Briefly, I am sitting at the computer while Linda works reading notebooks and our cleaning lady washes floors. I'm just trying to stay out of the way. Our cleaning lady comes once a week for 3 hours for the equivalent of a little more than $5. We can't figure out why not to have one. She is a very hard worker, is extremely honest, seems to like us even though we can't communicate very well with each other and is willing to do just about anything we ask her to do. The only problem is that she comes at 11:30 on Thursday which isn't the most convenient time for us but we manage. We go out to eat every Thursday to a south Asian restaurant here on campus. We think it is Sri Lankan and it is good. It is also very spicey but that is a plus for us.
This morning I went to get copies made at our favorite copy center. I managed to ask them what time they open and I managed to understand that they open at 8:30 in the morning. The young lady only had to tell me 3 times. Ah, progress. Today I also went to our regular bread store bakery. I gave the girl there some books in Chinese and English to help her learn English. I dropped them off last Saturday when she was off. Today she thanked me. We now converse in a mixture of simple English and simpler Chinese. She seems to really enjoy trying to speak English. Today she introduced me to 2 of her coworkers. She introduce them as fellow students. I took this as encouraging.
Saturday we are going to a baby shower. The "baby" is 3 1/2 years old but is newly adopted by one of the foreign Baha'is who is trying to make China her home. She has lived here for 9 yrs. and plans to remain as long as they let her. She adopted a 3 year old Chinese child last year but because of the Olympics, she did not get her until last week. It has been a long hard 6 months for her. We saw her a week or so ago when she knew she was going to get her child soon. She was very happy. Her parents are coming to visit for a while to get to know their new grandchild. the neat thing is she gets maternity leave from her job, just as if she had had a baby so she gets the rest of the term off and does not have to return to work until the fall term in September. We are excited to meet this young child.