SUMMER 2009 N E W S L E T T E R FREE

Hello once again everybody. Thanks for sending in your stories, pictures & writeups so that we can all

know about your life a little bit more. It’s my favorite part to get the emails from all of you - so thanks for being faithful to help make this a newsletter

that we can count on reading to update us on the latest in our family’s lives.

The summer months brings us

lots of changes, lots of new adventures and new things to do. Continue to read to find out just what all your brothers/sisters/brothers-in-law/sisters-in-law/

sons/daughters around the U.S. & the world!

Special thanks to the one &

only Lydia Tost for spell & grammar checking all of the writeups. Enjoy reading & hope to see you all soon! Much Love, Jesse

Summer months for the Perrys

MICAH PERRY

RUTH PERRY GRANT & DEBORAH FAMILY REBECCA & JORGE

PERRY NEWSLETTER

BEN & YUHANG SAM & HEATHER FAMILY SETH & LYDIA

JESSE PERRY

Hello everybody! Well I will make this short & sweet because right after I write this, I will put the

newsletter together, and judging that I should be in bed soon, this will be a quick update.

SO I'll start off from the top -

as I believe I updated you with in the last newsletter, I stepped down from the editor position at the yearbook for

various reasons - most of them because of the leadership there. So, recently the yearbook came out & I worked on

probably about 80% of what the yearbook's content is... and, my name is mentioned all of probably 2 times in the book I believe.. yes, two. But hey! I

know what I did. At least I'm still recognized online because they haven't updated the website yet!: http://

www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=10677

In other news - I will be on the AMA marketing team for Liberty this

next fall. AMA is the marketing association for colleges around the nation. They basically get a certain amount of money from a company in

the U.S. (last year it was Kodak) and the contest is basically to see what

university can come up with the best way to spend that money to solve the company's problem. (Very abbreviated

rules). LU ranked third in the nation this past year, so that will be exciting to be on a team and learn some good real world strategies.

As far as my current employment goes, I did have an internship at a local firm named

Prototype - but my work primarily consisted of "Hey you, call this number & get some names." Not worth the

time & money involved. But at least I can put something on my resume! I'm doing some work over the internet for Aunt Christa as of late & that's going

great. Trying the best I can to market her products to the masses online. I'm also trying to start up a few internet &

LU-based businesses. Imagine that, me starting businesses! I assure you, they won't be called Jesse, Inc. Those are in

the early stages, but I'm getting there.

I'm excited for a trip to the Grand Canyon I'm going on with Kelly's family at the beginning of July. I'm all

prepared with my crazy strong sunscreen and huge hat to block any

Jesse Perry

PICTURES

JEFFERSON’S HOME

KELLY’S BIRTHDAY

THE NATURAL BRIDGE

VBS, TRBC-STYLE

VISITING A FRIEND, WITH SOME

FRIENDS AT VIRGINIA BEACH.

ME, MICHAEL,

RYAN, NICK (WHO IS ALSO A PERRY)

harmful UV rays from my pasty white body. Next May after graduation I will be traversing Rome, Athens & many

other places by a company called Educational Tours. They offer very discounted rates to students to go on long trips. Should be very interesting as

I go out of the country for the first time!

Speaking of graduation - for those of you that are attending & would need a hotel - I recommend you

reserve those now, no joke. Besides LU's 23,000-something person graduation, there are 2 other area schools graduating on the same day as

myself (May 15, 2010) in the small town

of Lynchburg, VA - so things will be crowded. But! That's a ways away.

