it's Wednesday over here

Greetings from China. Last year at this time I never thought I'd be saying that. My mother and I left Atlanta Sunday morning and flew to Tokyo (BUSINESS ELITE - Woo hoo!!). From there we flew to Shanghai where Israel met us at the airport. We spent the night in Shanghai and after having a good wander around the city embarked on the remainder of our journey to his house. We took the train to Ningbo, which is about 4 hours south of Shanghai, and then took a taxi the rest of the way to Fenghua where he lives. I think it took us 48 hours to get there (granted we did take our time in Shanghai). Since Saturday morning I've been in 5 countries.

China is a really interesting place. I've only seen one or two other non black haired people and one black person. People often stare and even when I smile at them they continue to stare. I am once again reminded of how spoiled we are in the US. Endless supplies of hot water. Cushy beds. Central heat and air. Emissions control. People who follow traffic laws.

There's so much more to write but I'll probably wait til I get back and do a big ol' write up on it. My cell phone is roaming down here so I've received a few texts messages, though I can't reply to them. I even answered a phone call but I have no idea how much that cost me. I'll find out. It's nice to have some contact with the other side of the world. I still have my watch on home time so I can kind of keep up with what everyone is doing (assuming I can remember what day of the week it is). I slept for about 11 hours last night so I think I might be getting adjusted to the time over here. I'm sure I will just in time to head home :).

I haven't seen an of the typical Chinese take out boxes. Have eaten a lot of Chinese food but none of it is anything like the kind we have back home. And it isn't bad manners to spit things on the table here.. kinda gross if you ask me. but really, who is?

I'm off to pay bills and see if I can email Verizon about making my phone work.