Saturday, October 01, 2005

A SATURDAY IN CHINA

Rob and I just got back from being out and about with a couple of people from the consulate. We went to the ceramics market. The only thing I bought this section edited out as my purchase is a gift for a family member who will be reading my blog. I think I will get something similar for me sometime before we move. I see it as subdued and classy looking. Some of the stuff there is just so bright and/or gaudy. Some of the things were just WAY too big. Some was beautiful, but I don't know what I would do with it. I worry about lead poisoning and don't want to get some of the things for actual food serving. Some is beautiful, but just not really my taste. I think I will end up getting a few things once I have more of a sense of price, availability, etc.

We went to Pizza Factory for lunch and I didn't think much of it until the people we were with were saying that they have some places in California and Idaho too. I thought it was like the Pizza Factory Mer worked at in CdA and even got a menu to send to her. Then I remembered (much later) that she worked at Pizza Shoppe. There is a Pizza Factory in Hayden, Idaho. Don't think I have been though. Pizza was good, reasonably priced, and definitely will be a place that gets repeat business from me. They will even deliver if you pay their cab fare. That ends up costing about what I would tip a delivery driver so definitely something to think about. My first Chinese lesson may have to center around ordering pizza to be delivered. :)

We bought a DVD player for just under $35. It seems to be fine. It might be multiregional. It plays US and Chinese region DVDs, is dual voltage, and does NTSC and PAL systems. The only drawback is that the manual is in Chinese. Took forever to figure out how to set some things up. Definitely going to have someone translate the buttons on the remote too. It seems to have way more than it needs and isn't very intuitive.

Rob got his first massage. $5 an hour AND she comes to your home. What could be easier than that? Unfortunately, she is moving to Shanghai or somewhere at the end of this month. A few of the Americans who live here have been using her for awhile and she is going to introduce us to a friend she has who also does massage.

That is pretty much it for our Saturday.