Last but not least, if you would

like proof I attend Liberty, visit this: http://www.liberty.edu/index.cfm?PID=17889 (I'm third from the bottom with a smug smile)

Jesse Perry cont.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO “TWIT” ON TWITTER — TWITTER.COM/JESSELPERRY

Micah PerryHi family —

I want to first send out eternal

congratulations to Ben and Yuhang for tying the knot again, and even tighter in an ancient Chinese secret ceremony, and to Jorge and Rebecca for their

engagement. Thanks for bringing more into the family, you two. I think it'll really spice up this newsletter. ;)

Chicago winter is finally over here, and I couldn't be happier. It's still 60 degrees almost every day, but at

least I can ride my bike around again without fearing frostbite or the hilariously unreliable, which definitely makes my life feel more like a life. I will

tell the most recent events in my life and try to work backwards:

On Tuesday, I got promoted at

my job up to management. Yes that's right, the slacker has finally become the sire. Ha! Just kidding. I'm not really

going to be telling people what to do or how to do it, just making the schedule and the payroll and doing some supply orders. There's really not much of a

hierarchy, just 2 people who have organizational tasks, and then everyone else. I recently found out that the other

manager at my shop, Tiff Harrison, was born in the exact same minute as me (June 27, 1985, 10:43 pm). She is a native Michigander though, so we

turned out diametrically opposite. I finally emancipated myself from Intelligentsia about one month ago, and

now work at this place: http://www.nobletreecoffee.com/. It's only been open about a year, so it's still in

the money-losing phase, but it has tons of potential, and I hope to help it grow.

On Sunday, Hillary and I returned from New York City where

we stayed with our friend Christine for 3 days. I had never been there, so three days was not enough to do everything I

wanted at all, at all. The highlight of the trip for me was going to Coney Island where we saw a variety of ridiculous

things: a man on the street with a boa constrictor around his neck, a freak show featuring actual disabled humans (sounds garish, actually kind of moving

to see people proud of their

"weaknesses"), a man escaping from a straight jacket Houdini-style, a raucous outdoor dance party on the beach that

lasted about 9 hours, and more fried stick-based foods than my tired stomach can stand to recall. Also, I shot paintballs at a moving human target in a

carnival game called "Shoot the Freak". Only five bucks! We also went to an art museum called PS1 which is a sister

musuem of the MoMA built inside of an old school building in Queens. There were some interesting exhibits, but I'd

suggest checking out their website (http://ps1.org/) for better descriptions than I can give.

That's all I can think of for

now. I've attached a few pictures, and will probably be putting the rest up soon on my picasa page that I listed in

the last newsletter. Hope you are all well! If any of you are restless and looking for a cheap vacation, please

come visit me in the capital of the Middle West. I have a comfortable couch and many spare blankets!

Hello! The funny thing is that last family newsletter, I had recently

returned from visiting Ben and Yuhang. And now, here I am again, reporting on a recent visit with Ben and

Yuhang! It’s kind of hard to summarize everything, but I’m going to try to give

you a chronological account.

Two of Yuhang’s

friends picked us up at the Harbin airport. It was very nice of them, especially since it took us quite some

time to get through customs (you know, swine flu and all). Since Jorge

and I had only recently

learned “Ni Hao” (Hello) and “xie xie” (Thank you), conversation with our

drivers was limited.

After two hours in the airport (the same amount of time as the

flight), and an almost two-hour drive to Daqing, boy, was it exciting to finally

see Ben and Yuhang! In China of all places! And on the occasion of their

wedding! I still can’t believe I happened to be living in Korea at the same time my brother happened

to be getting married in China. We met up at the hotel where we would be

staying, along with some

uncles and other family members, and two of Ben and Yuhang’s friends from

Berlin. It was conveniently located right across the street from Yuhang’s family’s apartment. It

pretty much felt like we owned the place, as we took up a major part of

one floor of the hotel.

The first day we were there, Saturday, was

spent running some errands, and walking around and shopping a little bit, before finally

ending up at the pre-wedding dinner.

