China (part two October 23rd) ..... makes me smile

I love listening to speakers of other languages chat with one another. Yesterday, I was listening to 3 Chinese chatting with one another and noted a difference in patterns and tones from Japanese. To my ears, the Japanese speak in much more sing song fashion, very much like flittering little birds. Chinese speakers seem to speak with a lot more authority. More attitude it seemed to my Texas ears. They were still nice, however. "Good morning" from one of my Chinese roommates very early this morning. Smile.

Naoka was sick yesterday morning from the rolling seas and asked if it bothered me. I started to launch into a litany of ailments I don't have when I realized I better dial back. A simple no would be best.

Last night there was karaoke in the lounge. One of my fellow sailors had a bottle of Jack Daniels and he was eager to share. I'm a real lightweight when it comes to the "hard" stuff so I nodded weakly when he filled a shot glass in front of me. There were no mixers unless I wanted stir in some Japanese tea so straight up it was. Needless to say Jack and I became good friends and I sang karaoke for the first time ever. :-). Everyone else seemed to be such wonderful singers. Even purple hair who said he knew the singer of one of the songs he sang.

The ferry really was the best decision for travel to china it gave my feet a chance to heal enough for the arduous walking ahead. The seas seemed quite rough last night. The ferry is much smaller than a Carnival cruise ship. Most of those have an average of around 13 decks. This ferry has 4. It catches the waves better....or worse depending on your point of view.

One of the things about cruising I love the most, whether big or small, is I've always found them to be "no hate zones". I've heard for two weeks about the dislike the Chinese and the Japanese have for one another and I know there is a lot of history for those feelings. But I found the two groups to be quite friendly the past couple of days. I had been worried about how I might tell my taxi driver at the port which hotel I need. Not to worry at all. A mix of Japanese and Chinese roommates formed a 4 person committee to write out kanji names of my hotel and its phone number. I'm in good hands.

Wow!!! After sailing through the harbor for hours, We've been Shanghai'd!!!! More tomorrow!!!