July 12

Hey, guys,

I just realized that my last title was "dry-cleaned underwear," and then I forgot to write about it! We desperately needed to wash some clothes, and Ben found a laundromat on what I have started to call "Stinky Street." It's the street our hotel is on - from mid-afternoon clear until midnight or so, it is a huge flea market. Like Portabello Road. But stinky. And really dirty. People here don't really seem to care about litter. Everyone just throws their junk on the street. And with so many people, well, it adds up.

Anyways, so he found out that it was a dry-cleaning only place, but he felt too shy to ask one of our interpreters where the nearest actual washing laundromat is. (Summer, one of our interpreters, offered to help us even before we signed a contract with her, Maria, the other interpreter for me, and Jack Chan, Ben's worksite interpreter. Yes, his name is Jack Chan. Funny. But Ben felt like he would be taking advantage before we signed contracts with them, which I think is weird, but oh well.) So he took a huge duffel bag of clothes down there to get dry cleaned. What a dork. It was like $40, so he learned his lesson. We will be asking Summer very soon where a normal laundromat is. :)

I'm doing a lot better today. Sorry; yesterday was hard. I had a major meltdown. But I truly feel like things will get better as soon as we get into an apartment. And the more time I spend outside of the hotel, the more I think that it's okay to just stay indoors. :) It's so stiflingly hot and humid outside. You walk outside, and it's instant pouring of sweat. It's awful.

Ben checked with Mr. Tsuo about getting a different hotel - one with a kitchenette. Mr. Tsuo is worried about us doing this - he feels like it's safer to stay as close to the university as possible. So then we checked into getting a bigger hotel room within this hotel - a suite - but Ben feels like it's too expensive. So here, in these two teeny rooms, we will stay. Ben's boss gave the okay, however, for us to buy one of those small refrigerators that people have in their offices or dorm rooms or whatever and also a small microwave. When our time at the hotel is done, Ben will transport the fridge and microwave to his office by the work site. It will be really nice to have something to keep the baby's food cold and then something to warm it up. Ben and Summer are out shopping for those right now.

Last night we ate at a place on Stinky Street called Popland. It's weird that so many signs have English on them, but then nobody in the city seems to speak English. Bizarre. We tried the chicken nuggets. Gross, yet again. And then we tried their ice cream. Weird. And gross.

Dylan sprained his ankle last night jumping down some stairs, the dork. And I burned my cheek on a teapot. Not joking about that. It's a long story. But now I have a big patch on my cheek that looks kind of like one of those birthmarks that people get on their faces. It stung for a really long time. Poor Sadie opened the hotel door too fast and didn't move her foot quickly enough. Her toenail bent backwards all the way and has been bleeding ever since. We think she might lose it soon. We're quite the miserable group.

We decided to try to see this Lotus Pond thing today - we wanted to go in the morning, before it got too hot, and also so that our maids could come and change our sheets and garbages while we were gone. All of it backfired - we asked directions to Lotus Pond, but instead, our taxi driver took us to this thing called the Governor's Mansion. The whole thing about going in the morning before it gets too hot - naw. It was plenty hot. Wayyyy too hot. And our maids didn't show up until we got home.

The Governor's mansion was really cool. I guess Baoding used to be the capital of Hebei, the province we live in. Now, the capital is in a different city farther south. I think it moved in the 1920's or so. So we got to see where these dudes lived and ruled for hundreds of years. Nothing was in English, but we kind of got the gist of it. I felt like I was in that movie, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Courtyard-style houses are so cool. There were many, many exhibits about British Imperialist Pigs. I couldn't read the writing, but I could tell from the little dioramas they had displayed, and the photographs and paintings. It was funny.

When we first walked into the outer courtyard, there was a tourist group there from somewhere in China. Oh my GOSH. They swarmed us like we were Branjelina. They all wanted to take pictures with us, and they all wanted to touch Sadie's hair. She had a stomachache, so she was not in the mood. She really was the biggest whiner this morning. I'm used to people staring at us and all syaing "Ni how" to us, but this was ca-razy. I think they must have been from some really remote area of China, where they don't get many foreigners.

When we finished touring the Governor's mansion, we stopped at that underground shopping center again. I don't have enough capris, so Ben was like, "Buy some!" We went to this area for women's clothing, and these ladies swooped on us. She "measured" me by grabbing my hips with her hands. She had to dig in her back area to find a pair of jean capris big enough for me. But when I tried them on, bam. They fit like a charm. And they were 10 bucks. Aw yeah, baby.

Acid-washed jeans are really popular here. Like the kinds that were popular in the late eighties. People here dress soooo cute. I love it. Everywhere I look, I see clothes, clothes, clothes!!!

We had another gross lunch at the hotel. I'm hoping I can talk Ben into taking a repeat visit to Pizza Hut for dinner.

I'll be okay. I'm feeling better about life. Plus, Ben promised that, at the end of all this (hopefully the end of February), we can stop at Hawaii on our way home. Aw yeah, baby. Anyone want to meet us there??? I'm for reals, ya'all. I want to go for a week and just... be in a non-third-world country for awhile. And a place that doesn't smell like garbage.

Love you and miss you tons. Sorry I can't blog. Someday I'll be able to. As soon as Summer can direct me to an internet cafe.

Lovies,
Kar