Immeasurably More

What do you do with your last 10.15 Euro? I took mine to Le Maison du Chocolat at CDG and asked if I could have 10 Euro of Hazelnut Pralines and Chocolate covered Cherries. The sales girl put the chocolates into a small bag, but the total came to about 11.50.  I think she tried several different discount buttons before the total dropped to 10.14.  She actually gave me the penny change, but I told her to keep it!! Merci Beaucoup, Maison du Chocolat!

My mom's oldest sister did not own cats, perhaps because she traveled so much.  She was known in the family for bestowing interesting gifts, often acquired at international medical conferences and bearing the names of obscure drugs intended to cure diseases (thankfully) unknown to us.  Because she spent so much of her time in Taiwan, another popular gift was T-Shirts with incomprehensible English translations. It has been suggested that since my aunt passed away a few years ago, I am now the appointed single-world-traveler-crazy-T-Shirt member of the family.  Since I am not a medical person, nor do I spend a great deal of time in Asia, I am skeptical about my ability to adequately fill this role.  But I will try. At the Beijing airport, after spending the last of my Yuan, I had vowed not to spend another penny.  But that was before I saw this shirt.  One member of the family will be receiving this for Christmas - hopefully it's the correct size.  (...

Now that I am home again the photo culling process has begun.  (I took 1246 photos.)   Photos from Tuesday in Shanghai: From my window at the Shangra-la Hotel. Throughout the trip, my family mostly breakfasted on dim sum, dumplings, fried noodles, rice or tofu soup and baby bok choy.  But this was the Shangra-la breakfast menu, so it's not like we didn't have options.

And again in Beijing with the communal bathroom. Awkward... At least this time we knew what switches to look for.

Sun. 6 pm. I have counted 22 switches and 5 knobs in our room at the Xi'an Crown Plaza. Most of them seem to control lights. But Roommate-cousin and I were not interested in light switches.  Our exploration of the room's amenities had so far revealed a view of Xi'an,  a divan couch, and a walk-in closet supplying bathrobes and slippers.  I stopped exploring when I turned from the view and noticed the tub.  It looked like a nice tub to relax in.  And to be watched relaxing in. Under what circumstances can a window between the bedroom and bathroom be considered an amenity? Roommate-cousin and I were equally creeped out by the idea of a divan with views into the shower. "We're going to have negotiate shower times."  Roommate-cousin suggested. "But there has to be a blind!" I protested. And we started flipping switches.  Many lights went on and off before we managed to trigger a faint mechanical whirring and clicking, but no change to the und...

Sunday 2 pm. We have left the boat and been to Chongquing Zoo to visit the Pandas.  Cuter bamboo eating machines you cannot find.  However, I prefer the small red Lesser Panda who was intelligently choosing apple chunks instead of pork rind from among the snacks thrown to him by the Chinese visitors who were steadfastly ignoring the "Do not feed the animals sign."

Sat. 2 pm. I didn't sleep well last night so I knew that roommate-cousin was out late. By previous agreement, I am allowed to do whatever is required to wake him up so he can go to the "gym" while I go to tai chi.  Since after coming in he proceeded to snore, I thought he deserved both having the pillow pulled out from under his head and then being whumped with said pillow.  This evoked a mumbled "you're so mean." When I returned half an hour later, he was still in bed.  Me: "I thought you were going to the gym?" Him: "I am." Pause. Me: "Have you just missed the last half hour?" Him: "Yes." The previous night's fun apparently included Roommate-cousin wearing an all-in-one panda head and paws hat-scarf-mittens garment.  I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook, so if these photos show up, please, please, PLEASE let me know. Roommate-cousin made it off the boat and to "heaven", th...