A Warm Welcome

So, many of you know that Bill made the difficult choice of leaving his career to join me on this adventure. I truly appreciate the sacrifices he had to make, leaving his job, leaving his hometown, leaving the country, not speaking the language, the list goes on and on. Week one was pretty busy for Bill, most of it included visa processing, settling-in orientation, unpacking, and the careful set up of his desktop for optimum World of Warcraft “strategery”. We are now in day 8.5 for Bill. He meets our ayi’s three times a week and exchange quick English / Chinese lessons, “Please discard the cardboard boxes, it is nice outside, is that a picture of your wife?” In addition, Bill also went grocery shopping, bought some books and checked out the Bund. In the back of my mind, I was always nervous – “What if he doesn’t like it here? What if he gets homesick? How will I know if he’s really situated or just masking his feelings to make me feel better?”

Well, my question was answered on day 8.5....

For those of you that know Bill, you’re probably thinking, “Anne made him take this picture…” And you’re right. How can you not take a picture with the Hooter Girls? Right when we walked in, we were warmly greeted, “Welcome do Hootahs! My name es Lara, I will be your Hootah gurl today” Not that I’m a frequent Hooter-goer in the States, but I have a feeling not much has changed. The girls would occasionally get together to sing and dance. As we were about to leave, one of the girls said to Bill, “You come again” with a special wink. Priceless.