Sunday morning

Hi all from Shelley:

First of all....Happy Birthday Sam. Can't believe you're 15 already.

As Burt said we went to the night market on Friday night. Once is definitely enough! It was unbelievably crowded and most of the merchandise was exactly the same as what I saw when I walked with Loretta on Thursday only it was more expensive. Interestingly enough there are very few knock-offs in Wuhan. Mostly just pocket books which don't interest me.

After we left Shanghai (which was loaded with knock-offs) I remembered that I need two baby girl gifts. I had seen really cute Polo little dresses so I kept looking for them here. No can find. However, I did find two cute little outfits so I bought them at the night market. It's hard to buy clothes for infants here cuz instead of putting snaps on the legs, they cut and bind a large hole in the crotch area. Most babies go around "bare-assed" most of the time and every 1/2 hour to hours their parents try to persuade them to pee or poop. They start this at 3 months and most Chinese children are toilet-trained by one year to eighteen months. I've been trying to capture a good picture but so far no luck.

Needless to say I didn't buy crotchless gifts but rather I got two cute outfits in about size 2 for next year.

Yesterday was amazing.....we toured from 8:00 am until 6:00 pm and then we went on a dinner cruise on the Yangtze River. All of this was at no expense to us except $2 for drinks. The University is amazingly generous and still I've heard some people complain!!!

Today we have no plans and that feels good. I think we may take a jitney to a very active part of Wuhan because I saw beautiful leather men's shoes for $10 but I don't know if they make them wide enough for Burt's foot.

And then Monday it's back to class. As I think I said earlier I am sitting in one class per day. And yesterday I asked Burt's teaching partner if I could sit in on her class cuz it's the same students in a different environment and I'm curious to see how the students behave/learn with a different teacher.

That's it for now.

Love to all...Shelley
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