but the instructions are in Chinese

Dear Far Flung Friends,

I am in China! And from the moment we got off the plane there has been a barrage of waiting in lines, being yelled at in Chinese while staring back with a blank face of no comprehension, and celebrating every accomplished task like it is a huge victory.

Amy and I found each other in the airport (picture of Amy being awesome coming soon as she has been riding the crazy Chinese adventure with true style and grace -- side saddle on the back of a bike with no hands -- she is that good) and we found a great dinner on the street of noodles, vegetables and mushrooms and beer. Actually that last line is funny because we have also found streets dedicated to noodles, streets brimming with vegetables and streets where there is nothing to buy but beer.

But we should skip ahead to yesterday when we were unable to get back to where we once belonged all day. It started in the morning when I entered a 5 level mall (filled with food, household goods, and little specialty shops) that is a block large and a block from the hostel only to not be able to figure out how on earth to get down and out -- all the escalators where going up.

Then we went to Zhou Zhiang -- a tourist town that has been dubbed "#1 Water Town in China" and there are gondola like boat rides and curvy confusing streets and lots of calico. Due the confusing streets and our inability to tell time, we were late going back to the bus. And so we ran like crazy to an exit, only Amy saw our bus driving out of town, and then this bicycle rickshaw driver promised to take us to the parking lot but it was so slow that he had to get out to go up the hills and push the bike. But I could not stand it, so Amy and I jumped out to help and then we had to yell about helping and not helping as ran along side the bike buggy and then had to get back in and start up, and ride until we hit another hill, and well, I am never taking a bicycle rickshaw again. I wish we had a picture of the craziness, but I don't, because how could we take a picture of all that. And we had to beg to get on another bus when all I could remember how to do was say "Qing Qing chu Shanghai." (translation "please please to Shanghai" or perhaps I said "please please eat Shanghai" because really my Mandarian is horrible)

There were other mishaps through the day, probably the best was at the end of the night when we where out of extra money (and by this time we had been drinking) and the metro had stopped running (we had wondered about that, but walked a long way to get to the best metro stop anyway) and we caught a cab and had to try to say, we only have 50 RMB money so please, please take us as far as you can. And he tried to reassure us and make pleasant conversation even very slowly and loudly for our benefit, but I was a little drunk and a little insistent and had no idea what he was saying, and he was right it was only 28 RMB money.

Joy to you all at all your daily accomplishments,

Elaine