Saturday

After a few days in the office trying to figure out exactly what it is we’re doing here, (still haven’t got it all nailed down yet, but we’re working on it), it was good to have a Saturday. We rested well last night after a great meal at an Italian restaurant, Casa Mia. Steve’s pizza and Kathy’s lasagna cost a total of about $5.60 US. Not bad considering that Kathy’s lasagna portion was so large that we’ll be able to make another meal out of it. The food situation is much better than we anticipated. While shopping today we found some frozen vegetables that looked like they came from home. A treat today was finding some green seedless grapes that were just the way you’d want them to be.
The mystery sign I mentioned the other day actually reads, “Deposit The Beard Know”. Think about it for awhile and you’ll be no closer to understanding than we were. If I’m able I’ll post a picture of the sign and you’ll be able to figure out from the Chinese characters nearby. We’ll explain the meaning in a later posting.
Our Saturday was spent much like one at home. After a cinnamon roll at Peter’s and talking to our son’s family over the internet we returned to our apartment and did a laundry and cleaned. We are really appreciating the smallness of our living quarters, especially when it’s time to clean the floors.
Here area few things we’ve observed. The escalators that serve the first three floors of the building we live in only start running when you approach them. As soon as you’re off, they stop. What a great energy saving device. Most restaurants and many offices such as banks and realtors will offer a glass of hot water to drink to their customers. The hot water is appreciated when it’s so cold. Some of our friends who visited their families during New Year’s Festival were happy to return to their city apartments. Apparently many of the homes in the countryside have no heat at all. We’re not sure if we could tolerate it. Finally, we’re getting to use to the traffic. There seems to be no rule about turning right when you have a red light … just keep on coming, don’t even stop. Pedestrians had better be alert because no one is stopping. At the same time bicycles, electric scooters will be coming from either direction. Somehow it all runs smoothly, seemingly like a tapestry being woven.