On Monday, March 29, 1999, the United States was invaded by La Chinita. She came from Mexico City to visit us in Los Angeles for two weeks, including Easter. (We called her Lauris.)
She came on a Monday, so I had to work. Fortunately Noemí had her Spring Vacation at that time, so she was able to pick Lauris up at the airport. Apparently the airplane was a little late, and the two of them went directly to the optometrist (Noemí had an appointment early that afternoon). I found out because I went to the same optometrist at the same time to pick up my glasses, and I met them there. After the optometrist, they went shopping. They must have gone to several stores, because they got home late. Lauris had a new pair of athletic shoes.
On Tuesday, they decided to go to downtown Los Angeles to look for a dress for Lauris to wear at her graduation. They came home late again, but that gave me a chance to cook a special dinner. We ate well while La Chinita was visiting.
Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Lauris and Noemí were tourists. They went to Disneyland, Santa Barbara, Solvang (a replica Danish city near Santa Barbara) and, no doubt, other places I have forgotten. Lauris told me she liked Santa Barbara (which is designed to look like the locals’ concept of a Spanish mission city), and described Solvang as "small." She seemed to enjoy her trips, although she was unhappy that Winnie had to stay in Mexico.
One evening Lauris and I went to see a movie, The King and I. (It was set in Siam, which is close to China, but even being La Chinita didn’t help Lauris understand the movie — it was in English.) This was an animated remake of a musical movie from about 1965, which was itself based on a play titled Anna and the King of Siam. As usually happens with this progression, Anna and the King of Siam was rather intellectual, the original of The King and I was aimed at the average adult (and was an excellent play, with superb acting), and the animated remake was much more interesting to children (instead of the intellectualism of Anna or the joy and character growth of King, there was a lot of action and interesting monsters, together with a totally unbelievable love story).
During all this time, Lauris was very helpful to us. We played games that Noemí and I usually didn’t, we read at least on book in English every day (and sometimes one in Spanish as well), and Lauris helped around the house. Unfortunately, she was also homesick at times, which occasionally made things difficult.
On Saturday, April 3, the three of us drove to my parents’ house in Carlsbad to celebrate Easter. My sister, her husband, my two nephews, and their two dogs were all visiting, as well as my dog Sean. We celebrated Easter on Saturday night and had a traditional turkey dinner. The next morning we got up early and went to the new Legoland in Carlsbad. Lauris, my parents, my sister’s family and I went to Legoland; Noemí stayed at home to keep the dogs out of trouble.
Legoland was an interesting theme park. Almost all the decorations are made from Lego building bricks, even such shapes as dinosaurs and bushes. All the rides we saw used the energy of the riders to make it more interesting. For example, the first ride Lauris and I took was a sort of roller coaster. When we pedaled it, it went much faster. (If we didn’t pedal, I think we might have been hit by the people behind us.)
The ride Lauris and I went to next turned out to be one where we would pull ourselves up into the air and then let ourselves drop. Although it may have been fairly slow and safe, neither of us wanted to try it. Instead we went to an interesting maze, where it was easy to get to the middle but not as easy to get back out. There were fountains that would come on suddenly and soak us on the way out, but we learned how to avoid them and made it out safely.
We rode a few more rides, had lunch and dinner with my family, and returned to Los Angeles with Sean (who had been staying at my parents’ house) on Monday.
Tuesday, Lauris went to school with Noemí. They had a good time, but Lauris was more advanced than Noemí’s fifth-grade students. Lauris decided to come to work with me the rest of the week, which I thought would be hard for her because I needed to go out to many different places around Los Angeles that week.
On Wednesday, Lauris came with me to several places around my office. We went to lunch in Santa Monica. At the end of the lunch, I noticed that the waitress had left several packets of honey for us to use, and we hadn’t used them, so I put them in my pockets to take home. Lauris, seeing this, took the jellies and jams.
On Thursday and Friday I had to drive all over, so Lauris stayed in my office. She played computer games all day, relaxed, and wrote articles for the family newsletter. It seemed that she had a good time until Saturday, when we all went to my office, and I played some computer games — and set new high scores on some of them.
We finished the newsletter and went home. Then, on Sunday, Lauris returned to Mexico, ending the Chinita Invasion.
But there are lingering questions. Did the US Department of Defense, hearing about the Chinita Invasion, misunderstand and let this affect their judgment? About two months later, the US bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. It might be just a coincidence…
In the meantime, however, both Noemí and I enjoyed having Lauris visit, and we hope she will come back soon.