I haven’t blogged this week.  Has it been as busy as that?? I guess so, though I don’t know where the time went. 

We
had a branch BBQ Saturday night and it was a lot of fun to mingle and
get to know some of the branch members.  I made some bread and took
it.  Good thing too. It got used as hamburger buns when we ran out of
those. 🙂

This week (Thursday) I rode the “Garden Hotel” bus with Miss M. to the
end of the line.  She was meeting the Branch Pres. so she could go with
him to help with conversation in his business English class that he
teaches.  She really enjoyed it and hopes to make it a regular thing.
She’s planning to go again this week.  After they left from the Garden
Hotel, I wandered around the area a little to see what was there.  I
was hoping to find a subway stop, but the nearest one is quite far,
apparently, and I was beginning to get a little nervous about wandering
around as a lone American, and I was reluctant to pull out the map in
public by myself, so I went back to the bus stop after an hour and got
a ride home.  There is a subway line under construction near there, but
I have no idea when it will be completed.

I have discovered that I am rather unique as a westerner in that I
will buy my food at the wet market.  Even some of the meat.  I figure
that the only difference between the meat sold at the wet market and
the meat sold at the supermarket is that in the wet market, you can see
the process and the conditions, and in the supermarket you can’t, but
they wrap it in shiny, clean-looking plastic and put a price sticker on
it.  Buy meat early in the day, it’s better that way.

This week has been extra hot.  That is saying something for here.
It may be because there is a typhoon coming (I haven’t checked on that
yet).  The heat is really getting to me.  It’s very exhausting and it
makes me dizzy, though I try to drink lots of water, I need to better
remember to take my vitamins also.

A lady at church has offered to go with me to Haizu Square this
week and show me around.  It is a big shopping district.  I don’t know
what is there, but I’m told it’s a pretty neat place to go and I’m
grateful that someone will show me around.