talked to Mark

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Just a quick update on Mark. He's doing fine....working tons in a rural part of China. Very long hours, no Internet. I finally reached him on his cell tonight and he answered it in Chinese! Threw me for a loop. He is going to send me some bloggish details of his latest travels. I will share one highlight from him: he said last night's dinner was pigeon soup and 2 rabbit dishes, one of which was rabbit head. **Pause for reactions and facial expressions***He said he ate the soup and it was not very tasty. He ate rabbit but not the rabbit head...just couldn't do it. That is not the type of food you see on the menu in Shanghai...remember, he's in the country! So those of you planning to visit us, don't be scared off by this news.

Also, there has been progress on the apartment we originally wanted. Our realtor has kept at it and hopefully Mark can work out the details after he returns to Shanghai this weekend. This is the one we said we wanted from our trip there together. Across from the great park, the train station and the grocery store/mall. One of the bedrooms looked like it had been decorated for a girl with Emily's sassy sense of style. There were these pink swirly curtains and a pink headboard on the bed. There was also a tv in that room -- which will have to be removed so the little spud doesn't turn into a tater tot. Since Emily's current room is the size of a shoebox, we were excited to see she would have a little more space in China (ironic).

We scheduled a time to call so he can wish Emily a happy birthday on Thursday. She turns 6 on July 3rd!

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