Yesterday was a horrible day! I woke up and noticed that the diamond in my wedding ring was missing! Of course, I searched the bed linens, my bathroom, and my clothes, but not knowing exactly when it went missing I realized that it could be anywhere. I went swimming yesterday, took a shower, did the dishes. We searched the house, but it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Ron and I have been married 45 years. We picked out this ring together and it cost all Ron could afford at the time. About 10 years after we were married the diamond fell out then too. It was winter time, and I had been wearing mittens and when I removed them - it was gone. It took Ron 1 whole year before he could afford to buy me a replacement stone. I've never wanted a huge ring - just the same size as when he proposed. I was dazzled by it's style and I remember looking at it constantly when it was new. Now it's gone....again. My father-in-law used to say "If a problem can be solved with money, then it's not a problem." I guess that's the way I have to look at this....again.
Ron has been invited to speak at Jinan University by one of his former students from Texas Tech. This young man is now a professor there. It's in Guangzhou, China and we need to apply for a VISA. We took a taxi to a place where a man took our picture and 1/2 hour later presented us with enough photos to attach to our applications. Then we tried to find the Chinese Embassy. We grabbed a taxi but the driver had no idea where we wanted to go, so he stopped at the Intercontinental Hotel and asked a bellman. By the time we got there, it was closed. So today at 8:30 this morning we got another taxi and this time the driver dropped us off at the wrong spot. We walked up and down and up and down and finally asked a guy who gave us an address to a completely different location and we found it.
We took a number and when it was our turn the girl behind the glass partition was very confused. First she wanted to know if we are just tourists or do we live here. Then she questioned the reason for our wanting to go to China. We have a letter of invitation from the University there, but it needs to be in Chinese, and it needs to include an invitation for Ron's wife too...me. And to top it off, we were a month too early. Because Ron isn't going to lecture at this university until May, she said we need to come back in April and apply then. But we have to give them our passports and it takes 4-6 days to get them back. Nothing is easy in Vietnam!
Tomorrow my sister Elaine flies in from Los Angeles via Hong Kong. Can't wait to see her!
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