Last week we told you that we had received an offer we couldn’t refuse from Cinec Canada in order to persuade us to stay. While that was partially true, it was just a small part.

This week we give you

The Top Eleven Reasons We Are Staying in Jiaxing

11. We want to see if Letterman will sue us for ripping off his concept.

10. We need to figure out why, if the cover says “Operation Instruction” in English, there is only Chinese inside.

And who needs a 7 page instruction booklet on how to use an electric kettle, anyway?

9. Although we have had one close encounter of the police kind, Geoff hasn’t actually been arrested — yet. Can he make it through year 3?

8. Terry has just become comfortable with blocking out those who try to cut in front of her in line. We can’t leave NOW.

7. Today, Geoff forced 3 cars to actually stop while he was in the crosswalk, rather than just driving around him. He is on a roll.

6. We are still waiting for a visitor – any visitor – to pronounce Jiaxing correctly. (Jaw Shing – how difficult can that be?)

5. We have seen people sleeping on the subway (standing and sitting), on the train (standing and sitting), on the bus (standing and sitting), on the back of a scooter, on a concrete ball about 10″ across, in their shop while “working”, on the sidewalk with a brick as their pillow and 2 late 20-something women leaning against each other, sound asleep in Starbucks. Where else can they sleep?

4. We have just bought a 2 TeraByte flash drive for $30.00 – we need to fill it up with photos. (At an average raw photo size of 1.5MB per photo, that would be 1,400,000 photos)

3. There are still many, many, many shoes to be photographed and shared.

Is it a running shoe? is it a sandal? is it a running sandal? Only her shoe salesman knows for sure!

Is it a running shoe? Is it a sandal? Is it a sparkly running sandal? Only her shoe salesman knows for sure!

2. We have yet to identify these two Russian “movie stars” (surely they are traveling incognito) seen in the Shanghai-Hongqiao airport on a cloudy day at 7:30 in the morning. We heard them talking, that’s how we know they are Russian.

Hey everyone, look at us!!

And the Number One Reason We Are Staying in Jiaxing:

We want to see the flood.

This is Tim and ONE of THREE watertight “hatches” separating the basement from the underground parking lot. They must weigh a couple of hundred pounds each and we’re guessing they were installed to prevent a flooding river from getting into the basement of the tower.

The Shoe Blog

A treat for you today. Here are four photos of Links, the young lady we buy our bamboo underwear from, and her soldier husband. She was married a year and a half ago and in December had her wedding photos taken. The party will be in June or July of this year. Nothing like stretching it out. Anyway, she and her husband spent an entire day having over 300 photos taken at a cost of about $600.00. From the 300 taken, she chose 66 to have printed, including two life-size. She wore 6 different gowns. We both think she looks like a princess (and not someone who works in a “knock off” mall).