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Friday, December 06, 2019

Lots of Neat Stuff Happening - VPN is down

Our VPN is down. After a few weeks of good wifi and VPN in our apartment - it went down out of the blue. About 3 days ago - we could not connect to the VPN. Therefore - I cannot send detail pictures or videos right now. We do have wifi - but it is just for a few sites. Email is one - but no big emails.

My T-mobile iphone still works uncensored - but it is slow. We always have that.

It is kind of strange - because we can still get Netflix on Apple TV - Sirius Radio - even our Alexa Dot speaker works. Last night I made a nice long phone call to my friend Pete - in Alabama.

Thursday - Nancy made her big presentation in the USA Embassy. It was a full house to see her presentation on Fake News. The crowd was mostly locals that wanted to hear and use their English. Over here kids learn English from grade 1. Chinese really respond well to Nancy - the 90 minutes flew by. They wanted to gush over her - finally Fulbright pulled her from the room so the crowd would go home! Elvis just left the building! I have some pictures and videos of it - and will post them as soon as I can. Nancy was spectacular. I admire her presentation skills. She is at the peak of her career.

Nancy has two more classes on campus at BNU and then she fulfilled her obligation.

We get to Japan on Tuesday for 4 nights. Fulbright will pay for that too. Nancy delivers a presentation there. We have looked forward to Japan for years. People tell us it is very different from China or Vietnam. After that we prepare for Christmas. It is hard finding anything Christmas in China. We went to a tree lighting at the Crowne Plaza on Thursday. It was very nice.

Nancy and I had some pants made at the Silk Market. You pick out the fabric - the pocket style - get many measurements - etc - and they make them from scratch. We paid $45 each. Of course they are the only pants I have that fit. But they are nice. Nancy got some in denim blue - I should have done that.

I have bought very few things here. Transportation and food are cheap. Admissions are mostly free to old people. We bought $1000 of housewares to make the apartment nice. Mattresses - linens - curtains - lamps - side tables - dishes - silverware - iron - hair dryer - etc. We will leave them behind for the next person. As a result - my bags should be less full on the way home. Sometimes - I think I should bring an electric scooter home - other times no.

It reminds me of our 25th anniversary trip to Bermuda. Everyone there wore these bright green Bermuda shorts. They looked so cool in Bermuda. On the way home you are cruising at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic - you look down - and think - what in the world did I buy these shorts for? Never wore them.

I need a new laptop - mine has a sticky keyboard. It is a $400 fix. So I will buy a new one once we get home in January.

So - now you have an update - without pictures - to come later.

We will probably have good service in Japan.

Thanks for reading.
harry nancy

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