Suzhou

Still a little messed up with the sleeping patterns. The fact that Leah and Cheryl were awake and perky at 6 a.m. says it all. Actually, Leah had a tough night. We awoke once to find her sitting on the side of the bed asking where her “Chinese passport” was and, later, standing and clutching a blanket saying nonsensical things. When we finally got going we mingled with a couple million of our new friends in town in and then took a commuter train from Shanghai to Suzhou, about a 40-minute ride to the southwest. We met the new local host, Helen, and visited a beautiful 14-acre garden, similar to the one we saw yesterday but much larger, one of the four largest in China. We checked into the Bamboo Grove Hotel and then spent a good part of the afternoon at a silk factory and museum. How silk is made and how people work in these factories are equally intriguing. We returned to a second garden this evening to see a series of musical, dance and theatrical performances.

My first, and now probably only, attempt at using chopsticks ended at lunch today when Cheryl and Leah pointed out that I was gripping them upside down. Helen thought I was doing it just to be funny. Leah was a little more successful, as you can see. And speaking of Leah, she never recovered from a late-afternoon nap and the day ended with a rarity: She was asleep before I was.