enough for me i am afraid. We then went to meet her parents and daughter. They are retired and have worked the fields in nearby Tie Ling. They fixed a feast for us and it was the best food i had while i was there. Everything you guys has said about dumplings was right. Them things are gooood. I took many pictures with me from here of my family and things around the farm here. I think they enjoyed looking at them and asked questions about my farming. How about that something in common with her parents. Only thing they live in a very small arartment in the middle of allot of poverty. (linda and daughter live there with them) They seemed to be very happy people and showed me a good time but at the same time wanted to know how long i have been divorced and things like this. Father gave me and her a little talk about failed marriage and that maybe we will be able charish each other after this. He was very respectful and i was towards him.
These people have worked damn hard in their life i will never have any thing but respect for them. My grand parents farmed and worked like this so i have always had respect for these kind of people. Hard working and honest!
The traffic is god awful and unbelievable. I have read about this many times and for me there is no way to decribe it you just got to see this. The rudeness is also unbelievable. If you show these women any kind of respect at all they just look at you and put on a big smile like it has never happened to them before. I mean little things like holding a door for them or allowing them to enter an elevator before you do. The kids will come up to you and say things like hello how are you in english with the encouragement of their parents. I always tried to get them to tell me their name and shake their hand before we moved on. The kids and parents seemed to enjoy this very much. All in all most of the people seem very curious and respectful of course there are allot of guys that need to be took out behind the wood shed for a little lesson.
The only problem i had was i got a debit card before i left to access cash through ATM machine. They dont take debit cards in Sheyang. Karen's cousin is a bank manager there and he told her that they dont have the athourity to withdraw money from someones account like that. This would be worth checking out if any body is planning on going to this city. I took 2000rmb and 7 one hundred dollars bills with me. Had no trouble cashing in the bills and there is a bank of china right around the corner from the Grand Century Hotel. This was enough for the trip but i wanted to get her a computer while i was there but we just looked at them and i am wiring cash to her account now. This is what i will do in the future is send cash to her account and have it there first. The hotel took my credit card no problem but the stores want cash. (my credit card is visa debit card mastercard both through my local bank) I did call and tell them i would be in china before i left.
Well i hope i havent got to long here and better end this. If there are any new guys that read this wandering if this is real as i did just a few months ago i can tell you that they are very real. I fell in love with a wonderful beautiful woman and made good friends that i hope to stay in contact with the rest of my life. I gave them an invitation to visit me here if they come to this country somday. This is what allot of these young translators seem to want to do. i have read about you guys that are now waiting for your girls. How do you take this? Harvest will start soon so maybe get my mind off her a little. But this is a hard time for me. I would hate to say how many tears i have wiped from my eyes since linda and i parted. Here they come again! Thanks for all the help from every one here. I will try to post a picture or two, if i cant figure it out how maybe i will get Vince to do this for me.
Kenny
Translators / Sonia, Linda & Kenny / Sonia & Kenny
