Today was a pretty quiet day. Tim went back to work, Abi went back to school and Tucker was back in Bellingham and I missed them all. My teacher did not show up for my language lesson today......I did not run her off I swear! I am really trying to be a good student. She actually got a new job at the University so she no longer has time to teach for Mandarin Today. Mandarin Today is the name of our language school. There are many other schools in Shanghai...like IMandarin, Easy Mandarin, which should not to be confused with Ease Mandarin, (both of these are very misleading!!) there is also Mandarin House, Just Mandarin and one that left out the word Mandarin and just advertises as i Speak (I guess lower case i is more important than telling potential students what they will be speaking) I think there is a lot of room for additional schools such as Mandarin Yesterday, Mandarin Tomorrow, and my favorite.....Don't fool yourself Mandarin is really hard but we will try not to laugh while you give it a try!" At least they would not be misleading any hopeful students. I really was supposed to have a new teacher today...but after waiting 25 minutes I decided that she/he was not going to show up. So...I went to Carrafour to get eggs and milk. You would think after living here for 2 months and one week (I was a little off on my previous 2 month calculation....it just seemed like 2 months at the time) that I would be able to run into the store...grab some milk and eggs and be out of there in a few minutes... Oh...contriar.....It took me 45 minutes to get milk and eggs. I finally found the unrefrigerated eggs on the back shelves of the bread isle. Of course...how silly of me not to look there first. ???? Note to self....make sure that anything with eggs in it is cooked beyond recognition. There will be no runny eggs at the Spoffords. Oh....FYI...the milk is located on an unrefrigerated shelf also. It can last up to 2 months in your pantry without spoiling. It must be refrigerated after you open it and then is is good for an additional 7 days. Who knew? We were buying fresh milk from the dairy case (looked like what we buy at home) and after talking to a few people here I learned that is really not a good idea....and I don't think I want to know the details. In fact Delia was sick last week and the doctor said she had food poisoning and they are pretty sure it was from "fresh" milk. Lucky for us it was not milk from our refrigerator. She is feeling much better this week but will not be drinking milk any time soon.

After my extended stay at the grocery store I came back to the apartment to do "more tax work". So.......I called a friend......down loaded some music to my computer from Itunes (this was a pressing matter because I got a Christmas gift certificate (without an expiration date)from the kids and I was pretty sure I needed to use it today)....made a list of things to do tomorrow.....cleaned off our desk....hung a world map on the wall in our office....researched some travel destinations....spent some time trying to hear my newly downloaded music on my desk computer........realized the computer does not have speakers.....No Wonder...I can't hear the music.....talked to Tim on the phone.....learned that I could plug head phones into the computer and hear said newly downloaded music....eat lunch......read some email.....wrote some email.....sang out loud really badly to the music blasting from the headphones.....(poor Delia had to listen....she should get hazard pay)......got ready to work on the taxes.......could not find a pencil....found a pencil in the bottom of my language lesson bag....Oh yeah...I have a new really cute bag to carry my school books ...Tucker bought it for me while he was here.....he is a really good bargainer....(can you tell I was having a little focusing issue today)......went back to the taxes....and about two hours later...I was done with my part of the taxes!!!!! Wow...What a job.....it took me all day!