We have a new driver named Mr. Zhang. Our first driver returned to his previous job at the television station yesterday. Mr. Zhang does not speak English so we are a team of hand gestures and smiles. To make our communication a little easier I purchased a set of taxi cards from one of the supermarkets. The taxi cards are held together by a large key ring and contain fifty or more business card size papers with names of different stores, restaurants, business buildings, malls, points of interest etc.... The cards have English and Chinese addresses for all the business. I think these are going to become our life line in communication with our driver for a while. I had Jane translate to him yesterday what our "normal" routine would be each day. The challenge comes when our schedule changes from "normal" which is just about everyday. The big success for today was getting where I needed to go, getting Abi to a friends house, and picking up Tim at a different time than "normal". I learned the Chinese words for left, right, and straight from Mr. Zhang. I am practically fluent now.....

Today was a very fun day for me. I am taking a two day jewelry making class at the Community Center. My classmates are mostly from the Netherlands and I just love their accents. We spent the first part of the morning getting instructions from our teacher and then she took us to a bead and pearl market. Oh my gosh!!!!! It was like being in a candy store. You can buy beads to make jewelry yourself....you can buy jewelry already made....or you can choose beads and have someone at the market put them together for you. I participated in all three activities. The jewelry was fabulous and so were the beads and the pearls. Tomorrow morning we will return to the Community Center to string our beads into jewelry. I just can't wait!!!

Abi is at a friends house this evening, Tim is on his way home from work, and Delia is cooking our dinner......life is pretty darned good!!!!

PS...the world is just getting smaller and smaller. My jewelry teacher (Sandy) is from Eugene Oregon....Go Figure!!! We had a nice visit on the way to the pearl market. She and her husband have lived in Shanghai for 5 years and her husband happened to be one of the speakers at the church we visited last Sunday.