What Size Was That?

How about a new experience in shopping for Kathy? We decided it might be practical to shop for a dark colored winter coat that wouldn’t show the dirt as much as her light colored one. Since they are going on clearance in town it seemed like a pretty good idea. We found a style that she liked and thinking that sizes run a bit different here Kathy decided to try on a large, (those of you who know Kathy might be wondering about now). No go with the large so she decided to go for broke and tried on a 2XL. You probably guessed it, the 2XL was also too small. Later at another store we were delighted to find a 3XL, delighted that is until Kathy tried it on … too small. She’s decided maybe we’ll get the coat cleaned as soon as it warms up and she no longer needs it.
After teaching writing for the last 35 years Steve is actually applying some of the skills that he tried to impart to his students. Most of the last week and a half were spent writing Power Point presentations that will be used with the class of students we’ll be working with for the next several months. The company we’re working with trains people to work in the hospitality industry in a combination classroom and work experience. What Steve is working on is the development of a curriculum that can be used by other presenters in the future. As the presentations are completed they will be translated into Chinese. We’re looking forward to what the final product will look like. Most likely the majority of Steve’s time will be spent on curriculum development and presenting.
Kathy has been very busy working on English lessons to use in several settings. She and her partner, Crissa, will be teaching English to the restaurant staff we’re associated with, to a group of managers from a local industry, and to the students that are going through the hospitality training. Both of us are looking forward to the time when we actually start working with students.
Saturday gave us another adventurous day. Of course, Saturdays start with a walk to Peter’s for coffee and cinnamon rolls and a chance to talk to our family back in the states using Skype. It’s really great to be able to see and talk to them and the cinnamon rolls would be a favorite at any restaurant. We returned to the apartment to give it a Saturday cleaning which doesn’t take long when you live in an efficiency apartment. After that it was off to uncharted territory.
We’d seen a map that showed an IKEA store was just a few miles from where we live. With a general idea of where it was, a map copied from their website stored on my Palm, off we went. It took quite awhile to get there but we sure enjoyed walking through the store which wasn’t much different from the IKEAs in the states. Of course we had to eat Swedish meatballs with French fries in the cafeteria, the busiest spot in the store. After IKEA we went to Decathlon, a large chain sporting goods store. This was followed by a visit to a supermarket that was new to us. It was by the far the nicest one of the four we’ve shopped at. Our afternoon walk took us about 4 ½ hours to complete and we’re a bit weary.
This morning, Monday, we went to the hospital for a physical exam we’re required to take if we are living in the country. Thankfully we had an interpreter with us to guide us through the procedures. You’d like to be able to get as complete a physical as we had at the cost. For about $42.00 we got all of the following: blood test; urine analysis; ekg; chest x-ray; ultrasound of intestines; and, eye exam. This was all done in a little over two hours. Not bad!