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We've been out of town for the last few days. We took a quick trip to the charming town of Suzhou. I have so much to write about and TONS of pictures to post. I really hope I can do the trip justice. I hate writing after the fact, but we didn't take our laptops. We attempted to travel light, and did a pretty good job of it, I might add.

I love China. I've had more new experiences since we've lived here than I've probably had in the past 5 years combined. Yesterday, I saw a dwarf get kicked in the butt by a one-legged man. No, I wasn't at a carnival, this was just on the side of the road as we were driving down the highway.

I want to write and write until my fingers go numb, but it is past midnight and I'm exhausted from a day full of traveling. My classes started on Monday and I can already tell this slow internet connection is going to really frustrate me. I logged onto one class only to discover that there were over 120 new messages to read. Ack! It would take me soooooo long to read all those with this snail-paced DSL. But read them I must. So, my dear, dear livejournal friends, I'm afraid I may fall behind in my friends' list reading.

Ha, what am I talking about? I always can make time for livejournal : )

Day 1, Tuesday.

(sidenote: I'm attmepting to journal our little trip earlier this week. I'll make seperate entries for each day and each entry will be behind cuts since they will be so long and full of photos. Thank you for your cooperation.)

( Tuesday )

(no subject)

Chris is attending a reception tonight to meet all the students. They arrived in China earlier this week, but we haven't met any of them yet. Meanwhile, I'm at home trying to figure out how to use my new rice cooker. Of course, the directions are only in Chinese but thanks to the wonders of the Internet I was able to find some directions online. As I was searching for them, I discovered a rice cooker cookbook. I wonder how long it would take to arrive if I ordered it from Amazon?

Cooking at home has turned into such a chore for me. It is much easier when we just eat with the group. However, they usually don't start dinner unti 7:00, which is way too late for us. We like to have the kids in bed by 8:00. Back to the point at hand, the reason cooking is so hard now is because I'm just at a loss as what to cook. Please, feel free to comment with your favorite stove-top-only recipes. Remember: no oven. I also have a microwave, but I only know how to make it do 30 second bursts. Once again, all in chinese.

Remember last week when my tummy was so upset? I'm fairly certain that was caused by the pasta salad that I made. I used fresh grape tomatoes and a green bell pepper. I didn't blanche them, but I did wash them with dish soap. I was so excited that I had thought of a familiar dish that I could make with the resources I have here. No, it turned out to be a gastric disaster.

I really miss eating fresh fruits and veggies. Everywhere we go I see gorgeous grapes. So huge and beautiful. But I've never bought any because I have no clue how to make them edible. Today, Zack helped himself to an apple in the fridge and ate all the skin off before I noticed. Ack! He'll be the one with a sick tummy tonight, poor guy.

I'm not sure if I've lost weight, but all my clothes are fitting loser. Of course, this might be because we don't have a dryer. Hung dried clothes usually don't tighten up like electrically dried clothes. Sometimes I just don't have a very good appetite so I'm eating less, but on the other hand I'm eating worse for sure. Carbs like crazy, sugar, deep fried foods, these are all common in the chinese diet.

Tonight I'm trying to make hawaiian haystacks. Here's hoping all goes well.

Day 2, Wednesday

( Day 2, part 1 )