An Afternoon Adventure

We spent a few hours with two outstanding Chinese nationals, Lily and Alexandra (their English names), traveling by bus to buy two Hulusi wind instruments.  The lunch was fantastic and the bus ride back was as crowded as a legendary Japanese subway. 

We met Lily (left) two Sundays ago while taking the bus to church. She stood up and gave John her seat because he is old and venerable. He then struck up a conversation with Lily and she offered to be our guide to help us navigate the bus system so we could visit the Jinan Zoo the following weekend.
We met Alexandra (right) when she was a contestant in a speech contest we judged last semester. Sheis one of the smartest, hardest- studying college sophomores I had ever met. As a freshman she majored in philosophy but decided on a more practical major so she switch to Law. That meant she would have to take a double load of classes and pass a withering pile of exams to catch up with her Law classmates.
She'll be all caught up by the end of next semester. She plays the Hulusi and helped us purchase two good instruments. We will be taking lessons from her for the next few months.

                        Lily                                                                            Alexandra

Around the corner from the music store was the famous Jenny's Cafe, Western oasis. English ballads sung in the background. Western menu in English. Casual French atmosphere. Good Western food.

This was Lily's very experience eating with a fork & knife. Not as easy as it looks for hands trained to clamp two sticks together.

Just had to take photos of this uber crowded bus! The driver kept telling people to move back to make room for new passengers. Riiiight!  It was a comedy of sardines.

At every stop they just kept piling into the bus!

John was the only one of our group lucky enough to get a seat. 
Can you tell?