Goodbye, Dear Hans

The sweet Hans came over the morning we left to say goodbye. Our driver, whom we had hired from Beijing, was coming down with a big van for all of our zillions of bags of luggage, and he was late getting there because Beijing traffic is ca-razy. So we hung out with the Hans for a couple of hours.

We were always joking that Mrs. Han was Gage's Chinese Mother, because he loves her so much. She would always respond, "And I love heeem." So cute. So Professor Han started calling himself Gage's father. He would say, or rather, yell (he is the kind of guy who yells everything he says. I think it's really funny), "GAGE! I AM YOUR FATHER!"

Professor Han always, always, always has his Baoding Balls in his pocket. He's always getting them out and twirling them around on his palm when he's thinking about something. They're actually the pits of some kind of fruit, I think. He said they cost him, like, 800 yuan, which is, like, $130. Pretty pricey for fruit pits, in my opinion, but whatevs. He said that the kind of harsh texture of the pits promotes circulation better than normal smooth Baoding Balls. That's what he also told me when he made me walk barefoot on his rug-made-of-rocks. He's ca-razy. :) I don't care if walking on rocks improves your circulation - it HURTS.

Mrs. Han was teasing Sadie by squishing her:

I can tell it pains her that she could only have one child. She's meant to be a mother of many, you know??? It would make me sad, too.

Cute little Ha Han:

He was so sweet with the kids. I know Micah especially took a shine to him. And he's single, ladies! Wink, wink! Haha!

We miss the Hans so, so much. I'm going to have to get them American presents, as well as the presents I'm planning to get Summer and Maria. We'll have to get Ha Han something about Barack Obama. He LOVES Obama - all the Chinese do, because they feel like he's a socialist, basically. And the Chinese love socialism. There were these t-shirts we saw in Beijing that had a cartoon Obama on the front, dressed in Chinese revolutionary garb, and on the back, it said, "ObaMao." Ben thought that shirt was so funny that he bought one for his dad. :)