Day 10 -- Shanghai, China on the way to Beijing, China

I was awake today by 9:00am. Mom left for crafting at a friend’s apartment shortly after I got up. I spent the morning working on laundry and catching up on my blog. I had to type one day twice because mom kept calling the house for various things so I got booted (if the phone call is too long, it knocks the computer off the internet). Finally finished, then packed for the trip and did dishes. The counters in the kitchen are made for someone about 6 to 8 inches shorter than myself (and I’m only 5’5”), so my back and shoulders were dead by the time I was done. After washing the dishes, I loaded them into the sterilizer. It has two wire racks and heats the dishes. The cabinets look very similar to the sterilizer and dishwashers (wire racks in drawers and behind doors). One of the other expat’s (Mariska) heard from her Chinese friend that her ayi said she was ‘very dirty’ because she thought they were putting their dirty dishes into the cabinets. Apparently she was not familiar with a dishwasher. Lunch was spaghetti sandwiches today (okay, not a normal food to eat, but one of my favorites, just add some butter to the bread and it’s great!). Just after finishing lunch, my cell phone rang; it was Brink’s Home Security telling us that an alarm was sounding at my parent’s house, the police were being dispatched, and that I was the only one they had been able to reach on the emergency list. Turns out it was basically a false alarm (the friend that is staying there right now didn’t get the door shut all the way), but I had to make several phone calls to get in touch with him, my brother, and Brinks to let them know that the friend and my brother were coming over so that they could notify the police. Wasn’t the easiest process, but it is good to know that the house is protected. We left the apartment 6:45pm to go to the Suzhou train station. We sat for about 30 minutes before boarding. We were next to two Americans at the train station, but didn’t ever talk to them. Got on the train, found our soft sleeper cabin and got situated for the evening. The train left promptly at 8:00pm, just as scheduled. I did some more sudoku and started getting tired. Decided to open my book and do some reading—this is a sure way for me to fall asleep. About three pages later, my Mom took off my glasses and I was out.