Thursday, November 17, 2005 Wednesday, November 16, 2005 Gosh, I slept late again. The ESPN guys definitely are a bad influence. I got back to the hotel last night, and laid down on the bed. I nearly fell asleep, but I knew Felix and Dave were waiting for me, and I thought, "Well, you are only in Shanghai once." So I met them at the club. Summer Breeze was playing -- it's a band consisting of 3 girls and a guy. The girls are Filipino, and they are very nice -- they come over and chat with us between sets. They also tried to get us to dance, but Felix pointed to his bad knee, and I said I wasn't dancing by myself. My fave moment, though, was when one of the "professional" women came over to Felix and asked if I was his wife. Then she asked if he wanted a massage. He said "no" to both questions. The evening just got more strange. The bartender poured this liquid stuff on the bar, and Felix jokingly said, "Hope they aren't going to set it on fire." We laughed, but he was actually right. The poured the stuff on there, lit a match, and the bar went up in flames. Notwithstanding all their travels, Felix and Dave have never seen anything like this. It would never be allowed in the USA because of liability issues, but it was entertaining. And then one of the customers grabbed the bottle of flammable liquid and started squirting it on the bar. It was interesting to say the least. And Felix scored another Masters Cup poster for me. I don't know exactly what he said to the manager, but he told me later that if they ask me about whether the poster is going to be signed by Rafa and delivered to sick children, I should just say yes. In many ways, things in Shanghai are quite normal. This is a big city, with big city culture. But there are some things you would never see in a Western city. When we were coming back on the bus, this guy went by on a bicycle. He was hauling a tower of stuff on the back of his bike. I don't know how else to describe it. I could not believe anyone could stack so much stuff on a bicycle and be able to peddle it around. Everyone on the bus was amazed, except that we saw two more guys hauling around similar piles of stuff a bit later. I wish I had a camera. It's something you have to see to believe. Today I need to work on stuff for my legal career. I'm not sure if I'll stay here and do it at the hotel; or if I should go to the tennis and do it. I'll make a decision and let you know later. One thing I am going to do is go to McDonalds. I have the urge to eat "normal" food again. I put on my jeans this morning, and it just confirmed that I have lost weight. But I have a long way to go before I can wear the small clothes here in the shops. Oh, Dave is going back to the electronics mart today. He's going to pick up some more of these fans the plug into your USB port. They are a huge hit with the tech crew, and I think my husband would love one. Also, they got a really cute mouse that has a snowman inside, with snow. So that when you move it, the snow moves around. I have to get one of those for my kids. Hopefully Dave can get some of those, too. It pays to have friends around here. ;-) posted by Susan @ 8:29 PM