Good morning!

Would anyone believe I got up this morning at 5:30 of my own accord? Maria and Christopher were already up which is sort of what woke me up, but I was really awake. So I got up and took a shower and all that. M & C were quite interested in my shaving, since I was using a shaving brush to lather my face. I can't imagine getting up three hours before I had to leave for school. I maybe got up 30 minutes before I had to leave. Maybe a little more since I remember having time to watch The Great Space Coaster. I do actually remember getting up early enough to watch test patterns on TV (remember those??) but I don't remember what age I was.

Anyway, my problem with everything in the browser being in Chinese is apparently Blogger's problem. I tried to google it to find out last night but I was too groggy. So if anyone has any clues, please clue me in! It's going to be kind of difficult when I need to add a new link to pictures! So I think I am going to go through the stuff I wrote on the trip here and edit it into the appropriate posts so the timeline is right. Today we are going to go to the big market where I can buy fake designer handbags and stuff. Speaking of gay, I really need my cuticle oil! My skin is really dry from the trip and the skin around one of my fingernails is shredded worse than it's ever been. I also had to put some "liquid bandage" on my toe. I've never used the stuff before. You just paint it on. I put some insoles in my boots because I figured it would help since I'll be doing a lot of walking, but on one foot it totally rubbed me until I bled. Part of my sock became part of my skin! So I took the insoles out and hopefully it'll heal and then I'll just keep a Band-Aid on. You know, I remember in journalism making a big deal about having to say in-line skates, and not Roller-Blade, but what silly thing do you say instead of Band-Aid? plastic bandage??

Oh, so last night, the maid, Mrs. Zhang (pronounced like sorta like "jong"), made jiaozi (you'll have to look up that pronunciation yourself, they are what pot stickers are before they are fried, I think). They were very excellent. I made one retarded one, although she said it was good. It probably was pretty good for a first try. They were a million times better than anything I've ever had in a restaurant. Oh and Maria asked me again why I wasn't married. She claimed Mrs. Zhang wanted to know and claims she didn't aske me that same thing last summer. I know better though!

What else did we do yesterday? We went from the airport straigt to my brother-in-law Mark's new factory. They just built it and they have already pretty much filled it to capacity. For a new building I cannot say I was impressed. The craftsmanship here is just not what we are used to in the states. Nothing is built very well it seems. Even in my sister's bougey (is that how you spell that "word?) aparetment (on the "gold coast," as she says) there's a lot of stuff that makes my crap shack look downright Frank Lloydish. Although I guess my house was built back when things were built a little better, and you had to walk up hill both ways to school. But maybe if I lived in a McMansion I'd feel more at home with the quality. OK so then we went home quick and then we went out to get groceries. I got yelled at for taking pictures in the store but I just played dumb american. And can you believe I didn't take a picture of the fireworks place?? I took a ton of pictures that I still need to go through so I can erase a bunch of them. A lot of them were taken out the car window so they probably aren't all that good. Also, if anyone knows an easy way I can edit the discriptions of my pictures while they are still on the card let me know. I want to only have to do the descriptions once and I'd like them to stay with the pics. I'm sure on a Mac it would be simple. Maybe i'll try to quick upload all the pics anyway, just so people can see them, even if I have to erase them later.

Anyway (I apologize for using that word so much), look for updates in the old posts!