Dear Vladimir
Hey Vlad,
Can I call you Vlad? I'm just going to try it and see what happens.
How's it going?
Turns out not so well now that I Googled how to spell your name. Sounds like you need to get a few things in order. Good luck with the British Troops and all... Enough about politics though, I want to talk about hacking.
Earlier today my wife and I took our newly adopted son to the doctor where he was poked, prodded, and otherwise boy-handled until he was crying and sporting quite a nice bland brown band-aid. The good news is that he's ok, nothing out of the ordinary and we may even have received good news that his hypospadia may not be an issue. If you don't know what it is don't Google it at work. Here is a hot pic of us at the doctor:
While Josh is getting examined Ben is brushing up on his playlists, podcasts, Khan Academy courses, but most of all Angry Birds 2.
After the doctor's appointment I ventured out for bread and other items so we can make our gourmet meals in the hotel room. Nothing beats a "free" sandwich for the week at a price that beats a single bottle of Evian here in the hotel room. I managed to navigate an underground train entrance, an overpass, and I even paid with awkward change just to confuse the nice teller at the store. Somehow I thought an extra 2 RMB would make a difference. It didn't. Having finished our lunch Ben and I wandered the grounds and then met with Sir Richard who put our papers together for the consulate meeting on Tuesday. Following that we went for a family swim in the freezing pool and pouring rain that will be a good story someday I'm sure. Here's a hint: we ended up wet.
Now comes the point I wanted to make. Dinner. Last night was gourmet nuggets at McDonald's which means that tonight old fashioned Chinese food was on the menu. Being the man of the house I chose a spot and we set off dodging raindrops on our way to dinner. Our first choice was a bust as the Chinese food didn't include noodles which is the extent of Ben and my "Chinese" food. We hit a few other spots including a Korean Barbecue, and Japanese sit down, and we finally ended up at Paddy Field Irish Pub. That's right, only a true man with unquestionable navigation skills can set off for Chinese food and end up in an Irish Pub.
Whilst we were enjoying our slightly pricier but oh so delicious mistake in navigation it came to my attention that the POS (Point of Sale) systems employed by the Guinness guzzling gestalt showed a pretty prairie picture on screen when switching between windows. Now, to the untrained eye this may have appeared as nothing but a mere personal prairie preference for one's desktop background, ahhh but to you and me, Vlad, it was the tell tale sign of an out of date POS system that is in dire need of an upgrade. That's right, they are running Windows XP! (Insert scary sound effect here).
April 8th, 2014 was the final day that Microsoft sent out security patches for much beloved and widely deployed Windows XP operating system. At the time it was a bittersweet day as Microsoft was pushing the Metro-themed and mightily confusing Windows 8 variant, and Windows 7 just hadn't had the deployment reach that Microsoft was hoping for. I'm sure that Paddy Field is just one of many local establishments that are still making their money using antiquated and highly vulnerable software. So, Vlad, I ask this of you: Please stop messing with Americans in the United States and instead mess with unsuspecting tourists trying to get a good burger in the middle of China. These poor desperate chaps will walk through pouring rain storms with a single umbrella amongst four of them to get their grubby hands on a greasy burger or fabulous chicken fajitas (only $10.99!!!) and their credit information is prime for the picking.
For a quick recap we have:
- Joshua has so far passed all his medical exams
- Ben still likes to swim even if the water is 20C
- Steve still struggles with Chinese Food
- Kristi is likely on her way to sainthood for this trip
- Russia should spend their time compromising POS systems in Guangzhou and leave America Alone. If they are in fact doing anything. (Don't want to get busted for libel)
That is my quick recap of my day and for the credit conscious consumers worried that the old POS system is going to ruin me... I paid cash.
Don't forget to check out www.kristivandyk.com for the real story of the day.
Not a good post
Greetings from the Garden in Guangzhou. Remember that song "one of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong"? Yep that's us in this hotel. I'm sure Kristi or I will share more as the week goes on, but for now you just get pictures and snarky comments. What can I say? I'm tired and hopped up on generic brand Benadryl (Thanks Walmart).
Today was Yang Jin Hua's first flight and he pretty much nailed it. He was in awe of the free food and beverage service, and to show is appreciation Kristi and I each got to take him to the lavatory where we flew like good passengers and didn't light up our smokes. Smoking seems very popular in the country so we'd just be doing our best to fit in.
Random thought: I'm a white guy living in Zeeland where I fit in quite nicely. On a few occasions I've been out solo in a city filled with Chinese. Outside of our hotel I'm not sure I saw a single white male (or for that matter a white male who also happened to be single. #englishishard). So here are a few pics to recap:
Double fisting breakfast. In the orphanage, or even foster homes you never know when or how much the next meal will be. For now this behavior is most definitely a good thing.
Captain Studious.
There has to be a Seinfeld joke here somewhere. "No Fun For You" is the way too obvious choice. It's a park for goodness sake!
Assuming this is a spiral staircase there are 68 steps. If this is not a picture of a tall tower like staircase well then I'll fix it in post.
We went to a restaurant that was supposed to have pictures for the foreign language impaired. I guess the logo counts as a picture... but it was the only one.
Victory = eating dumplings, rice, noodles. I had a little bit of all of the above.
He's one cool dude, being all casual at luggage pickup.
Boy has his priorities straight. Naps ARE still important.
McDonald's Fries for the win...
Followed by free ice cream for the double whammy.
And that, my friends, is all I have for tonight. Tomorrow (Your Friday night) is medial checkup at 10:30 so instead of hitting the St. Patrick's day party why don't you stay home, raise a pint of Guinness (yuck) and pray for a safe examination.
