Saturday, October 22nd

Well it's been a good week in Suzhou. I went to play poker on Thursday and managed to finish 2nd in the tournament from a field of 30. I like it when I can play AND win money! It was great seeing all my poker buddies after being gone for 4 months. I enjoyed myself and I am looking forward to next week and playing again.

Friday I went to Crafts at Pam's apartment. I met a few new people that have arrived while I was gone. We then went (there were 10 of us ) and had a Chinese Szechun lunch. It was delicious lunch and as usual, very inexpensive (3.12) and we had a really nice time. Then it was off to Franks Place. This shop is located down by Humble Administrator's Garden (a very "tourist-y" area. It sells a lot of souvenirs and Chinese trinkets, as well as furniture and tea sets... LOTS of stuff. We (the expat ladies) love going down there. It was the first time I have actually felt uncomfortable while being here in China.

It was very crowded and busy with a lot of people. There were many tourists and I was getting a lot of stares and pictures taken. Ok...fine. I can deal with that. Well ...a few times people came up to me and in my personal space (way too close for my liking) and blantantly stared and touched. I actually began to feel like some sort of freak show! I told some of the others...I need to get outta here! They were sympathetic and understood. The blonde hair and green eyes on this chick just fascinated some of these Asian folks! Thank goodness Mr. Shen was nearby and came to fetch us fairly quickly. It was quite surreal...I never felt uncomfortable like that before. I hope I don't ever again. it was not a good feeling.

Saturday Mark and I got up and decided to head to Casa Zoe for breakfast. Picture on the left. It was very good we stayed a bit longer and had a couple extra cups of coffee while signing up for benefits through Mark's company. We discovered while back home, this year we had NO dental and the international medical insurance pretty much sucks!!! So...we will have decent medical insurance for 2012. Woo-Hoo! We are now off to the medical clinic. Mark's feet have been swollen since he got back home (in the U.S) at the end of September. At first, we thought it was from flying...but it didn't go away...then he had extremely swollen and one ankle was reddened. So, my husband who HATES going to the doctor and/or taking medicine says he needs to go...so off we go. You have to love going to the doctors here. You sign in and you see a MD within 5 minutes. Well, the doctor runs some blood work and figures it's some sort of infection ....so IV Rocephin dose for him...

Well...me being the nosy nurse that I am...I am just sitting there, decide to scope out the room and look and see what kind of medical supplies and "stuff" they have. Mark was truly appalled that I was opening drawers and rifling through things. Hey...they don't want me being nosy...lock the drawers..if it's not locked it's fair game! Here is a few things I found:













After the antibiotic infusion, we got his oral antibiotic (Augmentin) and off we went to Eurofoods across the street to do a bit of grocery shopping. We bought a few things...then it's time for a coffee break at Starbucks where we sat for a bit and enjoyed our little break. it was a lovely day to sit outside and enjoy the day. We got back to the apartment around 3:00. We stopped off at the market to get some produce and chicken for dinner. It's been a good day. Hopefully, the antibiotics will work and Mark's feet will be back to normal soon. He has a follow-up appointment on Tuesday. Let's hope that his feet will be back to normal and he can wear shoes without trying to squeeze his feet into them!
Till next time....