China - Day 21, Tuesday

When I went into the laundry room this morning (sort of open to the outside, I can tell what the temp is outside when I go in this area), I found that it was on the cooler side. I was so excited that I ran to the balcony to double check. Then I ran around the apartment opening all the windows for "fresh" air. At home I hate to have my windows closed, I love the fresh air. Here fresh air is questionable. But still need to change the air inside. The day ended up staying on the cooler side. Did not sweat the second we walked out the door! Hopefully a sign of things to come! You could tell it was nice out because everyone was out exercising, the children were out playing, it was wonderful.

Amy and I returned to the Fake Market to buy a few more things for her return home. Not sure how she is getting everything home!

We walked by a stand where a man was finger painting - not child finger painting but with the side of his hands, fingers, etc. It was beautiful. He was painting the Yellow mountains. He had other designs as well: the Great Wall, pandas, etc. I bought one of the Great Wall.

This picture was made by the side of the man's hands and fingers. It is amazing.

I bought a pen holder. I was tired of always looking for a pen. This holder is 3-D and spins so the design goes all the way around. I thought it looked cool.

The pen holder I bought. 3-D looking.The design has glass/plastic around it.

I have decided that I am just not good at bargaining. I know that I paid more than I should have for some of the things I bought. Oh well!

We went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. Amy ordered rice. I ordered a rice bowl with mushrooms and a chicken Kabob. At this restaurant you pay when you order. It was quite good.

This is a picture of the menu that was outside the restaurant. Amy had the second from the right on
the top. My is actually in the row above this. Although you can't read it, the bottom left is the children's
selection: Squid heads and rice - I know Daniel would jump at that! I don't know if you can see the prices. Amy's rice
16MB (about $2.50). Our whole lunch cost 37 RMB ($5.87)

Can you tell what the one on the left is? Yes it's Sprite. Notice that it is Coke light not diet coke!

At lunch they seated us at a long table with other people. After we sat, they sat another American woman with us. She is a stewardess for United. I thought she lived here because she was very familiar with how things work. She told us she has been doing the international run for 30+ years. I guess you get used to getting around when you do that.


When we got home I finally decided to get the membership for the Fitness area. They wanted 2000RMB for one person (about $320). I have not been able to afford that because we have had so many expenses associated with the move. I have been promising Daniel for a while that I would get it. So I went to the bank in the morning to get the money. Then we went shopping and I spent more than I wanted to. So I had to go back to the bank. I went in to ask how to do online banking, then I stopped at the ATM outside. It was all in Chinese so I couldn't get the money. I decided that instead of going back into the bank I would just pay the cash I had and then use the debit card to pay the rest. Well they can't do that here. You either pay all cash or all debit! So back to the bank I go. Fortunetly it is not a far walk. I go to the ATM inside because I know this one has English (now mind you this is the 3rd time today I have been to this bank - I can just imagine what they were saying!). At this ATM I use my Chinese debit card and it will only let me take out 200 RMB (about $30). Now I know that I have a whole lot more than that. So I try my US debit - same thing (I have taken 1500 out before, so I know that you can). Well I guess the ATM only had 200RMB and they were not planning on refilling it. So I had to get a ticket and go to the teller again. Oi!

Now I go back to the office for the membership. She tells me that there will also be a 100 RMB (about $16) a month management fee. I am thinking  - I am already paying 2000 and now you are adding a fee to it also! There is also a fee when you use the facilities. Now I am concerned that we are not going to use it enough. Before leaving I go to one woman who I know speaks English fairly well and ask her if the membership fee is yearly or what. She looked really confused. After much dialogue, it appears that the 2000RMB is kind of like a kitty. When you use the facility they take the money from the card, when it gets low you add more money. For the outside pools you just go the the office and buy a ticket. If I had know that I would have bought the kids tickets so they could have gone swimming when it was so hot!! At least I know that it is not really a membership - I feel a lot better about that.

I wanted to mention that before we left we bought a Magic Jack for phone calls. You might have heard the advertisements for it. It lets you make phone calls through your computer. It actually works very well. Of course there have been a couple of times when the Internet was a little slow so the sound was choppy. I also can not do anything else on the computer when I am using the phone. (if you travel internationally ou might want to look into it!) The reason I mention this is that we selected a 413 number so when our family and friends call us it is a local call, just like we were still in MA. If you would like to have that number please email me and I will give it to you. Our families also have the number. I do not want to post it here since this is open to anyone to read. Hope to hear from you. Just remember we are 12 hours ahead of you. Of course we shut the computer down when we are not at home or in bed so you wouldn't get through anyway, but you can leave a message!


Today's Cultural Differences/Frustrations 101: It amazes me how much the people here exercise. Every morning I look out my window when I wake up at 5, and I see people out walking. When I go to the kitchen around 6, I look out and see people on there balconies doing stretching exercises. Down below I see people doing Tia Che (not sure if that is how you spell it). I also see people walking. The interesting thing about the way they walk when they are exercising is that they (old and young alike) are slapping their upper body: waist, chest, etc. I think it must be for circulation.