Forecasting…

There is no escaping this forecast:

Wed 31°

Thu 31°

Fri 32°

Sat 31°

Sun 31°

Mon 31°

Tue 32°

Wed 32°

Literally thunderstorms everyday. Humidity higher than 80%. And a “Feels Like” temperature at least 5°  higher. This could be Melbourne right now, just subtract about 20 degrees. The tower is my point of reference for how bad the weather is depending on how much I can see of it or how much lightening is striking it (which occurred a few weeks ago).

Saturday I spent a few hours on “Wedding Dress Street”. It sounds like any other wedding dress shopping area in Melbourne or Sydney or Seattle, but this place is something in a whole new level of dress shopping. I ventured into this “street” with a colleague of Joel’s. She has been to this street a time or two before and knew what to expect. I did not. Between street front shops where shoes had to be removed and indoor sandals worn, were the alleys to the places to do the real shopping. These small shops filled with toole, lace, beads and sequins galore had a plethora of dresses for every occasion and at very low prices. The sheer number of dresses was overwhelming. Most of these places sell to whole-sellers. Every shop asked how many, and when answered with just 1, asked for who. The problem however, is being a full figured girl, or even an average (as is my shopping partner-she’s actually quite petite). They don’t carry my size. The barely stock her size! I learned this after the first shop when I was told  large would “no fit”. I can accept I do not fit into a typical Chinese women’s size range. But with the interesting designs and styles, one needs to see how it looks. I went from shop to shop seeing gorgeous dresses but not being able to do anything about it due to the fact they would look at me and say, “do not have size for you”. When I did find one I liked (I had a deadline and needed to get something), they of course did not carry my size, but said they could make it in my size, 2XL. Come back and pick it up in a week. Easy done. And under $60. Let’s just hope her measurements work out and the dress fits…can’t buy one off the rack so it better work! Sunday I will take Joel with me to pick it up and find shoes. Maybe we’ll find him a nice powder blue tux for the ball.

Over the weekend we had another adventure hashing. I shared some photos on Facebook, but here are a few of my favourites:

Stairs through the jungle

View from the hills.

Family urns for cremated relatives

Getting close to the top

Abandoned buildings.

The weather was warm but pleasant. No rain and a beautiful setting. It is amazing these places are so close to the city-interesting spots to explore and thankfully someone has already set the trail for us to follow.

My fearful explorations are becoming less and less as I am getting more comfortable with the city. I actually rode the metro alone on Saturday, even having to change trains. The system is very straight forward and I feel silly being scared of it-I think I am just terrified of rush hour (witnessed again a few evenings ago and was overwhelmed yet again even though I wasn’t riding the train). I can promise any visitors that I will be an expert on the system and we will never take the train at peak times. Don’t be scared off by limited experiences. I exaggerate I am sure.

The rest of the week I am going to try to dodge the rain showers and get outdoors a bit. Less than a week left at this apartment so I need to explore the area a bit more and exhaust the areas I know around here.

Next up decorating the new apartment!