Rebecca & Jorge

JORGE AND I WERE HONORED TO BE BEST MAN AND MAID OF HONOR. I WAS HAPPY TO BE THE “MEI MEI” . THAT MEANS LITTLE SISTER. SO EVERYONE REFERRED TO ME AS “MEI MEI” , INCLUDING THE WEDDING ORGANIZER. IT WAS KIND OF FUN, AND I ALWAYS KNEW I WAS SUPPOSED TO GET IN A PICTURE OR DO SOMETHING WHEN I HEARD THOSE WORDS. BIZARRELY, THE EXPERIENCE OF NOT KNOWING WHAT WAS GOING ON MOST OF THE TIME (BECAUSE WE CAN’T SPEAK CHINESE) WAS COMPLETELY FAMILIAR TO US. SO IT FELT KIND OF NORMAL IN A WAY. UNFORTUNATELY, I DON’T HAVE A PICTURE OF BEN SAYING HIS VOWS IN CHINESE. IT WAS VERY IMPRESSIVE, AND SOUNDED PRETTY DARN GOOD TO ME. IT MUST HAVE BEEN GOOD, BECAUSE YUHANG’S MOM WAS WIPING HER TEARS DURING IT. ALTHOUGH I DIDN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT HE WAS SAYING, I HAVE TO ADMIT I SHED A FEW TEARS MYSELF.

AFTER THE WEDDING, WE HAD A GREAT DINNER WITH THE FAMILY AT A NEARBY RESTAURANT. YUHANG’S MOM IS ON THE LEFT, THEN

AN UNCLE, YUHANG’S STEPDAD, AND THEN ANOTHER UNCLE. EVERYONE TOASTED TO THE SUCCESSFUL WEDDING AND WARMLY

INVITED US TO RETURN (EVEN WITHOUT BEN AND YUHANG!) THEY TOLD ME THAT I HAD TO TELL MY PARENTS ALL ABOUT THE

WEDDING, AND THAT THEY WOULD LIKE TO VISIT OHIO SOMETIME.

HERE’S BEN SHOWING OFF ONE OF THE INCREDIBLE PRE-WEDDING PHOTOS

YUHANG EXPERTLY GUIDED US TO A STORE SELLING CUTE, CHEAP, AND COMFORTABLE SHOES

BEN AND YUHANG ARE SERVING SHOTS TO ALL THE GUESTS

THE FOOD. TONS OF IT. I

COULDN’T BELIEVE HOW MANY PLATES

AND BOWLS CAN BE

STACKED ON TOP OF OTHER

PLATES AND BOWLS!

JORGE MADE A NEW FRIEND. (DON’T THEY

KIND OF LOOK ALIKE?)

THIS IS BEN OUTSIDE

YUHANG’S ROOM. HE’S LISTING OFF ABOUT TEN

NICKNAMES HE HAS FOR

YUHANG,

Rebecca & Jorge cont.

GROUP PHOTO. IN THE BACK ROW IS YUHANG’S AUNT, MOM, GRANDMA, STEP DAD, AND I THINK UNCLE. THEY SENT US OFF WITH HUGS, GREEN TEA, AND A BUNCH OF FRUIT LEATHER. WELL, THAT ABOUT SUMS IT UP. WE HAD A GREAT TIME SEEING BEN AND YUHANG AND MEETING YUHANG’S FAMILY. SEEING HER HOMETOWN AND JUST BEING IN CHINA FOR THE FIRST TIME WAS EXCITING. I HOPE WE CAN GO BACK. CONGRATULATIONS, BEN AND YUHANG!

So, looking back at pictures, I guess a lot has been going on!  We had a great Easter with Ruth here in

Pittsburgh, and traveled out to Philadelphia to spend Mother's Day weekend with Grant's family.  In between I've attended a wedding in VA,

Grant ran a half-marathon, played a basketball game against some NFL players, and finished up his tennis

season.  Next year Grant will take over the Varsity coaching position for both the Girl's (fall) and Guy's teams. We're

also gearing up to go visit Oma for a week in FL as soon as Grant is done with school on June 15th. Then we'll spend the next week in Naples, FL, with

Grant's parents and sister for vacation.  

