Letter From Mona: One of those suppose 2 B short notes-Sorry can't seem to do it.

Hey Pooh, Just wanted to say thanks for staying in close touch. It really helps us feel connected. Hope your bronchitis and ankle get better. Have you thought about using your ankle braces again when you run? Things here are rocking along. I cook about ten times more than I did at home. Getting prety inventive, too with limited availability of the usual items. I've been hanging out with Sally a lot for the last few weeks. We get along pretty well. She's a bit more bold about asking for help or whatever than I am, but I knew enough to show her around a bit after she arrived. I think she may have decided she doesn't want to be obligated to teach English. Her mother is in an assisted living home in Fla. and she wants to be pretty much free if anything happens to her. She may change her mind. Believe it or not we stay pretty busy cooking, cleaning, shopping (mostly groceries), and discovering new areas to explore. We were looking at going over to see the terra cotta warriors over the Festival holidays, but when we got a quote from the CITS travel agency of over $500 each we decided to wait. That was with a price break for more than 2 but not as much as the break for more than 10 people. We might check one of the hotels yet, but I'm leaning toward waiting till you and Daniel get here. We think we may just go see the sites here. We kinda want to join a gym soon and if we do that will be expensive because it is for a year. Today we walked to the China Post, which is fairly close, to mail letters. Then we had lunch in one of the local Chinese restaurants. After receiving a bit of help from the owner, a Chinese man from Chicago - not that I could tell, we got our marinated pork with celery. Actually it was stir-fried bacon with celery slivers. Also, got rice, two different style pork balls, one in a white rolled up something and the other looked like a see thru green flower and two bottles of water since we could not get glasses to split the first bottle. A ticket finally showed up on the table, but it was only for 3RMB. After questioning the waiter and since there was no one left that worked there that spoke English, they finally grabbed a young customer to help translate. The other two tickets showed up but we didn't understand them. Ended up their English menu prices are incorrect. The waiter marked one down to the menu price, but we tried to get him to understand that was no problem. The young lady finally got it all sorted out and we laid the whole 51 RMB (didn't take his discount) on the table. We thought that's what the girls next to us had done. We got up and left, then the customer came running after us to tell us we had not paid. We walked back with her and explained that we had left the money on the table and would not leave without paying. By the time we got in the door the restaurant personel were saying "Sarry" since they had found the money. We inquired if in the future we were suppose to take it to the counter and the customer told us yes. Guess they had a good story to share with their family, too. We then stopped by our apts. and then took a taxi to the Foreign Language Store, but still didn't find much in English. Also, walked from there to the Suzhou Travel Information Center where we only got a few brochures and were referred on to a travel agency. We took a taxi to the latter, got referred upstairs and then walked a bit to get our bearings. Low and behold we found a familiar site, walking street, a shopping area we know. Took a taxi home since the buses were so crowded. Decided existing in an unknown language can be exhausting. Somewhere along my way this afternoon I must have dropped my cell phone out of my pocket, probably in a taxi. Guess I will owe Brian and Pukka for a phone as it was their extra one. So, I won't give you that number until I get it replaced. I did buy a Qianlong set today. It's sort of like the Jakari, racquet ball on a string that we use to play. This one does have longer heavy duty badmitton racquets though. It should be fun and get us to exercise a bit. Watched Meet the Fockers tonight. It was a pirated version, but still not too bad. Found out our landlord did okay on the dvd player. It plays the dvd's I recorded, store bought American dvd's, and Asian dvd's. Jerry and Sally's is a Phillips, but has regional coding on it and only plays Asian recorded dvd's and the ones I recorded. Sally was bummed because she wanted to borrow Monk and then could not watch it. Well it's quite late and I should get this sent and get some sleep. Have managed most mornings to get up with Dad, but had 3 or 4 I slept in. I do try to fix his lunch when I do that, but I must admit he's fixed a few for himself. Real quick, don't count on finding Dr.Pepper here. It's on some of the menus at some of the western food restaurants, but they can't seem to get it anymore. Will write more later on what you can find here. Love and miss you, Mom