Saturday/Sunday, October 17, 18

We're learning to navigate the streets of Shanghai. The rules of the road - there are no rules except that pedestrians have no rights. You may attempt to cross the street when the green walk sign is lit but turning cars can still run you down. The scooters can run you down anytime; even if you're on the sidewalk. Guess that's something we need to get used to.

The view from Brian and Holli's apartment is beautiful; they're on the 31st floor. Looking at traffic going nowhere during rush hour (which lasts about 4 hours) is spectacular. It makes you appreciate Harrisburg traffic.

On Saturday we attended Kendall's birthday at a Spa with 17 girls ages 7 to 9. What a treat. They had their nails painted, their hair styled and painted, made bracelets and of course ate pizza and Holli's "gourmet" boxed cupcakes with special sprinkles.

On Sunday we went to Wuxi to visit a working monastery with a giant budda (except for Roni who decided to get a sinus infection.) We climbed over 350 steps to reach budda's toes. We also watched in wonder as a giant lotus flower opened up to reveal non other than baby budda as he proceeded to rotate 360 degrees while simultaneously being sprayed by fountain water. Next we visited a very somber, very beautiful temple which was made of intricately carved wood ceiling and etched marble walls and floor. After passing through this temple area we proceeded to the next room which had multiple revolving floor panels and a domed ceiling featuring a technicolor laser light show. It surely showed the contrasts between ancient and modern China. During this whole visit to the monastery, we were the only non asians and we were the recipients of many stares. They particularly enjoyed Veronica bouncing up and down the steps.

So far we've had no Chinese food to eat. Saturday we had sandwiches and french fries for lunch and pizza for dinner. On Sunday we had McDonalds for lunch on the way to the monastery and we ate dinner at a German pub. Are we in China??