Miles is slowly, but surely adding to his vocabulary with lots of animal sounds (although apparently all

birds say "quack quack" - even flamingos!), hot, up, down, apple, all done, etc.  This month we started having a speech therapist come to work with

him 3X a month to continue to give me ideas and to work with him directly - he technically isn't behind, but I requested

the service (provided because of his hearing loss) since it is covered by a government program that may end at

the age of 3, so I wanted to take advantage of it!   This is in addition to a hearing therapist that we have had coming to the house monthly for the

past year and a half.  He is of course still very social - and loves to have everyone

sit by him.  He'll direct you by motioning and patting to the seat next to him no matter where he is sitting (even if it's in

his high chair).

We also recently have started potty training, which has provided us with plenty of interesting and funny

moments!  Including when he laughed so hard he peed his pants on accident.  I told him pregnant women do that, too.  

Ha!  Speaking of which, August 11th will be here before I know it, and we haven't even decided on names yet.  We better

get around to that :)  But, we are excited and have been explaining to Miles that, no, not everyone has a baby in their belly.  Just mom.   

Come visit us any time!  

McKinney Family

ONE OF THE THINGS ON BEN’S LIST OF TASKS WAS

TO FIND ONE OF YUHANG’S SHOES, WHICH

WAS HIDDEN SOMEWHERE IN THE ROOM. THE

WEDDING ORGANIZER IS ON THE RIGHT.

HERE’S BEN FEEDING YUHANG BITES OF FRUIT AND LITTLE CAKES.

AFTER GETTING INSIDE THE ROOM, THE

WEDDING ORGANIZER TOLD HIM TO SAY

SOME STUFF, INCLUDING, “WILL YOU MARRY

ME?” YUHANG’S RESPONSE? “SURE.” BEN HAD TO CARRY YUHANG

DOWN SEVEN FLIGHTS OF

STAIRS! LUCKILY, HE HAD DONE

SOME PRACTICING THE DAY BEFORE.

Rebecca & Jorge cont.

Hello family, both here and abroad!  Hope you are all well. Since we parted, I have read some great

books, been to Florida to see Oma, and finished up another school year!  On the beach, I read Gift of the Sea, which has been around for 50 years, and is

pretty good. 

Seeing Oma was great!  I had a marvelous time, and got some great

stories about Oma's life during the war, and raising kids in IL. I got some good dirt on you, Mom!  (Actually, she told

me a sweet story about Mom's first grade teacher at the Lutheran school who came over to interview Oma for parenting tips, because he thought Mom

was “the perfect child”! Good one, Mom!)  Oma is in great health, and doesn't seem the 90 years that she is! 

We spent time at New Smyrna Beach and Ponce Inlet Lighthouse, as well as DeLeon Springs Park in Deland.  You

should all go to visit her while she is still around.

I am thankful for the super-cheap ticket I got, and the steal of a

deal I got on the rental car. When I

went to pick my car up, they asked if I was okay with a 2010 Jeep Wrangler Convertible.  I told them I thought I

could manage! 

I have finished up my second year at Summit Academy, and it may be my last.  I would really like to find

employment in Grove City, or at least closer to home.  So I am working on that, and have a little bit of time to nail

something down.  I considered going back to school through Americorps, but do not think I will do it.  It was a good

year, but challenging.

I will be at Summer's Best Two Weeks for three weeks this summer (does that make it summer's best three

weeks?). I will be discipling high school girls, one of which is from my church here in Grove City—Eliza Lowe!  I also

roped my best friend, Emily, into coming with me and working in the medical office.  So it should be a fun time!  I will

be there until the fourth of July weekend.

Hoping to hear from/perhaps see some of you this summer, too!  My

housemate, Liz, built a loft bed for our

office, so there is plenty of room for visitors!  Please stop by!  You might enjoy seeing our flower beds and

garden, too.

Until later!  Ruth

p.s...I have to close with a funny story:  I came home from Emily's

house on Memorial Day, after helping her and her husband paint.  I was tired, and a little nap in the hammock would

have been nice...I heard a chainsaw going in the neighbor's yard, and then Liz said, "Hey, did you see what

happened?"  "Oh, no", I thought!  Apparently the neighbor had some trees fall, and was nervous about the tree on the property line. 

