Hi girls! ( I hate this computer. I write and then it deletes!) We had lunch at the Rel. Soc Pres. house. There were 13 of us. She made lasagne and salad and bread and ice cream and gingerbread cookies for dessert. It was wonderful! Her husband works for a solar co. here and they have a big house and a maid. Their house was built by the Honeywell co, in the 80's and then China asked Honeywell to leave so the houses are mostly rentals now. They rent theirs, but her husbands co. is closing down here and they are going back to the states, the end of Oct. I'll be sorry to see'em leave. She is a most wonderful person!
So yesterday we took the Bullet Train to Beijing. It's 55 mi. away ,but took us 30 min. on the train. Eight of us went - The Boren's who live on the third floor and the Farrell's and Johnson's who live about 20 min. away. We took 2 taxis to the train station. The other taxi got lost so we took awhile to all get together again. The train travels at 180 mph by magnetic track. It travels about 1/4 in. above the tracks. It's about as noisy as an airplane. We were in first class!
It cost about $10.00 US. But well worth it!
On the way home Nelson Boren and Dad counted about 150 construction cranes between Beijing and Tianjin! Construction is crazy here. Most of the new buildinds are at least 30 stories high and there's 10 in a group. Nelson said that China has half the cranes in the world.
We went to the Silk Market. It's a 6 story bldg.full of vendors selling everything imaginable in little cubicles. The salespeople are very enthusiastic. Dad tried on a coat and first they quote you an outrageous price. Then you haggle. She wouldn't come down to Dad's price and she was pulling on his shirt to keep him in the store. She pulled his shirt out of shape! He didn't buy the coat either. Later he bought a sweater to wear under his black coat. He also bought a new D&G suit for $60.00.( it might be a knockoff but it looks nice)
I bought two Pashmina shawls for $9.50 each. Shall I buy more? We are definately going back!
We ate lunch at O'briens gourmet sandwiches. The pizza they made was better than the sandwiches.
We got home at 5:00 exhausted. The taxi ride from the Tianjin train station to our apt. took longer than the bullet train home!
Tijuana taxi drivers have nothing on the chinese! Mr. Toad's wild ride is like a stroll in the park these guys are CRAZY! There are no rules. They honk their horns and move to the next lane, not even a lane mostly they drive down the white line. Surprizingly, there are very few accidents and the cars aren't dented! I'm amazed that there aren't a million people killed each day, especially the bicyclists and pedestrians.They're all over the streets and pedestrians have no right of way at all. Everyone tries to run them down.
We haven't seen any bugs. Just mosquitoes.We had one the other night that kept us awake and under the covers for a long time. Every night I make a mosquito sweep to look for any before we go to bed. One of the couples has mosquito netting over their bed. But they don't make me itch like the ones at home.
Our ward building is a 20min. taxi drive away. Some members travel for an hour. We have about 35 members and we meet in a house that the church rents. The house is in a big compound of houses. We've gotten lost both times we've gone. There are 4 kids in Primary, 3 from the same family.
The ward is English and Korean. So there is always someone speaking in Korean to translate,and they sing in Korean too. Same hymns just a jumble of English and Korean. Dad was made the Young Mens Pres. today. He has 2 Priests. That's the total Young Men. I'm going to substitute in YW next week, for all 3 of them. There's about 9 in Relief Society. I lead the music.
We had a new girl come today,Tuamyah. She goes to our university. She's from Samoa and is here on a scholarship to study for a year, and then she'll study Chemistry in Beijing. So all of her classes are in Chinese, which she is learning. She joined the church in June and her family has shunned her for doing so. She's 20 years old.
I'm watching the trash-picker outside. At least 3 have come by since I started this e-mail. All day they come by and pick through the trash cans to gather plastic bottles and aluminum cans. Then the Cardboard collectors come by on their bikes and holler out as they go through to collect cardboard and packing material. It's as an interesting economy.
The little babies really do wear split pants. Can you imagine disposal diapers around here? Whew! The children are potty trained by the time they're 2 so that they can go to pre-school, if the parents can afford it. Preschool goes from 8-5 every week day.
They don't have ovens or clothes dryers because it wold be a national waste of energy.
OK, this is long enough. I love you all so much. Say your prayers! XXOO Mom
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