Day 9 -- Suzhou, China

I woke up at 8:00am this morning. Another lazy day was in order as our pace will pick up soon when we head to Beijing. We spent much of the morning watching DVDs. I also learned how to use the washer/ dryer unit. It was really more learning the sequence of buttons to push (the blue one, then the red one twice and so on). And it is really not so much a dryer as a ‘spinning clothes wrinkler.’ My dad says it does a great job drying a pair of socks, but any load much larger than that will never get dry. Instead, we have to hang everything on a line in an enclosed balcony. The windows can be opened in warmer weather to speed the drying and in the winter you must crank up a heater. Clothes will mostly dry after two to three and virtually everything has to be ironed afterwards. I ironed clothes for about an hour until my back could take no more, then I handed it off to my mom. We finished laundry, the ayi came and went, and then we went to Auchan for grocery shopping. On the way in, we saw a mom digging her little toddler’s wee-wee out of his split pants so he could pee in the garage. She at least aimed him towards a grated drain on the ground outside the entrance, but that didn’t keep the sidewalk free of urine. We continued inside and fought the crowds to try to find the ingredients for making tacos. We fought the crowds but couldn’t find ground beef, taco sauce, or some of the other ingredients. We gave up on the tacos and picked up some snack food and drinks to take on the train on Tuesday. We stopped at Starbucks for coffee and cocoa, then we headed home. Adrie (pronounced Audrey), his wife Mariska and daughter Jamie (all from the Netherlands) came over for the evening. We ordered in pizza and watched Pulp Fiction. Apparently Adrie has been wanting to watch it for quite some time now. I was bad company as I fell asleep before the movie was over and barely woke up to say good night.