***Afterword - My wife just chastised me for calling this "Not a good post" she could care less about the quality but I suppose what she means is akin to a Doctor clicking his tongue in a tsk tsk fashion while you are on the exam table wearing nothing but a hospital gown and the smile the good Lord gave you. I can assure you the "Not Good" relates to only my writing and the other content in this post.
Everything familiar is new.
“When we change the way we see the world, we change the world we see.”
Close your eyes.
I mean it.
I'm waiting...
I am assuming that you, the reader, has been in an airport terminal before. If you haven't please go rent the Terminal staring the wonderful Tom Hanks and then come back. I'll wait. While we wait isn't it funny that you're still reading this even after I asked you to close your eyes? Worse yet I expected you to follow directions found on the Internet...
Back to the closed eyes. Imagine leaving your home for the airport and after having a amazingly cogent discussion on the economics of the Eurozone post Brexit with your Uber driver you find your self sitting in an air plan terminal (did you finish the movie yet?). Everything around you is familiar, but it isn't quite home. You claim to be outgoing and open to new adventures in your Facebook profile, but deep down this travel is making you a little uneasy. The fairly paid but under appreciated gate clerk makes an announcement and like a good little passenger you step in line awaiting your chance to subject all rights and privileges you though you had to the air-liner ferrying your increasingly sore body to your final destination. Oh, oops, I meant to your first layover.
Two hours later after countless steps walked, status update checks, and a selfie on Instagram of you at an Orange Julius with a guy who looks like that one guy on the show you recently binged on Netflix, you find yourself back in that familiar situation. Do you have time to head the bathroom before final boarding or not? You chance it and hop on the airplane to your final destination (yes I mean it this time, and coincidentally another movie about air travel but I wouldn't watch it just prior to a flight) sandwiched between two strangers. One is slightly larger than the average passenger but is super jovial, and the other a smaller almost pixie like individual that at first glance makes the flight look bearable, until she opens her take out container and lets the aromas waft all around you. And now the answer is you should've tried before boarding the plane. The important thing is that you know what you are doing. You're in a plane, in your seat, and can at least relax in the thought that you've done "you" for the day and you did it well.
Three hours, four chapters, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", and a quick play through the new Steven Tyler Country album (it's like a train wreck you have to look right?) later you land at your final destination. Your new home for a while. You debark the plane, follow the other lemmings through security, customs, security, baggage claim, security, and there you are. You are in an airport that looks like any other airport you've seen. Sure the stores might have different names, the language is no longer English but the signs have subtitles so you make do. Thankfully you've prearranged someone to take you to the hotel you'll be staying at. After some small talk and perhaps a dive into each other's family lives (spouses, kids, lack thereof) you arrive at the hotel after navigating traffic that you can only describe as the pruning process a toddler/adolescent brain goes through (CHAOS. You have a handy little paper drawn map showing you some sites, perhaps a familiar store from back home, and a few other details you head up to your room. Alone.
The next morning you wake up and begin to slowly conquer the "challenges" (HA) in front of you. You manage to speak with a clerk at the hotel desk to get new money. You navigate a whole three blocks down a straight road to get Coke (a-Cola), perform the obligatory picture dance trying to order food with someone you can't communicate with and they didn't bother to learn English to communicate with you (joking! it isn't their fault you are too lazy to even learn the basics of another country's culture, much less their language). On and on you go living in discomfort surrounded by the basic construct of commerce, emotions and facial expressions that you recognized, but immersed in a language and culture that is maddeningly unaccessible to you.
And then you go home. Your time is over, familiarty has returned, and you can go back to your late night munching of whatever is in the pantry. You are comfy again and only have pictures of the good times to remind you that once you were far away from the comforts and familiarity of home. The unfamiliar is over.
Today was gotcha day. We arrived at the Civil Affairs office and met our son for the first time. My wife will have a beautifully written recap later in the week. At some point in the next ten years (97% of facts on the internet are made up) I'm sure that my son Joshua will run out of things that are unfamiliar to the sweet little four year old tucked in bed nearby. Kristi shared with me that someone had mentioned the feeling you have when you first step off the plan and how it correlates to the feelings of confusion and being overwhelmed of a newly adopted child. To him this isn't exciting, or life changing, or perhaps even like a fun vacation yet. Josh is going to spend the next ??? months/years getting off the plane before someday things simply look "normal". I suppose he's going to be living a Ground Hog's day like life for a while.
I'm no expert, I'm just a guy dealing with jet-lag and traveling with a wife and (now) two kids under 7. However in 1995 I stayed in the Leesburg, FL Holiday Inn Express which means I can say with quasi-authority that it is easy to think that we are doing something good or noble. It would be easy to say that we are making a better life for him (hey he didn't choose me, that's for sure) but in the end we're just a well meaning family who removed a young boy from the only home he's ever known. That is no knock on adoption or fostering, I just think that is the one thing that is easy to gloss over until you watch the previous caregivers take their last photos of the child before they sneak out of a room leaving the kids with his/her new family. So as I try desperately to tie this up I simply ask you to consider the quote I tried to steal from my pastor that I shared above. It isn't until you decide to change the way you see the world, that you will see a different world.
Today marks day one of the rest of our journey with Joshua. Thank you for your past, present, and you better believe we'll need your future support as well. Thank you for your prayers and care to make today possible.
p.s. To hear what my pastor really meant with his words you should watch the video from March 5th, 2017. If you like it, you should come visit Sundays at 9:00AM and 10:45AM.