Eric is on his way home

The sad part of that statement is that he left at 5 am this morning and it is almost 9 pm here and he is still flying.  He will be enroute for almost 24 hours which is about as bad as it can get.  We flew in to Beijing last night and then he and I hopped on the subway to go over to Chen Qiang's house (and since I am in the hotel lobby and have no memory, I may have just butchered her name).  She is a friend of Yingzhe's that let Eric stay with her off and on for 2 weeks.  He had left some of his luggage with her and we went to pick it up.  What a delightful woman!  We sat and she and Eric just chatted away.  I was so happy to have a chance to meet her and thank her for her great kindness and hospitality.  I hope she comes to visit us soon so we can return the favor.

So we'll miss our Beijing expert and resident translator for a while - he was an incredible blessing!