There are times in life that reality seems to have changed its essence. This trip is one of those times. Last night, my Chinese friends Grace and Raymond, took me to a new Vietnamese restaurant here in NingBo. We enjoyed a fabulous Vietnamese meal and I taught them how to drink Corona with lime. The Corona bottle was even printed in Chinese! I am in China, eating Veitnamese, drinking Mexican, learning Mandarin!
Then today, I rode back to town from our office with all of our employees. Say what you may, all the Chinese companies here provide bus and van rides from drop-off points in the residential areas. Yup, they all carpool. Anyway, here I am in a van, the only non-Chinese for miles around. It was so real, so truly real. We all really are more alike than different. From the extreme business like atmosphere of the office, to joking, laughing and chatting in the van. Although I could not understand any of the words, I believe the conversations were common to us all: what we were having for dinner, what we were looking forward to this weekend, etc. While I really am as far away from home as I have ever been, I feel as close the the essence of humanity as I ever have.
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