Savages

Dear Everyone Who Sometimes Embarrasses Others in Public

Yesterday, we got a good lesson on how to eat watermelon. We had only ever eaten it the FRUIT SAVAGE way -- with our hands. This was too much for our waiter who came over and helped us. He gave us a tiny tiny cocktail fork and stabbed the huge pieces of watermelon and had us eat off the fork. After that I was to ashamed to tell him that we did not want to eat the meat and onion buns for dessert (Amy would never eat them anyway) so I snuck them into my pockets -- I thought they would be sweet and dessert like. And there are no doggie bags in Asia unless you are actually giving the food to the dog. Our savage ways are always getting us into trouble.

We are fruit savages that cannot talk, and cannot read, and look funny. But today, we navigated our way to the industrial/school park to register for classes by bus using only our Chinese character map and everyone on the bus. There is something wonderful about riding a bus -- it is a great tour of the city and you make some fast friends. Also, riding a bus reminds me of my mom. She loved to ride a bus on vacation or when it snowed rather then lay in the sun or drive. But be warned, on the Chinese long distance bus the seats are assigned -- and even if you cannot read you will get booted out if you just sit anywhere.

Now I am going to complain about the weather and make a list, things I am slowly but surely learning to do in Manderian. It is cold and wet in China (Sally you were so right) and at night it gets down to 0 degrees C. The chill is everywhere and we think that it may be because the windows are open. You savages might have some crazy ideas about how fix this, perhaps close the window, but someone always stops us from this uncouth act by coming over when we enter and opening the window even wider and smiling. So, all my sovereigns from China so far are 1 wool hat, 1 pair cute pig mittens (too cute to be warm), 1 pair thinsulate gloves, 3 pairs socks, 1 wool sweater, and 1 quilted traditional Chinese jacket that I wear inside and out.

But the magnolias are blooming and everything else is trying too and spring is on its way. They say "In spring in HangZhou the weather is like a baby's face, it changes 3 times a day."

May the baby be happy, laughing, and sleeping tomorrow,

Elaine