Smalls thing that make a difference in day to day life.

The mid-Autumn festival has come and gone.  I had some moon cake!  These calorie dense cakes are essential for the holiday.  Mine had a sweet potato filling, but you can find them in all kinds of flavors, including chocolate, matcha, tarot and others.  A little bit goes a long way.  I love the decorative boxes you find them wrapped in.  The presentation is key.

I want to share some hints for successfully transitioning into life in China.  Our first night here we had a big problem with mosquitoes.  Our friends Ai-ping and Ning took us to a large department store, Metro where we bought this amazing mosquito repellent that worked like a charm.  You plug it into the wall like and air freshener and it lasts about two weeks.  I can’t say enough good things about it.

Xi’an is supposed to be quite dry, but fact is it has rained a lot lately.  Our friend June told us about a shoe store that has boots and shoes that fit westerners’ big feet.  Carrying boots on the plane along with everything else seemed like too much.  Glad to see that you can buy big shoes and boots here.

We had a lot of trouble finding a curling iron for Wendy.  We went to Walmart, Metro, a number of other stores.  We finally found it on the Jiao tong university campus market.  There were other products that cater to westerners’ needs there as well.