Unfortunately, my nicely shaded hammock spot is no longer shaded, because the neighbor had the tree

chopped down!  At least they were “nice enough” to not chop the whole tree down, so the hammock is up, but

looks hideous.  Looking on the bright side, my garden is now in full sun, and will do much better than it did last year, in shade!  Okay, maybe this was a

sad story.  You decide.  rp

Ruth Perry

SEND RUTH MAIL AT CAMP

RUTH C/O SB2W111 LAKE GLORIA ROAD BOSWELL, PA   15531

April and May have been exciting here in Wisconsin, as we anxiously await the arrival of spring. We

have been enjoying the increasingly sunny and warm days and are making plans for a productive and relaxing summer.

Seth is almost finished with his first year of teaching (hooray!) and will be taking advantage of the summer

months to prepare for a much less stressful year in ’09 - ‘10. Lydia has been staying quite busy with substitute

teaching and is also enjoying her time at

home, creating culinary delights (like coconut milk ice cream and sprouted mung bean salad).

We have also been very excited about our new garden. We will still be growing some things in containers on our little back deck, but

our friends have offered us a small portion of their yard to have a little garden, too! Part of the deal is that we

“teach” them about gardening. Well, I don’t think we know too much about it, but it has been fun to work with the

family to plan and get things growing.

Seth & Lydia

MARCH 4TH, WHEN WE TRAVELED TO PENNSYLVANIA

FOR GRANDMA NORRIS’ FUNERAL.

APRIL 28TH, IN THE GARDEN

WE VISITED MICAH IN EARLY APRIL AND HE TOOK US TO A BEAUTIFUL BOTANICAL GARDEN.

HERE ARE OUR GARDEN HELPERS, EMMA AND CHARLIE. (A SNOW SHOVEL IS PERFECT

FOR GARDENING!)

SETH IS DOING

THE HARD

WORK. : )

PERRY FAMILY

! THE FEAR OF FROST IS FINALLY GONE AND SPRING IS IN FULL SWING HERE IN CENTRAL IOWA. WE ACTUALLY HAD A FAIRLY DRY SPRING, WHICH IS GOOD FOR THE REST OF YOU THAT DEPEND ON IOWA FOR YOUR CORN AND CORN BY-PRODUCTS. IN FACT, BY JULY OUR HOUSE WILL BE OFFICIALLY SURROUNDED ON THREE SIDES BY THE CASH CROP.

CONTINUED NEXT PAGE

Heather turned 30 back in April and we passed the 7 year anniversary mark in May, as you all

probably remember our Memorial Day weekend wedding in little ol' Fairhaven, Ohio, back in 2002. Isaac is 20 months now, and Adeline is 3 ½ years old. Both

are glad for the warm weather so they can play outside. For Mother's Day, we went to Reiman Gardens, a

conservatory and garden at Iowa State University.

Isaac is learning a few more

words, but we've figured out that he hears a lot more than he can speak. Like every boy I know he loves everything that has an engine, which

includes our garden tiller. While Adeline holds her ears, Isaac beams with joy and

points his finger in excitement. Adeline's vocabulary continues to grow, and she has reached the stage of asking "why?"

about everything under the sun that she doesn't understand yet. It's a joyous time of learning, but occasionally very time-consuming, too!

Work is going well for Sam. Even with the down economy, there still seems to be plenty to do in the city

planning realm. Heather is staying very busy administering the household. She is also thinking and talking to other

moms about homeschooling. The time is quickly approaching for Adeline to have some structured education. One exciting thing about Iowa is the

opportunity for dual enrollment, which we have more to learn about.

Life in the country continues to get more interesting for our family. We are now getting about 8-10 dozen

eggs a week. The chickens run free during the day, and act nearly like dogs when Sam gets home from work, by following him around. We often feel like

the "pied piper" when walking around the barn lot. Maple syruping went well, and we made 6 pints of the stuff. The

garden is about 60% planted, and the wild flowers are coming on very nicely. Adeline loves to help Daddy with any of

the outdoor projects, and of course, she loves to do it "all by herself." Remember when we were all like that? Oh yes, I guess Sam is still that way. :)

Perry Family cont.

