Fathers are Dragons in China!!!

A Dragon with My People!!

This weeks blog as you can guess is dedicated to all those fathers that are doing their best for their kids each day. Thus the meaning of the title for this week.  Despite the bad rap that Dragons have gotten over the years, Dragons are revered in China.  The only person that could have the Dragon for their crest was the Emperor.  So men, you really are the kings of your own castles and it is great that our wives let us believe so most of the time.  Anyway, as I was saying  Dragons are respected here.  Another aspect about them is that despite their frightful look they are kind and compassionate.  With that being said, remember Dragons, that even when we make tough decisions regarding our families don't forget to be loving and compassionate.  DRAGONS TAKE CARE OF YOUR PEOPLE!!!!!! 
 
  I want to take a moment to send a LARGE brotherly hug out to my brothers.  This is our first Father's Day without our Dad.  I know each of us will have fond memories of him and spend some time thinking about what he meant to each of us.  I know I will cherish the relationship that we had, just before he passed away.  He had the opportunity to share a little of his life with my daughters and they really enjoyed the time being coached by him.  I got to see one last time the coaching fire flicker in his eyes that.  With that fire burning in him, it demonstrated why he is a Dragon to me.
    The video is at the beginning this week because the song for this video is my toast to all of you Dragons out there.  Here is the link.  Dragon's Day Video

SCHOOL:  No School this week because we were off for the Dragon Festival!!!

ADVENTURES:  After last weeks slow week because of the seven day work week, we started off on a rather calm note.  Monday was all about resting and taking care of some of the little things we needed to do before we headed to Beijing.
  Tuesday dawned with wet rainy conditions, which are not a surprise here in Southeast China. 
  Before we caught our flight later in the day, Cecelia and I decided to get some exercise.  She chose to stay dry and do some yoga, while I was stupid enough to go out into the drizzling rain.  I figured that if it was just a mild drizzle and that it would probably stop or be intermittent.  Obviously if you have been reading the blog over this past year, you know my luck with the rain.  So, this time wasn't any different.  As a matter of fact as I headed out I thought I saw some clearing skies near the metro station, so I decided to ride in that direction to avoid the rain.  Unfortunately, my mistake was not feeling the wind as it was blocked out by the high rise apartments.  With that error, rather than riding away from the oncoming storm, you guessed it I rode directly into the storm.  So, the drizzle that I began my ride in, turned into something a lot more substantial a few miles into my ride.  After being pelted by heavy rain for a mile or so I decided to cut back through a village that I knew and take a short cut back.  It really was a shortcut, the story doesn't get worse.  Quit thinking the worst for me will ya, geez!!!  Anyway, as I was heading back I came across some of the really long Dragon Boats.  This group had the Dragon heads on them and were prepared for the Dragon Boat Festival the next day.

Local villagers in Dragon Boats

  Now I know that I have mentioned the Dragon Boat Festival and this weeks blog definitely has the Dragon theme to it, but I really don't want to focus so much on the meaning of the Festival itself.  In short the Dragon Boat Festival is an excuse to party for a few days at the beginning of June.  It started roughly 2000 years ago and has something to do with a poet from some village that committed suicide because of some problem that he had with the local government.  The people of the village loved the poet so much, that when they started searching for his body in the river in which he drowned himself, they threw food to the fish so that they wouldn't eat his body.  I apologize for the less than meaningful description, but that is the story Cecelia and I both got from some local Chinese people.
  During the festival, people eat these triangle shaped rice balls stuffed with either chicken or pork.  Then are then wrapped in some kind of leaf and then steamed to a gooy perfection.  The best I have had were made by my friend David's mom.  Also, while eating most people watch boat races.  The boats are adorned with Dragon Heads and then the Dragons are fed herbs and graced with scarves to give the boats luck.  There are serious races, that we watched on TV by the way, but the local area just seemed to be prepared to enjoy a day off in the middle of the week to party.
  So the previous information was given to you so that you will understand that my semi-disasterous bike ride turned into another outstanding local adventure.  As I stopped to admire the decorated boats that were parked under a bridge, and give myself a little break from the rain, I happened to hear drums and cymbals beating in the distance.  With my curiosity piqued from the sound, I ventured forth back out into the rain and rode a little further into the local village.  As I turned the last corner to enter the village I was astounded to see a group of people paddling two Dragon Boats up a canal to the beat of the cymbal and drum.  The people were rowing in the rain and having a joyous time.  When I came abreast of the two boats on my bike, the drummer increased his beat and waved to me to race them down the walkway. 

Of course I obliged and we had some fun in the rain together.  When I reached the end of the path, they waved to me to turn around and race again.  This time, I pulled out Taylor's iPod, set my bike aside and raced them down the path on foot so that I could get some photos and video.  Thus the video and photos you experienced earlier in the blog.  We then raced back once again to the end, they docked their boats and asked me if I would like to get in and paddle.  I know at this point I probably should have taken them up on their offer, but I thought I would go back and get the girls and then give it a go.  So, I waved goodbye and headed home to dry off and shower. 
  After my ride, we were going to pack up and head to the airport for our flight later that day to Beijing.  To know avail, after picking up Cecelia and the girls we made it back but everyone had gone in to have lunch, so it was just the two boats docked side by side when we arrived.
 After leaving the Dragon Boats behind we headed for the airport to catch our flight to Beijing.  When we arrived at the airport to check in, I was informed that our flight was delayed until much later.  I was told that we could get on an earlier flight, so we took the opportunity.  The new flight was going to be leaving in a half an hour, so the ticket agent got us the tickets, but then we had to run through the airport to get to our new gate.  We arrived breathless to a new flight that was delayed as we arrived.  The delay lasted around four hours, but we finally boarded our flight and made it to Beijing at 2 am.  After checking in, we decided to sleep in and start the next day at Tienanmen Square.  So, just as we had to wait for the next morning, you are going to have to wait for the Bonus Blogs this week.  The bonus blogs are going to focus on our exploration of Beijing and finally our amazing day at The Great Wall.  I also don't want the blogs to be as long as the Great Wall, so you will have to wait for them later.  I promise not to delay too long.