Old People: The Good and the Bad

This is a quick post from Cody. Stay tuned though, Kristen is getting ready to post some more pictures right after this.

We went to the Shaolin Temple yesterday and it was amazing. My brother and I studied Kung Fu when we lived in Oregon so to come to the largest Kung Fu school in Asia was pretty awesome!

The temple is where I saw the best and worst of the old people here. 99.99% of the people we have seen are very sweet and gracious. They are all curious about us and smile when they see Mae. At breakfast this morning, an older man was sitting at a table near us and just stared with a smile on his face the whole time he was there.

First, the bad. When we were walking to the temple there were some people panhandling out front. Most of them would just hold out their hand when you walked by and say something in Chinese. Then there was the gang that attacked me! Well, maybe not so much a gang but definitely some sort of organized crime ring...well they could have been three very old women. I can't remember exactly. Either way, I almost got robbed.

Here is the real story. When we walked past most of the panhandlers, there were three very old women asking for money. When they saw me, they all rushed up and one of them grabbed my Sprite bottle and tried to take it away. She had a hold of it for about 3 seconds until I yanked it back. After I broke away from them, Kristen said that two of them reached into my pockets. I didn't even feel it. I had my camera and about 450 RMB (about $70) in my pocket but somehow they didn't snag any of it. Even though I was about two feet taller than all three of them and probably weighed more than all of them combined, I barely made it out alive!

Now the good. Really, everything else has been very good. We love the people here but that doesn't make for an interesting story.

Towards the end of our tour of the temple, a very old couple walked by us a couple times. The last time they walked up to us and the man said, "Hello" and I responded with a "Ni Hao". He smiled big and said, "How are you today?" so I said, "I am good. How are you?" He really lit up and said, "I am doing very well. Thank you." Then, he and his wife walked off smiling. The whole exchange was very heartwarming.

We have our first plane ride with Mae tomorrow, so we'll let you know how that goes. She's been so good in the buses and vans that I'm sure she will do well on the plane...we shall see.