Ben & Yuhang Last September, Yuhang and I went and made it official. We traveled to Sweden—where in Europe, it turns

out, the bureaucratic paperwork requirements for foreigners are light and the friends are friendly—to get hitched. We had a great time—a

beautiful and memorable day. The rain stopped just as our little Swede-filled ship landed at Nacka beach that

afternoon and the sun came out beaming, just in time for the ceremony (pretty much the same thing, I might

add, that happened at our wedding in China, but I'm getting ahead of myself). The Swedes were kind and the day was perfect. We did it. We were married.

Done and done. Onward to our new life. But turns out we weren't married,

not quite. At least not as far as Yuhang's mom was concerned. In China, you're not married until you do it big-time

Hollywood-style in front of friends and family and fireworks. And lo, it was suggested (nay, we were summoned) we start and plan to come to Daqing this

year for the big shebang. So, plan we did and by January we already had our vacation time cleared and the flights

booked to Beijing.

I had not an inkling of what to expect. Nor did Yuhang have much

more of one, having also never yet attended a wedding in China. (The time she's been in Germany, the last five years or so, have also been when all her

friends were busy getting married.) I set about concentrating on improving my

Mandarin, slimming down a few kilos (hello local McFit) and just generally not being nervous. It's strangely easier

to not be nervous when you have only the vaguest clue of what to be nervous about. (By the way, it's considered okay now to end sentences in prepositions.)

Four months flashed by and suddenly we're staring straight at May—Go Time.

Beijing was much kinder to my

senses this time than the last time, 2.5 years ago, when I recall it being much grayer and smoggier than I found it this

time. Of course, being in summer compared to winter and fresh from the post-Olympic gloss didn't hurt any. People at the airport, I'd say around

20%, were wearing face masks. Swine flu fear was just picking up. I had to sign a

form stating that I hadn't had any contact with a pig in the last two weeks. Upon arriving at the Beijing

subway station from the airport, it was amusing (but somehow comforting) to see people gathering around the official Chinese televisions posted

everywhere, watching NBA basketball games and Kobe Bryant running around (not to mention on the covers of

magazines). And this when I can't find a single NBA game to save my life in Germany. Ditto for Dairy Queen.

Which is not to say that China isn't a strange and foreign (and often wonderful) country. It is. It's just that when it's being the same, it's more

same and when it's different, it's more different, in my estimation. So, we spent a few days at Yuhang's best friend's

house in the Chaoyang district. She lives on the 22nd floor of a nice apartment complex in more or less central

Beijing. She's got a decent job for an American company. We hung out at her house. Besides just being a swell person, she offered me a good look at

modern China's new and prosperous middle class. We visited the Summer Palace. We enjoyed the heck out of

Beijing.

Then suddenly we were off, by train, to Daqing. It was a sleeper train,

so we woke up after a fairly restful night, smoothed down our hair and clothes, and got off the train to meet Yuhang's folks. They were happy to see

us. Yuhang hadn't been home in over two years and being the only child makes the absence even harder (and

the reunion even sweeter).

We had about ten days until the 17th, our marriage date. I thought

we might just relax a bit before the

date because, you know, ten days. Wrong. It was off to the races. Our days were pretty much spoken for—

more or less shopping by day and eating by night. Yuhang's mom had lined up several dinner dates, distributed over the next ten days, with different

constellations of family and friends—her high school class, the aunts, the uncles, Yuhang's dad's family, the

Heilongjiang family, aunts that are actually friends but close enough to be aunts, etc.—and we were there for

them all. It was actually great fun, of course, eating all that food, mangling all that Mandarin (to gracious responses) and toasting with all those Chinese

spirits.

