Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Chinese Manicure

So here I am, schlepping Sophie up the stairs to our apartment for the umpteenth time.  When we first got here it was a lot of work - now we're actually getting used to it!  We get low-intensity exercise pretty much all day.  I guess we don't need to join a gym!

Hangzhou 001 

After dropping off the kids at school Sue and I went clothes shopping. She bought a blouse and I bought a couple of pairs of pants.  The nice thing is, they actually have my size of pants here!  My waist size (31) is quite difficult to find in the US, and getting more so as US people get bigger, I suppose.  The other benefit of shopping here is there are people who are willing to help you.  When I was at Dillard's in Prescott, I couldn't find a salesperson!  Here, I had two people pulling pants off of racks until we found something I liked, in a very up-scale store (which is behind us in the picture below, though you'd never know it!)  There is a lot of construction in this neighborhood / city / country!

Hangzhou 003 

Sue's mission today was to get her nails done.  She chickened out yesterday due to her lack of Chinese, so I went with her this morning and we got the job done!

Hangzhou 004 

What a fabulous variety!  This is just one of the trays of samples.

Hangzhou 006 

I'm waiting patiently in the nail shop doing nail translations here and there.  The nail artist gave me this Chinese newspaper to read.  Great.

Hangzhou 008 

This city is just under construction everywhere you look!  This whole block that I rode by today is getting a face lift.  Sue had lunch today with a friend, so I made myself scarce to do my lesson planning for next week and snap a few pics of the city.

Hangzhou 011 

Here I am in the bike lane snapping pictures, and no helmet!  Livin' on the edge!  Actually you never get going all that fast.  The only real hazard is those darn electric bikes (the guy in the green shirt below). They are electric so they're completely silent, and they go fairly fast, so you never know when one is coming up on you!  I think we are all growing eyes in the backs of our heads!

Hangzhou 012 

Many Chinese take an afternoon siesta.  This guy had no qualms about sleeping on the sidewalk in front of his shop.  If I want something in a shop and the staff is asleep, I never know if I should wake them?!?

Hangzhou 014 

Here's a nice fire trap.  Check out all those wires!

Hangzhou 015 

Then back to school to pick up Sophie.  "Daaaaadddy!"

Hangzhou 017 

... and finally back home by sunset with some Indian food for dinner.  Yum!

Hangzhou 018

Tonight we are having some friends over in a few minutes - they have soccer tickets for Peter and I for the Women's Soccer tournament. 

The boys had school today from 8am - 4:30pm.  It was a LONG day of Chinese for them!  Peter caught Sue's cough so he'll probably stay home tomorrow.

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