Here and already having a GREAT time!

Ni hao!

My flight here was great! I met a girl named Claire at the airport who is a
student at Purdue and she is from Shanghai. While we both had a layover in
Detroit, we had lunch together and spent a few hours talking.




After landing in Shanghai, Yi, her dad Ming, and a couple others were there waiting for me. They even had some Pizza Hut pizza waiting for me and said this will be the last time you have American food while you are here...I laughed!



The last 3 nights we have stayed in a hotel in Jiangyin. Hotels here are a bit
different because instead of there being 2 double beds, there are 2 twin size
beds. Also, to have electricity you must put your room key in a slot on the
wall. Which actually makes it nice because we haven't lost our key yet!

The first full day we went to Suzhou and went to a Garden. It was here a
discover what Yi calls a "sqatty potty"....the picture explains it all! Oh and
you have to bring your own toilet paper and soap everywhere you go because the only places that have it are nice restaurants and hotels that I have seen.




That evening we went out to dinner which was banquet style. The first picture is our appetizers. Most of the food we had was seafood because we are near a river and it was all caught that morning. After eating a certain dish, we were told it is an exotic fish that is poisonous. The chef must carefully take out the poison and then take a bite of it. If after 30 minutes if he is okay, then he can serve it to his guests.






Yesterday we went to Hanzhou. Both Suzhou and Hanzhou are known for there scenery in China. There is a saying that goes "In the sky you have heaven and down on Earth you have Suzhou and Hanzhou."




It was rainy while walking around, but it was still enjoyable. We took a boat around West Lake and there was some older women who saw me and were wanting to take a picture with me but were very shy. Ming overheard them talking in Chinese so he told them I would love to take a picture with them. They were so ecstatic!



We ended the night having dinner with three other families who are friends of Ming (Yi's dad). We met Liya (Leah) and Chen Chen (little girl...who is left-handed!) Liya will be taking us out shopping this morning downtown Jiangyin. Well I'm heading to breakfast now.



Wan an
(goodnight)