Hmm, I may have screwed with the numbers on the days.

Day five Wednesday, and I'm getting used to China. I went for a run in the morning in the light rain. It was really a nice run, and I bobbed and weaved through the old people taking their morning walk.

Classes in the morning, then a trip to explore the Trust Mart (aka. Chinese Wal Mart) and the McDonalds and Pizza Hut nearby. We walked over to the stores, and got the usual stares all the way. Apparantly 5 western girls walking to the store are an endless source of amusement to the Chinese. Folks literally stop and stare at us everywhere. We roamed through the store, and were amused at the distinct lack of nail places anywhere in China. They have girls who will paint your nails, but it's just a precursor to buying the products. No real nail shops anywhere. We stopped for food at a little place, but no English on the menu. I lost at CHinese food bingo ( you're never entirely sure what you're going to get) and I ended up with deep fried fish with raw shrimps and a weird sweet and sour sauce. Not my thing.

After exploring the shopping, I met up with mom and a few more girls to head to West Lake. We took a cab to the lake, and on the way I taught Rene a Buddhist chant to calm herself during traffic while our driver made a left turn through six lanes of oncoming traffic. We roamed one of the causeways (man made bridges across the lake, quite lovely and I'll have to post pictures). As we walked along the island at the center of the causeway, a boatman stopped us and asked us if we wanted to tour the lake by boat. He'd take 100 yuan to take all five of us women to the two islands for an hour tour. Not bad, considering that's about $13. We carefully climbed into the little sampan boat (I've got pictures), and we were off. He served us green tea, and described the sights in Chinese and a few English words. I managed a quasi-conversation with the phrasebook out, and eventually he offered to take us silk and pearl shopping instead of the islands. A bunch of totally normal women, we readily agreed! So we boated under a few bridges into the areas where they had the silk and pearl store.

First stop was for pearls. I got a pair of single pearl earrings for a really good price. We roamed and looked at the really beautiful pearls for sale - there was one huge gold pearl that was remarkable! Second stop was at the "Silk Museum" There was one spinning machine at the entrance, then a big silk shop. Really wonderful quality silk, soft and flowing like water. But really over priced, and the majority was made up in clothing. Fabric was really limited, and 160 yuan per yard, which is more than I would pay at home for charmeuse($17 per yard!). Folks, I may not be bringing home much silk.

We clambored back into the boat, and enjoyed a lovely dusk on the lake and watched the bats come out and eat mosquitos as we paddled back to shore. Walking along the lake sidewalk, we chose the restuarant with the fairy lights (you can't go wrong with fairy lights) and walked in to have dinner. The 60s metal link curtains around our table were fabulous, and the food was good. We chose dim sum dishes to share and Rene and I shared a bottle of Grand Dragon wine. Choices for wine were Grand Dragon or Great Wall. I went with dragons, and it was pretty good, if a bit sweet and it definitely needed some more time in the cask. But then, China isn't exactly known for its fabulous vintages.

After a great dinner, we got the hint they were closing when they started flashing the lights at us in the restuarant. We got two cabs back to the hotel, and Rene and I were "ni how"-ing out the window at the policemen directing traffic all the way back. They looked rather startled at the crazy American chicks in the taxi speaking Chinese at them. Our cab driver thought we were hilarious, he was laughing all the way to the hotel. But it was definitely a great night, lots of fun.