A Rather Uneventful Sunday

Today Nicholas took his turn at being sick so he hasn't left the hotel room.  So far I'm the only one who doesn't have a cold or fever - knock on wood!

This morning Ryan and I went down to breakfast here at the hotel.  They have a lovely assortment of breakfast and lunch foods and my favorite is the Chinese Traditional Oatmeal Porridge.  It is delicious!  Of course I load it up with brown sugar to make it even tastier.  They also offer custom made omlettes, beef sausages, noodles, rice, dumpling soup, cereals, muffins, the list goes on.  This breakfast is covered by Michelin and is a real treat every morning.

After breakfast the kids and I all had naps as the lack of sleep is really starting to catch up with me.  Following our nap we ordered room service and had a nice meal again.  This afternoon I needed to get out for a bit on my own so Tim nursed Nick while I went and did a little exploring. 

A few streets down from our hotel there is a shopping area that is walking only.  Even though they are doing construction it is still nice to be able to walk along and not worry about getting smucked by a car or bike.

I ended up going down an escalator from this street into an underground shopping area.  It was fascinating!  It seemed to go on forever and reminded me of a flea market where you just walk and walk and there are all these booth type of stores and two full floors of them.  I did some shopping and some bargaining and perhaps still got ripped off, I'm not really sure.  It seemed like an alright deal to me.  I forgot to take my Chinese English Pocket Dictionary but I managed to get a little of what they were saying.  Most of them will use a calculator to show prices to you.  In one area they were doing a lot of manicures, pedicures, massages, tattoos, etc. and I was really tempted - for a massage, not a tattoo.  I didn't want to take too much time though so I moved on.  I remember reading from another expat that you can have someone come to your house for a massage (not THAT kind of massage, I know what you were thinking!) for very little money.  I may do that sometime.

When I was finally done with my purchases I went back up to street level and then had to figure out where I had ended up.  I saw a funny looking statue that I had remembered seeing from the window of our first hotel so I was able to get myself going in the right direction.

As I neared the hotel I went into a pharmacy and one of the women behind the counter said "Hello!".  I said "Ni Hao" and she started talking to me in Chinese and gesturing.  I finally caught the words "nan hai zi" which means boys and realized she was talking about Nick and Ryan.  I have no idea who she was or how she knew us but I told her they were both sick now and were back at the hotel.  After this I made a quick stop at Starbucks to get Tim an "excellent" coffee - he has found a replacement for Tim Hortons.

I did realize one thing today.  Without the kids, I don't stand out at all.  I don't think anyone gave me a second glance today.  I guess they really are the cute ones in our family.

Soon I am going to get some supper, since I think I am the only one eating much, then relax for the evening.  We should find out tomorrow if we can move into our apartment this week.  We are very excited about that.  Also, Tim starts work in the morning so it will be just me and the kids all day.  Should be interesting!  Hopefully they will both be feeling better so we can venture out somewhere with our driver.

Have a great day everyone and don't be afraid to send an email (jdeuville@hotmail.com) telling me about what's going on in your lives.  What may sound boring to one (like my writing today) can be interesting to someone else.

Zai Jian!