Let me start with a disclaimer that if my post isn't as descriptive/entertaining/edited/clear/well-written/anything-else-it-normally-is, it's because it's super late and I'm super tired, and I have no ability to edit it tomorrow... take what you can get though, right? Bummer too, it's a long one!
So I've been able to spend quite a bit of time out of the house these past couple of days, and it's been great!
Yesterday we sent Jenny and Grace (two girls that work for us) home early, and took the afternoon to relax! I wandered around outside, across a pond (there were steps) and found myself a bench in the sun, surrounded by plants, and did a little reading. It felt so good to be out in the open with sun on my skin. I've been in Utah winter too long!
The girls are on holiday today and tomorrow due to the Dragon Boat Festival (feel free to educate yourselves: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duanwu_Festival), which means no work for us! The girls friends (1/2 Chinese 1/2 Australian), Izzy and Josie, spent the night, and this morning we all headed out for lunch and to visit China's oldest library! Because of the holiday, Mr. Joe (our driver) was off as well, so we were left to splitting up into two taxis. I still haven't talked about the traffic yet, have I? Hmm...I'll do that soon. That's an adventure in and of itself!
Due to a late start, we started out with lunch at a restaurant called Hot Pot. If you've ever been to the Melting Pot, you'll have an idea of what it was like. (I haven't explained my food/restaurant experiences yet either, have I? Man, I've a lot to catch up on!) Anyway, the food was really good, but I'm just glad we all made it out alive! There were eight of us sitting around a circular table with a giant boiling pot in the middle. The idea is that you order a bunch of raw meat, veggies, and dumplings, and cook it yourself in the pot! Note that aside from me and Denise, the oldest was 13 and the rest progressively younger, you can see the danger of 16 hands dropping, searching, and reaching over a giant boiling pot of broth. Pretty sure none of us got away without battle scars. And pretty sure they aren't going to let us come back. The servers and manager were a little less nervous by the end, they did stop hovering. Though, they might of regretted it after having to clean up Haley's shattered glass...and our food and broth covered table. The thing is, because we're American, everyone is so fascinated with our group that we can kind of get away with being clumsy, loud, and disastrous. Either way, the food was really good and we were entertaining, if not for everyone else then at least for ourselves!
After lunch we headed off to find two more taxis, but to no avail. We decided to start walking towards Wanda (the mall) since it was just down the road, where there was sure to be a plethora of taxis. We walked past shops, stopped in a few, and really just enjoyed being out in China! I may not be as dark as as everyone is getting back home, but none of you can say you have a Chinese tan! (I take what I can get here, okay?) I also got my exercise in for the day running back to the first store we stopped in when I couldn't find my purse. It wasn't there. Turns out Haley was sitting on it in the stroller. I wasn't complaining though, better than the dirty sneak I was imagining that stole it!
Once at Wanda and thoroughly warmed up (all the girls decided to run back with me) we decided we needed ice cream to cool down. By the time we made it though the stores, to McDonald's, ate our ice cream, and back out to the taxis, we figured the library was an adventure to be saved for tomorrow.
The girls went to their friends house and Denise and I came home and watched a movie. Confessions of a Shopaholic. It was a cute flick, plus the main character had a stellar first name! :)
All in all, a very good day. And I am thoroughly exhausted! I better get to bed...Denise and I are getting up early tomorrow morning to exercise. Go us!
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