Another Week Gone By

Hello All: Well it’s hard to believe but another week has almost come and gone. It’s been a busy week with lots of time on the Internet, booking trips and ordering things for the wedding and learning new tricks of the trade-Chinese style. Have been frantically trying to book a trip to Xi’an for two weekends from now. Figured that would be a good trip with Daniel and Erin. We will pick up Daniel in one week from the Shanghai Intn’l Airport. Looking forward to seeing him. We hope to show him around Suzhou for lots of picture opportunities. It will give him a chance to overcome his jet lag. Hoping the weather will cooperate. We will get to see Erin on Wed. the 16th when her MIM group comes to Suzhou for a visit. They will be visiting the power plant where Tom works and we will join them for lunch and dinner. Tom, Daniel, and I will then go the next day on the train to Shanghai to attend the expat dinner with the MIM group. Erin will be finished up with her commitments on Friday about noon. We have rooms booked in the same hotel as the group and will leave Sat. afternoon and fly from Shanghai to Xi’an. We tour the city, see the Terra Cotta Warriors, the Big Goose Pagoda, visit several museums, and attend an evening show of Tang Dynasty singing and dancing with a local dumpling dinner. Will spend two nights in the hotel and shop the local bazaar. Fly back to Shanghai on Monday afternoon and a bus back to Suzhou. Hoping it will be a good trip. I’ve spent quite a bit of time trying to book that trip. Finally gave up and went to the local CITS travel office and got a quote from Mi. She was the young lady who gave us a city tour over the holidays. She was able to beat the other quotes by over $500. She will even help book our train tickets for Shanghai and instruct me on how to catch the bus to Suzhou. I think I have a new travel agent, at least for China. She can also guide us on local trips to the pearl market and to several water towns. The latter usually has great bargains as well as nice scenery. Our trip includes round trip tickets for Shanghai/Xi’an, five meals including a dinner show, air conditioned transportation for tours (hoping heated, too), two night hotel in a 4 star hotel and an English speaking guide that will literally lead us by the hand from the airport on all tours and back again to the airport. Sounds like a great deal. Not sure what Daniel and Erin plan on between the end of that trip and their reservations in Hong Kong on Friday and Saturday. Hoping they will want to spend a day or so in Suzhou and see some of the gardens. The other trip I hunted for was a honeymoon trip for Erik and Amy. I’m really rotten at it and asked Tom to get involved. As you well know, no one will know where they are going until the wedding reception. I hope they like it. I ordered the plates, cups, cutlery, etc. for the wedding. Set to arrive the 17th, which should be fine. Erik ordered the shirts and was having trouble finding a jacket to wear with his kilt. Two days ago I noticed a tux jacket hanging up at the cashmere tailors’ store. Decided to print off pics of a Prince Charlie jacket and see if I could communicate well enough to see if the tailor could make one. They can and the price is awesome. I’m happy to say Erik and Amy or Karen, I’m not sure which, worked fast and called the measurements in to me this afternoon. I will go there on Sat. and order the jacket. Should take one week. I have three. Hoping Daniel can try it on and have some idea of how it might fit Erik. It’s the best I can do from over here. Erik said they have their marriage license, because it was going up in cost March 1st. Told him he probably wouldn’t have been able to afford to get married, if he had waited. HA! Ordered a broadband phone, as did my friend Sally. Hoping they get to the house in time for Daniel to bring them. Could be close. That will enable me to talk unlimited without long distance charges to the U.S. and Canada. I have a local Vancouver number for it, so anyone calling from there it will be a local call. Anyone calling from anywhere else it will be long distance to Washington, only. Not a bad deal. Just have to train everyone about the time difference. Met some new friends this week. They are from Australia and live in the next building over in our complex. Sarah and I hit it off pretty well. Went out shopping or rather discovering today. Learnig what the sale signs mean in China. If it says 7 on it that means you pay 70% of the price. So, we must look for the lower numbers such as 3 = 30% of the price. Pretty much backwards from the U.S. We plan on going out with the guys tomorrow for a bit of shopping. Of course that means a lot of looking. Have a few gifts to pick up that I had made this week. Not sure when I will have time to wrangle up the dust rhinos or finish the washing I started. Oh well, they will wait. I do try to stay up on the dishes. Someone told me you can get TOO busy here and I believe it. Have coffee on Weds., and a Thursday luncheon most every week. Also, they plan activities such a Chinese paper cutting or knot classes and even some local trips. Hope to get into more when I return from the states. Will try to write more after the weekend adventures. Hope everyone’s weekend is a great one. Love, Mona