Our time in China is running down.  We fly out tomorrow so this may be my last posting before we leave.  We'll see!  It has been such a great trip.  The Chinese people are very gracious and helpful (even though they may not understand what we're trying to say).  There's the elevator man at our hotel, his name is Wang, and he tries to come up with something funny to tell us every day in his broken English.  It's quite cute.  The bellhops at the hotel see us coming down every morning and run to get us a taxi.  They're so sweet and cute I wish I could take them all home with me!  

     We've met people from all over the world while we've been here.  We had breakfast one day with a couple of women from New York here for vacation; one day we sat with a man from Germany here on business; we met several couples adopting babies - one couple from France, one woman from Maine who brought her little girl with her.  So many stories from so many people.  It's been such a fantastic experience.  

     I only wish I could speak Chinese!  Before we left Los Angeles even the flight attendants thought I was Chinese.  I just get a lot of blank stares like they can't believe I don't speak Chinese.  It's a little difficult trying to explain that I'm Vietnamese, not Chinese, so I just shake my head and say "English".  

     My only regret is that we haven't had a lot of traditional Chinese food while we've been here.  Rachel is pregnant and she can't handle the different dishes.  So it's been a lot of McDonald's and Subway.  Not quite what I envisioned I would be eating in China.  I don't even eat McDonald's when I'm at home!  Oh well.......I'll have to go to a good Chinese restaurant when I get home.  :)  

We attended the Closing Ceremonies for the Paralympics last night.  It was AMAZING!!!!  If you watched any of the Opening or Closing Ceremonies for the Olympics in August then you'll know what I mean.  They really went all out.  I swear there were thousands of dancers!  I took some pictures but they didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped because the lighting wasn't so good for cameras.  But you can maybe get an idea of what it was like.  

First was the parade of flags - they didn't have the athletes parade, which was kind of disappointing.  We were hoping to see Rachel's husband.

Here are just a few pictures from the program. 

Thousands of dancers on the ground......or maybe it was just 

hundreds, but it seemed like thousands........

People flying through the air........

The final song to extinguish the flame.  Unfortunately we were just underneath the torch so I coudn't get a picture of that......

.....and Fireworks!!!

                        And that was the end of a long day............ I think I'll sleep for two days straight when I get back!