Gabriel the Popular

As you can tell from the picture, Gabriel is the center of attention wherever we go. The people in China love babies and children. We not only have kids looking at him as seen in the picture, but we have young couples and old people as well. They all want to hold him, and even try to get him out of his car seat or stroller even when fastened in. We do let people hold him at times, but have to say no most of the time or we would never get anywhere. They always tease and ask can't they please have him? We always say no and look stricken and they laugh and laugh, it is a fun game.

Deysi and I had a great time in Xining. We stayed in a very nice apt of M's who are on furlough. They had a well stocked kitchen and told us to eat or cook anything we wanted. I fixed pancakes for breakfast one morning and boy was it delicious with my New Zealand butter. There are 2 import stores in Xining and that is where foreigners buy cheese and butter. All the butter is imported from New Zealand and cheese from Holland. We were alone for 5 days and ate 4 meals at KFC, very popular here, and 2 meals at Dicos, a McDonalds knockoff, and only one Chinese meal. I love Chinese food but you can definitely get too much. We cooked and ate with friends for the rest of our meals. I couldn't blog because of the smoke in the internet cafes. You cannot imagine how bad it is, I was lucky to check my email and was usually out in 15 minutes. I could have stayed in this apartment for weeks. They had bookcases full of books, and DVD's and VCR's at our disposal. We really appreciate their generosity. I have read 6 books since I started this trip.