The Travels of Grampa Craig: May 2011

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Monday, May 16, 2011

Another Eagle tonight

This young man is Finnish, speaks English and French too. He built a computer lab for a migrant school in BJ. Put 8 refurbished (by scouts) computers in the school. Amazing young man, earned 46 MB is in OA and went to Philmont last year.

Plans to go back to Finland for college.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Nic Robison - new Eagle Troop 1921 BJ

This was the second of 2 Eagle boards we did tonight. Impressive candiates, Nic built a library at a local Chinese school that previously had no books. He raised fund and got donations of over 1000 books and shelving.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

How to pay rent in BJ

This month they wanted to charge me 300$ to use my US credit card. I went to the bank to setup a wire transfer, but did not have all the info I needed, so instead of making another trip to the bank I just withdrew cash. I shoved all this into my backpack - felt like a bank robber. At least here there was no worry of being mugged.

BBQ night, great music

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Saturday in Beijing

I went shopping for groceries this morning with some friends at the apartment building who have a car and driver. They took me to the Carrefore Store - French version of Wal-mart. I picked up a few big items - nice to have a car. Then they took me to Sanyuanli, the wet market. I got some steaks, pork chops, chicken breasts, and a pork loin all for $20. Great quality meats. I froze it all for the company I have coming in 2 weeks. Matt and Marisa Rascon are traveling up from near Shanghai to spend 5 days in BJ the last weekend of the month. I also bought some bulk nuts and vegetables. Prices are much better than in the regular stores. Tonight I am fixing steak, baked potato and corn on the cob for myself.

In the afternoon we went to the east side of town to the furniture district. There are some very interesting shops there that I would have liked to have explored longer. I posted a photo of some huge petrified tree trunks - they were taller then me. That store had amazing rock and fossils for sale. The ammonites in the photo are about 24" tall, they were asking $4200 for them, a bit too much.

I have to speak in church tomorrow on the influence my mother had on my life. She was able to keep me out of prison so that was a big accomplishment! We were the kids that everyone would shake their heads and say "well I know in their hearts they are good kids". This is what adults say about kids that are on the verge of either going to prison or getting killed by their own stupid actions. How we managed to not blow ourselves up with homemade gunpowder or burn down he neighborhood I'll never know. Gladly my kids were much better than I ever was, that is because they had a great mother who stayed home with them and acted as warden.