Walking through the supermarket to get to the hair salon we pass two army guys with machine guns walking the opposite way. Yikes. This reminded me of walking past a bank in Shanghai(about 9 years ago), and there were 2 armed guards with machine guns outside the door.
Wanted another haircut before I go home. Only 20 rmb for wash, cut and style. I took my ipad and showed the pictures for the style of cut I wanted. Had lots of layers. Well he did the shape, but no layers. I think they are afraid to cut my hair.
Afterwards I treated myself to lunch at Houcaller Steak and had the lamb set. It comes with 2 steaks, a fried egg, speghetti, corn egg drop soup, 2 pieces of non-garlic bread and fruit and salad bar with sweet red tea all for 52 rmb~$9.
Walked down the street to Tesco to get some Xilanglang(pleasant goat) spoons for the kids to take home and hopped on the bus to Shin Kong Place Mall to get panda bread for breakfast! Of course I had to get cake too.
Later that afternoon I weighed the 3 packed suitcases, all over weight from 2-7kg each. So I had to take, take, take out to get to weight. I've yet to pack my 4th suitcase properly and then to buy 1-2 more suitcases to bring home.
In reality I don't feel I bought that much, but still have lots of sweaters, sweatshirts and winter coats to bring home. I did end up with a small supply of shoes too. We did end up with a small library. Books are so heavy! My carry-on is all books. Ugh!
Rather than suitcases, we started to get the boxes from the post office. They are teal in color, super duper sturdy (some of ours came from china, returned to China, and came back again). You can get two and strap them together with tape. It fits the allowed dimensions perfectly. Also, you won't end up with unneeded suitcases AND the boxes weigh less than the suitcase. I do 1/4 of my packing at the airport as well. I go with boxes half sealed and then rearrange weight once I can get to airport scale. It takes more time at the airport, but it is far less stressful than thinking I have everything packed and coming to realize it doesn't fit. I also have a space for an extra carry on. Kids can do a carry on (full size grown up one) along with a backpack... So sometimes Hudson was helping me to drag some books in a carry on. (He was my book mule so to speak). Good luck with the trip back!
ReplyDeleteWish I would've known that before I bought my last two suitcases. I think I even mentioned boxes to the in-laws. They think too hard to handle. Yes for them, but not us young'ens.
Delete