China Pilot

While at the bookstore last Thursday evening we met a United Airlines Pilot that's been to China 156 times!

Ruth was putting a Chinese book back into the shelf when he asked her if she's learning Chinese. He loves China and speaks conversational Chinese. He's been flying there for five years, has several friends there, and gets around now quite well. He'll joke with the taxi drivers when they try to serpentine to his route. He'll tell them: "Ta bu hao." Which means: "You're bad." Then he'll laugh with them, pay what he thinks the ride should be and say goodbye.

He says that the flight we are going is the one he usually flies. Says to tell him what day we are leaving. That would be very cool to fly with him and have him introduce us to some folks while we are there.

I was happy that I could understand his Chinese. I could actually understand every sentence he said. This gives me confidence.

We are really looking forward to the trip. I'm even thinking about buying a digital SLR camera and selling all my film cameras. I want to take some good pictures of the trip and do a blog similar to the Westerdam cruise we took last November.

On our Westerdam trip
...dave
Happiness is an illusion caused by the temporary loss of reality.