Saturday, March 1, 2008

Friday and Saturday-sightseeing

On Thursday morning, Jorg left on the train to Changzhou. He's visiting one more business contact there and so Min and I went sightseeing with our guide in the mornings.

Friday in the morning, I had asked our guide to help us out with getting a "baby fleets" to help with Min's "throughput" problems. It worked like a charm! 10 minutes later, Min felt much better and her demeanor also changed. She spent the day happy and enjoyed our outings.

On Friday morning, we took the tour boat in the Xi Hu (west lake. Xi= west Hu = lake) to visit two islands that were famous for being beautiful and inspiring poets and love stories. The weather was warm and the flowers are just starting to bloom on the fruit trees and it was really very lovely. At one time I decided I would like to try one of those goofy, "dress in song dynasty clothing and take a picture here" things with me and Min. Min flat out refused. I dressed in the clothes to show her it wouldn't hurt. She still refused and I was still dressed in goofy song dynasty clothing. What else can I do but take a bunch of goofy pictures!


Min and her home city


Aren't we a beautiful picture?



Who needs a song dynasty princess anyways? We have Min!


After we went sightseeing, our guide helped me with watching Min while I got my hair cut. In the 2 years that I have lived in China in the past, I never had gotten my hair cut and just on Friday morning it reached critical length and I HAD to get my hair cut. Here, in China. I was also inspired by Mutha Mae from Word to your Mutha: the show. She got her hair cut in china, too. Anyone who reads this should be inspired to get their hair cut in China. Don't worry if your hair will turn out-it will, they are very good hair stylists here. This is what happened at my hair cut. First the washing. I was sat down in a styling chair and the washer squirted some shampoo on my dry hair and little by little added water from a squirt bottle and started working the hair into a lather. It took about 10 minutes. Then I got an ear massage and a scalp massage. We walked over to the rinsing station and I got rinsed and conditioned. More scalp massage. I walked back to the chair and she gave me a face massage, neck massage, shoulder, arm and hand massage. She got some q-tips and cleaned my ears out on the inside. Some people would be afraid of this, but I thought it was GREAT!! You probably could ask to skip it.

We walked down stairs and I sign languaged/broken Chinese explained how I wanted my hair. The stylist went to town and gave a great cut. He blew my hair dry and gave me a nice style. It took about 90 minutes from start to finish and cost me 40 yuan. FORTY YUAN!! Devide that by 7 and that's roughly the cost in dollars. Beat that supercuts!!

Min has been mostly happy the last couple of days. We're settling in together. It's going to be so fun to have her and Laina together. At least I think it could be fun, if the girls like eachother. I've just finished reading "Siblings without rivalry" while we were in Nanjing and I'm going to try and take those principles to heart.

Jorg came back on Saturday afternoon and we walked to the supermarket for some snacks to take to the airport for tomorrow. Tomorrow at 8:30 we leave for Guangzhou. As lovely as Hangzhou is, it's been a long trip and I'm ready for the next stage.

3 comments:

more love! said...

it's amazing what a little trip to the potty can do for one's outlook on life. congrats! pix are great - but post one of your new hair cut!!!!

Anonymous said...

Gosh, she is so sweet. Where's the new do?

Marlene

Fliss and Mike Adventures said...

What a pretty little girl... I done a catch up on how things are going. I had been busy at work and it is nice to see that Min is coming around... These islands that you are talking about... would love to know where they are exactly... they sound heavenly... take care...