Greetings from China!

Our Blogger is in China...and here is the latest update (posted dutifully by her loving mother upon request).

The house we are staying in is beautiful. Opulent, actually. TV in
every room, matching furniture throughout the house, and a same-size
replica of the famous Napoleon portrait in the staircase. Even the
telephones (which are everywhere) are ornate. I'll take pictures. We
also have a balcony, from which we can see the ocean (21st floor).

Went to the fishmarket today, and the biggest Wal-Mart ever. Bought
some milk (in funny little bags), some baby shampoo, and what I'm
hoping turns out to be hairspray. They didn't have American hairspray
brands even though they had other stuff in brands like Herbal Essences
and Pantene. Then I accidentally got a perm.

I meant to get a haircut. The salons here are very very nice and very
inexpensive. Meng said I could get my haircut for about 15 USD, and I
was feeling shaggy so I said sure. It was a full salon experience,
with hairwash, scalp massage, etc. In the US it would have been a $50
haircut. The confusion came because of a translation issue, and the
fact that Meng knows nothing about hair treatments. The stylist
suggested that we "tong" my hair. Meng didn't really know what that
meant, but the impression was that it would make my hair have more
volume, so he said sure. It looked to me like they were simply going
to curl it. Then they got out the funny-smelling liquids and I figured
it out. So I have some nice volume now. It's not too curly. I'll try
and take a picture of that, too, eventually.

More to come from the "Internationally Traveling Blogger"!