Tyler's SOD Blog

August 4th

August 6th, 2008

Sorry Ive gotten behind !!!  Our time here stays so full that it seems hard to get on here & catch everyone up !!!

The past few days we have not had any treatment so we have had a driver take many of the group out to sight see.  We had a day trip to the zoo in Qingdao, you had to walk very very far from the road to the main gate & it is mostly cobblestone paths which wasnt easy with Tylers stroller.  We made it up there though !!!  NOTHING here is very handicap or stroller friendly though, even on most streets there are steps everywhere  & very uneven pavement.  Tyler & I stayed in a small park while the rest of our group toured some of the zoo, it was very shady & cool but the trees were full of what sounded like a zillion locust.  They were so loud at times Tyler would cover his ears up !!!  we were sitting on a bench built around a large tree just watching people for a change although we were the main attraction !!!  As I sat there i felt a tap on my shoulder & turned to see a maybe 20ish yr old chinese guy, he said LARGE ..and I thought wait a minute he is going to call me fat..since every chinese female here is the size of a teensy fly..lol…then i shook m y head as not understanding..he said again LARGE…INSECT..im like ok..large insect…then he pointed to my back..OMG one of those 12 inch locust was on my shirt…he picked it off and moved to another bench.  He spoke about 10 words in english but thank god 2 of them were large insect !!

After a day at the zoo we went to the american store, it is very small but has many foods we are familar with.  Our kind of cereal, a few progresso soups, kraft mac & cheese, regular block cheese, spaghetti sauce & lots of pasta…canned vegetables & fruits..tons of chips..doritos fritos lays…i never looked at the prices and just got what i thought will hold me over til I leave, tylers food supply is holding up pretty good so far.  The american store is way more higher priced that then other markets here but no one cares for the most part to get a taste of home !!! Just an idea…a smal box of frosted flakes (smaller than any size we have at home) is about 6.00 here.   But if you bought themin another market here in chinese they woudl be maybe .35 cents !!!

One of our US dollars is about 7.00 in RMB’s which is their currency, so things sound high when you pay & they ask for 300.00 it would be in US about 42.oo. A lot of people have a hard time figuring out the money!  I printed out charts small enough to put in my wallet that have conversions so i can take that with me to know what im spending…but im so conservative like that it wouldnt surpise anyone who knows me !!!

We all came home & put our food away & crashe, it was a long day ….the city is about 45 minutes each way so it takes all day to do anything.  Everyone is always so excited after going to that store though because for a few days they have REAL food !!!  That night after tyler went to bed we sat out in the commons area & chatted & a few drank a cold beer I had my fantastic diet coke & we ate an entire bag of  Frito’s !!! it was wonderful !!!!

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