Our goals today are to finish as many home and school tasks as possible, so we can do some sightseeing tomorrow.  First stop, IKEA, and we’re heading out early trying to beat the crowd.  Success!!!  We get a bunch of stuff we need (rugs, dishes, couch pillows, picture frames).  The crowds haven’t arrived yet.  The bonus of the day is the IKEA special – ice cream cone, $.18 each (ice cream included).  YUM!!!  I wanted to buy several, but resisted the urge.

Home, and the unpacking starts.  Rugs hit the floors, new dishes stripped of sales labels and washed, and pictures are carefully added to the frames.  Now, the tough job of hanging the pictures.

We head out later to get Judy’s phone upgraded to 3G.  The usual language difficulties occur, but my gesturing has really improved.  Sept. 1 will be interesting if our phones really starting working with 3G.  That’s when the contract starts up.

We shop a little in the Capital Mall on the way home.  Judy gets some shoes and a blueberry slush.  Back at the house, she goes to work on her computer.  I start shopping the internet for an interesting place to visit the week we’re off in October (National Holiday, Oct. 1 to Oct. 7).  We’ve heard recommendations for Thailand, Korea, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Yangtze River Cruise.  I’m really intrigued by the river cruise, so my search narrows.  The website is a Chinese Travel Agency that is highly recommended by our Australian friends.  It’s in English, but it’s put together a little differently than I’m used to.  If you’re interested, check out:  Chinatours.net.

I get us booked to fly from Beijing to Chongqing on Oct. 1.  We’ll catch a river cruiser, the M/V President Prime.  We’ll take the cruise to Yichang, and fly back to Beijing on Friday.  This should be a good starter for our Asian travels.

One adjustment I’ll be making while teaching at a Chinese school, holiday makeup days are Sundays.  We have makeup days scheduled for Sundays, Sept. 22 & 29.  They’re not sure if the days to be made up will be the days that I teach or not.  Guess I’ll find out later.  Judy’s school doesn’t use Sundays.

Another interesting thing I’ve noticed are the morning assemblies, many of the local businesses have.  It’s basically a small pep rally for the employees.  Several of the real estate companies with offices outside our apartment complex, organize their employees in lines on the sidewalks outside their offices.  Someone stands in front of the group, “firing them up”.  They sing some type of company songs, each group trying to be louder than the group next door.  Ive even seen some of the restaurants doing the same thing with their employees before they open.