May 29th, 2007 - A visit to Walmart!

One year ago today, we FINALLY had a relatively calm day in China. In the morning, our guide was kind enough to take us to a great American institution, Walmart! Here's Sophie all ready to go:

Walmart in Nanchang was very similar to the ones in the U.S., even down to those annoying smiley-face signs. We bought baby formula, soda, water, and some children's CDs. It was fun to wander around for an hour or so. The food department was particularly interesting, with live eels in tanks and more things we'd never seen, let alone eaten, before.

The Walmart was two stories high. Outside on the first floor was a Kentucky Fried Chicken that we grabbed lunch on our way back to the bus. I forgot to have the hold the lettuce (even though they wouldn't have understood me anyway - I had to point to the pictures to order), and even though we picked it off, I was afraid it would make us sick! The original breading is much spicier in China.

That afternoon, a local tailor came to the guide's room and spread out everything that she made. We selected dresses for the girls and EJ picked the fabric that she liked. They measured her up and everything was back in a few days.

That night, we ate dinner in the restaurant on the second floor of the hotel, where the food was considerably better than the buffet on the first floor where we ate breakfast every day and dinner most other days. The food there was okay, but after the same things for two meals a day, it was nice for a change.

The laundry service was incredible. On Monday, we sent out the laundry from the trip thus far. It came back within 24 hours all neatly folded and shrink-wrapped in bags - all of my shirts together, all of EJ's shorts together, etc. The most amazing thing was that EVERY piece had a small tag hand-sewn into it with our hotel room number on it. And socks were stitched together. I ought to do that so that they don't disappear in the dryer. And it was done for about $40. If I could have someone do all my mountains of laundry at home for that price, I might be interested.