OUT AND ABOUT

We have been in Zhuhai a month already and school hasn't even started yet. Classes begin on Monday, Oct. 6th. Doug and I have been busy gathering information and looking at fitness
equipment for a proposed Fitness Center at UIC. We went to Guangzhou in a driving rainstorm (the result of Typhoon Hugupit) last week to check out a couple of fitness centers.

Our visa's require us to leave the country every 30 days so last Thursday we ventured over the border to Macau. Even though Hong Kong and Macau are a part of China, they are not mainland China and are considered "leaving the country." Macau is the only place in all of China where gambling is legal. There are very modern buildings going up everywhere you look.

Yesterday we ventured out to purchase new bicycles. We decided we could not live here for 4 months without wheels, so we made the big splurge. It cost us less than $100 for both of them. We had plenty of help and ended up with 2 very nice, brand new, single speed, fully loaded (basket, bell, lock and kickstand) bikes that have got to weigh 50 pounds each. We went for a 2 hour ride today and both agree that without our bikes we would never be able to see and explore many of the things our new home city of Zhuhai has to offer.

Finally, those of you who know us, know that we are not very adventuresome when it comes to food. We went out for a Dim Sum "brunch" with our friends Kiki and Stuart a few Sundays ago.
We enjoyed many of their choices, but it may be some time before Kiki is able to convince us to eat chicken feet.

We have also learned that the Chinese offer discounted ferry tickets to seniors (which we now qualify for). So, before we ventured to Shenzhen via ferry last week, we had a friend write out
"senior discount" in Chinese. It worked and we got our tickets for half price. Later we learned that the literal translation written in Chinese characters is "Old Man Ticket."