One day we spent the entire day, nearly from dawn to dusk, getting

repeatedly costumed, un-costumed and re-costumed (in six phases, I believe) for an extravagant photo shoot, the

product of which is a hilarious and mind-blowing testament to the advances of modern photography and, apparently, time travel. This is a tradition

in China, at least judging by every married couple in China I've ever met, who all have a huge book with a

ponderous metal cover enclosing well-produced, misty and dreamy photos bordered with decorative English

sentences that read like Lionel Richie on barbiturates ("lovely spending eternity is love and your eyes with true spirit of togetherness forever adoring

you" etc.). Not that we westerners don't do the same thing with Chinese. P.S. those characters mean things, too.

But so, Daqing has a population of about five white people, which I expanded up to six during my stay.

Many people said (often loudly, so I

could understand them) that I was the first white person they had ever seen.

I obviously have to wrap this

up, because it's getting too long already. Jorge and Rebecca, our star guests, were kind enough to take a few days off and fly in from Korea. They even had

to, as the only Caucasians on the flight, suffer an hour of flu-scare quarantine. Then they were escorted from the

airport by a kind but non-English-speaking friend of Yuhang's mom who just happened to be in Harbin and was

driving to Daqing that night. The night before, our friends from Berlin, Uli and Martin, who had timed a little Chinese vacation with our wedding in Daqing,

arrived by train and at the hot pot dinner that night were promptly besieged with toasts as our good new

"German friends" about 79 times. Martin met a civil engineer at the dinner, a friend of Yuhang's, and spent

most of the evening talking about bridge construction. It was pretty funny.

We picked Jorge and Rebecca as our best man and maid of honor for

the wedding. That basically involved them handing us the rings when prompted and Jorge acting as an alcohol

filter for me as I needed to stay somewhat decent despite the onslaught of toasts. The wedding was organized by

a high-energy guy (forget his name now) who was purportedly once an A-list actor in China and is now a wedding organizer. His style reminds me of Bob

Barker and he's accidentally hilarious. He said he has organized over 3,000 weddings. Don't do the math on that

because it doesn't work out. Anyway, we agreed to do a Chinese-western hybrid ceremony of sorts, with all the

trappings of a Chinese wedding party

Ben & Yuhang cont.

but with some walking down the aisle business like they do in the West. We would wear western formal wear in the

first half and then run off to change into Chinese clothes for the second half.

I spent the night before the wedding in the VIP chateau of a Beverly

Hills-looking type luxury hotel called the Daqing Hotel. It was pleasant and I felt pampered like a VIP, but I was beat

from that night's wedding party (just ask Jorge, he was the most beat) so I went straight to sleep.

I awoke early the next day, wedding day, at 7 o'clock to be picked up at 7:30 by a group of Yuhang's male friends from high school. Nice guys. I

had met with them a few times before. They said they would be merciful to me today, a day that would normally mean

all kinds of tests and blockades to prohibiting my access to Yuhang. This would be one case where my lack of

Mandarin expertise worked in my favor as they were pretty sure I couldn't pass the normal tests otherwise. It would be hard enough. They would help me get

to Yuhang's house for the pickup. Shortly after they arrived, as we were hanging out in the lobby, a line of six

Mercedes Benzes drove and circled around in front of the hotel. The organizer arrived. After we had greeted

each other, he realized that we had forgotten one detail—the requisite lapel corsages. So while he ran off to scare up some lapel carnations, we

spent the next 10 minutes with the camera crew shooting photos of me standing in front of various landmarks

around the chateau and looking earnestly into the distance. There's at least one in front of an oil drill.

