hunger rice and a side of fame.

There are few things in this world that I treasure more than my friendship with Dr. Xu.

Today we continued our BFF chronicles with a standard for us 4 hour dinner. Of course he chose one of the nicest places in town and then refused to allow me to order for myself or see the bill when it arrived. Typical Michael - so giving.

A snippet of our normal ordering routine that involves a lot of questions and communication mishaps,

Him: (reading the english menu) "lavendar custard... what is lavendar?"

Me: "A small purple flower. The smell is often used in beauty products."

Him: "Want it?"

Me: (knowing he will insist) "Ok, but let's get one to share. I don't really want a lot of dessert."

Him: (to waitor) "Ok, we'll take two."

haha.

If I was ordering for myself however, I might have chosen the Hunger Rice, or maybe the Funny Rice...possibly the stray rice?

Ya, I don't know what that means either.

During our 4 hour chat he showed me Chin.ese apps for my new phone, told me stories of his time he recently spent in Beijing on a tv show (more on that later) and took a billion calls from people who want to donate money to the orphans. It was a productive 4 hours, in those hours he managed to get enough money for 52 babies secured from a charity in Shenzhen. I loved watching him wheel and deal on the phone while I played with my new apps...

This man is a business genius and is using his gifts for such great work. Love him. I'm proud to know him and call him a dear friend.

During our meal he made this collage of our meal and sent it to my new phone...someone's excited about technology! haha. He's happy to be able to text me pictures now. It's the little things in life, I guess.

The bottom right picture is of his computer he brought to show me episodes of a tv show he was on in Beijing for seven weeks! It was a group singing/dancing competition that pitted cities against each other, each championing a cause. Hangzhou was represented by the hospital I work at and the cause was the orphans. (hallelujah!) Michael was the spokesperson and he got a lot of air time talking about the heart disease babies and orphans and asking people to help.

Anything that brings attention to Chin.ese people of the plight of orphans in this land is fabulous. Awareness/education is the first step to healing so many of society's ailments. And Michael has the charisma and passion to be the spokesperson on national tv!

He rocked it and was such a super star! I kept telling him, "my best friend is famous!" haha.

He is the back row center:

It's wonderful to see people you love do awesome things for causes greater than ourself.

Another great night with my old friend. Pass the funny rice, I'm not going anywhere soon.

walk slow. xoxo.