Carrefour AGAIN

May 21, 2007 Monday

Today is cleaning lady day again. When we arrived, Hongfeng asked if we wanted her every day. Why would we need her everyday was our thought. Now we know. If we were here for longer we would be arranging to have her more days. Dusting is a full time job. Everything has a layer of grit by the next day.

My morning chores normally consist of emptying the water boiler, so I will have some cool boiled water for washing fruits and vegetables and starting another 5 liters to boil. We drink and brush our teeth with bottled water and use the boiled for washing dishes and food. This is still hard to get used to. Allison said that since she lives most of her life with dangerous tap water – she has a hard time when she is in Canada drinking water from the tap. She also wouldn’t swim in public pools – because you don’t know where the water came from. The hotel pools are considered safe.

The cleaning lady hasn’t asked me where the other pole went. She is the one who bought them, and I paid her for 2. (That was before I lost one.) My neighbor is still using it. Now, whenever I want to hang things on the pole, I have Chuck hold one end really firmly.

Back to Carrefour. I had noticed on my last trip that they have the correct kind of ATM, so I went to get some. We will need to reimburse people for various travel arrangements that they have made for us, so we need to stockpile some cash. (4 flights)

A lot of people take advantage of the mall’s air conditioning. I also notice moms with napping babies.

This mall has a familiar product:

They were also having new employee’s training:

Tonight is Chuck’s class, so we ate in. I made leftovers, by combining what we have in the fridge. Tonight it was frogs legs and then I mixed together the bok choy, snails & greens, and the shrimp with asparagus. Since I only have two burners and two pots, I am limited to what I can do. (Took out garbage – 4 flights.)

On his way home, Chuck tripped and fell. His pipe was in his mouth and it broke a tooth on the side. He was quite shaken up but not hurt. I said that this was a sign that he should stop smoking. Of course, if the pipe hadn’t broken the fall, he might have broken his nose.

We called the dentist in L. A. to ask what we should do. (Going to the dentist here isn’t an option. I saw it on one of my walks. It is a row of 5 chairs in a store front on a street that is under construction. The door was open so that all the dust and dirt could just come right in.) The dentist said that since it didn’t hurt, he should just be careful and keep it clean. He has an appointment for the afternoon that we get back.

I thought that 24 worked from midnight to midnight. I guess not, because tonight was 11 to 12 and it isn’t over. It has to be close – we know that the president is the bad guy.

Only 8 flights today.