When Bob Barker returned, we were ready to go. Our delegation piled into the fleet of Mercedes and

began the slow ride toward Yuhang's house. Cameramen, positioned at key points on the highway, took long shots as we drove by. They said it's important

the procession never stop, so we drove on, unimpeded, sometimes slowing but never stopping. When we arrived at

Yuhang's apartment complex, there were more positions to hold and photos to take. Finally, up the stairs I

went to gather my bride. At the door, six floors up, I had to yell through the door, in Chinese, "Mama, let me in! I'm here to get my wife!" After some more

yelling, she finally let me in. I guess she could only tolerate my bastardized Mandarin for so long. At Yuhang's

bedroom door, I was presented with more obstacles of "tests" by Yuhang's friends including (1) listing 10

nicknames I have for her (I prepared an English/Chinese list but my entourage was more than happy to provide me with Chinese names, mostly variants on

"old lady" I believe) and (2) to sing a love song. Though I had an entire medley prepared (including Love Me

Tender and potentially, if things got bad, some Celine Dion) I was permitted to enter after the first line to the chorus

of Rod Stewart's "Have I Told You Lately." So mortified enough, I was allowed in.

Yuhang sat there, lovely, in

ruffled piles of wedding dress. My next tasks were to pin on her corsage (easy) and find her missing shoes (slightly

harder, but Jorge helped). My final task, one that we'd actually practiced a couple times beforehand, was to carry

Yuhang, dress and all, down the six

narrow flights to the car below. The organizer said I only had to do three (guess that's enough for a video) but I

wanted to do this one right and so I hauled her all the way down, huffing and sweating by the bottom. She's not that heavy, but the cumulative effort was just

enough for my work threshold, and I was a little winded. Now I felt like I'd earned my bride.

We shuffled off in the Mercedes cavalcade for the next photo shoot, this time at various locations,

spending especially a lot of time at Daqing's new modern park area with its fountain jets and flocks of pigeons that fly on cue. A well-connected friend of

Yuhang's mom put in a call to launch the water jets at just the right moment with us standing joyously in front,

holding out flower bouquets and my tie all twisted up in the wind. Back in the golf cart, we pin-balled around the

park, shooting photos at several other random spots until it was time to get to the wedding.

The wedding turned out to be

giant stage production. In front of a couple hundred friends and family (and one table toward the front peopled by

conspicuously white foreigners) we did a half-hour stage performance with each step narrated by the organizer's

piercingly loud voice. First we walked up the aisle to the stage, accompanied by music and streams of confetti. Yuhang's parents and, later, Jorge and

Rebecca, came to the stage and were presented in similar grandiose manner. A government official arrived first to

pronounce us, from his little book, married. He congratulated us both. We drank fake wine from a tower of glasses

to streams of soap bubbles blowing in

Ben & Yuhang cont.

our faces. We bowed together. I kneeled and asked for her hand in marriage. We had a few words. I had a short speech

in Mandarin in which I thanked Yuhang's parents for raising her and promised to protect and cherish her all my life with all my strength. That went over pretty

well. Supposedly, Yuhang's normally unflappable mom teared up a little bit. There was more speechifying and

presenting and then, finally, behind a storm of fireworks launched at the base of the stage, we were married, truly and

finally and Chinesely, married.

Then we were hustled off to a hidden location upstairs where we changed from our western dress to our

Chinese clothes. We returned to the ballroom, were given a small silver platter with two small silver cups, and proceeded with the presenter to go

from table to table, of about fourteen, offering the representative of each table a drink of double happiness (aka baijiu,

Chinese grain liquor), who then offered us his or her congratulations, sometimes very lengthy and poetic

congratulations. Yuhang did a good job of interpreting these quietly to me

without interrupting the congratulator. By the time we'd finished our rounds, nearly everyone had eaten and drunk

their fill and a few guests had already started filing out. It all happened so fast, it was a little jarring to see it now suddenly almost over. We spent the

next half hour upstairs in another dinner room, over a meal of dumplings and fish, relaxing with Yuhang, some of

her friends, Jorge, Rebecca, Uli, and Martin, drinking "Future" cola and basking in the relieved glow of having

accomplished something great.

Ben & Yuhang cont.

I appreciate your patience as I got all these together into one place

for everyone to read! If you’re up for still writing about your life -

I’m up for putting this together! I’d like to do this 4 times a year, so

expect an email from me again mid-September for the Fall edition.

Love you all!

THANKS FOR READING!