It’s 2:20 pm. The kids are down for a nap and I’m going to write
this blog before going to the gym. This time in China I’m going to the gym everyday
and its helping a lot with my appetite and mood.
It was obviously a long flight to get here but the kids were
pretty good and just slept most of the time.
Keira’s leg hurt from Alexandra lying on it most of the flight.
The first day here I walked around the moat by myself around 6
in the morning and ate a Dan Bing, which is like a fried egg and dough thing. I
walked by piles of this type of seed people harvest this time of year and peal
to make some money, like 100 kuai per pound. Its called gorgon fruit in English,
but the Chinese name is “Ji Tou mi” which literally translates as chicken’s
head seed. You boil them and eat them in a lightly sweetened water, they are
chewy.
The first morning we went to this garden in Suzhou with a
pagoda, then we went home to eat some noodles at lunch. The kids slept a long time in the afternoon
and didn’t get up till like 7 pm. We had some fresh water crabs for dinner
because they are in season. The crabs have hairy claws.
The next day we went to a different garden and biked around a
bit in this four-wheel bike thing. The garden was huge. We met up with Keira’s
dad’s family and ate some sunflower seeds by a pond. Keria’s grandfather is
pretty senile and was talking about his age and how healthy he is, he kept
repeating himself. We had a huge lunch in a circular private room. Seems Keira’s
grandparents liked to see their great grandchildren.
The next day we went out of the city to this protected village
area near some mountains with tea bushes. The lunch there felt more healthy, more
vegetables, and the environment was nice. We ate with Keira’s mom’s family. Her
grandma enjoyed seeing Alexandra and Harvey. We were in a private dining room
and the kids were jumping on the furniture. It was fun to watch them. That
evening Keira and I went out to Jia ping lu, a tourist street in Suzhou, and sat
at a bar for a little bit. The bar was ok and the tourist street was very
crowded. We had some trouble getting a taxi to come back because everyone just
books taxi on their phone these days, and we don’t have a smart phone. But fortunately,
there are still some analog taxis in china and we could eventually hail one.
Today we went to this lake in Suzhou and met with keira’s
friends from middle school. Her friends brought their kids as well. Keira’s
friends gave our kids a puzzle set which Harvey and Alexandra enjoyed putting together
on the sidewalk by the lake. We had an excellent lunch nearby, including some Peking
duck, and just got home an hour ago.
I can’t upload videos right now because I can’t access
Youtube. So you can just look at these pictures for now and I’ll upload the
videos later.
