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what I love about this place

Fireworks on a Monday night that go on for 45 minutes for whatever reason. Not just little fireworks but big huge fireworks that I can see from my 12th floor apartment half way across the city. It's so fun.

Ladies that give Madeleine food. This morning as we went out for our morning walk an older lady that always talks to Maddie was coming home from shopping and she had 2 steamed buns. They're huge and she wanted to give one to Maddie. I kept refusing and she kept insisting. I finally took it and Maddie really liked it (I did, too). Later on the playground Maddie had all the food she could ever want as every grandmother there kept giving her little pieces of food. It's a good thing I'm not a germ freak! Again, Maddie loved it all.

Chinese take-out. We've decided that we'll have Chinese food delivered on Sunday nights for supper. This great restaurant that the team often visits is just outside the apartment gates and they deliver as long as it's over 10yuan (a dollar and a half or so). It's amazingly good and cheap. Delivery is always free because tipping is not practiced in China. Why would I ever cook again?

Split pants. I would never use split pants for my babies but there is something endearing about it. If you've never run into a pair of split pants...it's simply pants that have a split from the front of the crotch all the way up the back. It's so little girls and boys can just go. There is no diaper. You have to be extra alert around occupied split pants but I just like them for some reason. The down side is seeing a little kid squatting over a newspaper and seeing mommy wipe up the mess next to the playground.

There's a lot more but I've got dishes to wash which stinks no matter what part of the world you do them in.

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