Getting to Church

September 6, 2009

Church is close! Only a four minute walk to Bus 43, then a 45 minute bus ride past the Eiffel Tower, Roman Coliseum, Egyptian Pyramid, and Renaissance Village (a theme park called Window on the World), then Bus 113 for 45 minutes to the Sea World stop (just what it sounds like), then a twenty minute walk through the guarded gate of Jiang Villa (an international expatriate compound) and up tree lined streets to House 66. An hour and fifty minutes times two means we were on the road for longer than we were at church. Maybe it will get faster by five minutes or so when we know what streets to take in Jiang Villa. Maybe we'll have to take two cabs at least part of the way. With five people in the family, one Toyota Camry sized cab doesn't work so well. We got far fewer stares around Jiang Villa than in our neighborhood. Here, the entire kitchen staff at the University canteen turned and stared at us when we first went in. All forty of them twisted around in their chairs to stare as we negotiated the dinner line.

Jacek and Isabel met a nine-year old neighbor boy at the apartment pool. I heard him practicing his English with his mother over in a corner -- "I want to play" -- after hovering on the edge of the jacek's and Isabel's game for too long. Jacek did a cannonball and then spent seven minutes trying to explain the term, mostly in Chinese. By the time the conversation ended, it looked like some of the adults who had joined in understood a cannonball was a big, big splash. My book pages got all spotty wet.